The 30-person Mission Realty team moved from EXP Realty to The Real Brokerage earlier this month. (Photo courtesy Real Brokerage)
A national real estate company is making a push into Richmond’s residential market, picking up dozens of local agents in recent weeks with more said to be on the way.
The Real Brokerage, a 10-year-old publicly traded brokerage based in Toronto and New York City, upped its local presence earlier this month with the addition of Mission Realty, a 30-person team led by Clayton Gits that was previously affiliated with online brokerage EXP Realty.
Joining Mission at Real Brokerage are fellow EXP expats Lemus Group, a seven-agent team led by Rudy Argueta and Diana Lemus; Cullather Group, a team of six led by Matt Cullather; Fauver Group, a three-agent team led by Zachary Fauver; and Daniel Hicks and Shannon Milligan of RVA Home Team.
Adding to the group late last week was Jenni & Co. Residential Real Estate, a three-agent team led by Jenni Comer. Also joining up are eight-agent team Stephanie Brown Realty Group, Charlie Bickel with Charlie Bickel Real Estate and Jennifer McCray with Front Door Realty Group.
Along with Mission’s 26 agents, the moves bring more than four dozen local agents to Real, though Gits said the count is set to become higher with other agents and teams that were in talks with the company as of Friday.
Real, which trades under REAX on Nasdaq, said it could not confirm how many agents it had picked up locally before its annual earnings report next month. A count Tuesday of agents on Real’s website with Richmond-area locations exceeded 50.
Gits said his motivations for joining Real were similar to his reasons for being among EXP’s earliest adopters when that brokerage entered the local market in 2017: He noted the company’s technology and revenue-share structure that includes opportunities for agents to own stock in the company by reaching sales production benchmarks and other achievements.
Clayton Gits
“All these new virtual models offer opportunities for agents that previously didn’t exist,” Gits said, referring to Real, EXP, LPT Realty and other so-called cloud or online brokerages that operate without brick-and-mortar locations.
“Basically, by just doing what we do as Realtors every single day, Real rewards that behavior by offering ownership in the company, and significant ownership in the company if you’re producing a lot,” he said.
Real’s stock closed at $2.95 per share on Tuesday.
Real has been in growth mode since its founding in 2014, with recent inroads in the D.C.-Maryland-Virginia region, where Gits said he knows a Real agent who made an overture.
With more than 15,000 agents in the U.S. and Canada and more than $22 billion in sales volume for the 12 months that ended last September, Gits said, “That’s a lot of money that they’re giving back to the agent community.”
In 2022, the company’s annual revenue exceeded $381 million, and gross profit totaled $32 million, up from the previous year by 214 percent and 188 percent, respectively. Gits said the company shares 60 percent of its topline revenue with agents and retains 40 percent to run the company.
Beyond stock awards and other revenue sharing, Real offers an 85-15 commission split, with a $12,000 cap, and no monthly fees. Agents are awarded equity in the company for capping, attracting other agents to the company and reaching other productivity benchmarks.
Company President Sharran Srivatsaa said Real’s business model is meant to give agents more ways to make money without relying on buying and selling homes and the twists and turns that come with the market.
Sharran Srivatsaa
“For most agents, they have one and only one way of creating revenue, and that is you have to go and sell more homes. Our thought process was: How do we create a multiple-channel business model where there are more ways for an agent in North America to be able to build not just a real estate business but a real estate career,” Srivatsaa said.
“A lot of times agents get in and out of the business because the market was hot or slowed down, and then you see this big inflow and outflow of agents in the industry. We wanted to find a way to normalize that,” he said.
Srivatsaa said Real’s model is tailored to high-producers like Gits’s Mission team, which it said has sold more than 4,000 homes since its inception, including $136 million in sales in 2023.
Cullather Group’s Matt Cullather said Real proved attractive to other teams like his that helped grow EXP’s presence and production in the Richmond market. He said his team closed 106 transactions last year with over $40 million in sales volume.
With a professional network extending beyond his team, Cullather said Real was also attractive for the incentives it provides for bringing other agents into the fold.
Cullather acknowledged similarities between EXP and Real but said Real came out on top in his and others’ comparisons of the brokerages. He said a difference for him with Real is a business model that encourages collaboration between agents.
Matt Cullather
“I didn’t have a vested interest in helping (another agent or team) grow their brokerage and their brand, but now that we’ve all come together, it’s the old saying: ‘collaboration over competition,’” he said. “We can all come together and grow together.”
The teams joining up with Real will continue to operate under their names, with either a tagline or a mention of Real on their website. Signage outside Mission Realty’s office on Cox Road was in the process of being changed to read: “Mission Realty, brokered by Real.”
Gits said he wanted to bring Mission over to Real in large part for its technology, which he described as a single-platform app designed to help agents operate as their own business.
He said the company is about to launch a system in which agents will receive a Real-issued debit card that will be synched up with a digital wallet in the app. The digital wallet will be where agents’ commissions, stock awards and other equity flows into, and revenue shares will be accessible immediately through use of the debit card, he said.
Gits said he was most excited about a subsequent phase in which agents will receive a Real-issued credit card preloaded with a dedicated line of credit based on the assets that each agent pushes through the company, such as past and pending transactions.
“It’s just really exciting to be with a company that is creating something completely novel, in a space that’s kind of been the same,” Gits said.
Signage at Mission Realty’s office on Cox Road was in the process of being changed this week. (Jonathan Spiers photo)
Gits said the decision to move from EXP wasn’t an easy one to make, but he said he’s excited to be at the forefront of another new arrival to the market.
“I walked away from a lot. I spent seven years of my life pouring into EXP and the community, and I loved it,” he said. “But as an entrepreneur and as a business person, I just see a really exciting opportunity for me and all the people that are partnering with us here.”
Real’s push into Richmond follows similar moves in recent years by national brokerage Compass and Northern Virginia-based Samson Properties, which recently absorbed One South Realty Group.
The 30-person Mission Realty team moved from EXP Realty to The Real Brokerage earlier this month. (Photo courtesy Real Brokerage)
A national real estate company is making a push into Richmond’s residential market, picking up dozens of local agents in recent weeks with more said to be on the way.
The Real Brokerage, a 10-year-old publicly traded brokerage based in Toronto and New York City, upped its local presence earlier this month with the addition of Mission Realty, a 30-person team led by Clayton Gits that was previously affiliated with online brokerage EXP Realty.
Joining Mission at Real Brokerage are fellow EXP expats Lemus Group, a seven-agent team led by Rudy Argueta and Diana Lemus; Cullather Group, a team of six led by Matt Cullather; Fauver Group, a three-agent team led by Zachary Fauver; and Daniel Hicks and Shannon Milligan of RVA Home Team.
Adding to the group late last week was Jenni & Co. Residential Real Estate, a three-agent team led by Jenni Comer. Also joining up are eight-agent team Stephanie Brown Realty Group, Charlie Bickel with Charlie Bickel Real Estate and Jennifer McCray with Front Door Realty Group.
Along with Mission’s 26 agents, the moves bring more than four dozen local agents to Real, though Gits said the count is set to become higher with other agents and teams that were in talks with the company as of Friday.
Real, which trades under REAX on Nasdaq, said it could not confirm how many agents it had picked up locally before its annual earnings report next month. A count Tuesday of agents on Real’s website with Richmond-area locations exceeded 50.
Gits said his motivations for joining Real were similar to his reasons for being among EXP’s earliest adopters when that brokerage entered the local market in 2017: He noted the company’s technology and revenue-share structure that includes opportunities for agents to own stock in the company by reaching sales production benchmarks and other achievements.
Clayton Gits
“All these new virtual models offer opportunities for agents that previously didn’t exist,” Gits said, referring to Real, EXP, LPT Realty and other so-called cloud or online brokerages that operate without brick-and-mortar locations.
“Basically, by just doing what we do as Realtors every single day, Real rewards that behavior by offering ownership in the company, and significant ownership in the company if you’re producing a lot,” he said.
Real’s stock closed at $2.95 per share on Tuesday.
Real has been in growth mode since its founding in 2014, with recent inroads in the D.C.-Maryland-Virginia region, where Gits said he knows a Real agent who made an overture.
With more than 15,000 agents in the U.S. and Canada and more than $22 billion in sales volume for the 12 months that ended last September, Gits said, “That’s a lot of money that they’re giving back to the agent community.”
In 2022, the company’s annual revenue exceeded $381 million, and gross profit totaled $32 million, up from the previous year by 214 percent and 188 percent, respectively. Gits said the company shares 60 percent of its topline revenue with agents and retains 40 percent to run the company.
Beyond stock awards and other revenue sharing, Real offers an 85-15 commission split, with a $12,000 cap, and no monthly fees. Agents are awarded equity in the company for capping, attracting other agents to the company and reaching other productivity benchmarks.
Company President Sharran Srivatsaa said Real’s business model is meant to give agents more ways to make money without relying on buying and selling homes and the twists and turns that come with the market.
Sharran Srivatsaa
“For most agents, they have one and only one way of creating revenue, and that is you have to go and sell more homes. Our thought process was: How do we create a multiple-channel business model where there are more ways for an agent in North America to be able to build not just a real estate business but a real estate career,” Srivatsaa said.
“A lot of times agents get in and out of the business because the market was hot or slowed down, and then you see this big inflow and outflow of agents in the industry. We wanted to find a way to normalize that,” he said.
Srivatsaa said Real’s model is tailored to high-producers like Gits’s Mission team, which it said has sold more than 4,000 homes since its inception, including $136 million in sales in 2023.
Cullather Group’s Matt Cullather said Real proved attractive to other teams like his that helped grow EXP’s presence and production in the Richmond market. He said his team closed 106 transactions last year with over $40 million in sales volume.
With a professional network extending beyond his team, Cullather said Real was also attractive for the incentives it provides for bringing other agents into the fold.
Cullather acknowledged similarities between EXP and Real but said Real came out on top in his and others’ comparisons of the brokerages. He said a difference for him with Real is a business model that encourages collaboration between agents.
Matt Cullather
“I didn’t have a vested interest in helping (another agent or team) grow their brokerage and their brand, but now that we’ve all come together, it’s the old saying: ‘collaboration over competition,’” he said. “We can all come together and grow together.”
The teams joining up with Real will continue to operate under their names, with either a tagline or a mention of Real on their website. Signage outside Mission Realty’s office on Cox Road was in the process of being changed to read: “Mission Realty, brokered by Real.”
Gits said he wanted to bring Mission over to Real in large part for its technology, which he described as a single-platform app designed to help agents operate as their own business.
He said the company is about to launch a system in which agents will receive a Real-issued debit card that will be synched up with a digital wallet in the app. The digital wallet will be where agents’ commissions, stock awards and other equity flows into, and revenue shares will be accessible immediately through use of the debit card, he said.
Gits said he was most excited about a subsequent phase in which agents will receive a Real-issued credit card preloaded with a dedicated line of credit based on the assets that each agent pushes through the company, such as past and pending transactions.
“It’s just really exciting to be with a company that is creating something completely novel, in a space that’s kind of been the same,” Gits said.
Signage at Mission Realty’s office on Cox Road was in the process of being changed this week. (Jonathan Spiers photo)
Gits said the decision to move from EXP wasn’t an easy one to make, but he said he’s excited to be at the forefront of another new arrival to the market.
“I walked away from a lot. I spent seven years of my life pouring into EXP and the community, and I loved it,” he said. “But as an entrepreneur and as a business person, I just see a really exciting opportunity for me and all the people that are partnering with us here.”
Real’s push into Richmond follows similar moves in recent years by national brokerage Compass and Northern Virginia-based Samson Properties, which recently absorbed One South Realty Group.
Man! Someone better tell Joe Biden that he needs to update his comments “you can’t walk into a C-suite or office for highly skilled professionals without hearing a south Asian accent!”
Mr. Srivatsaa is an interesting dude. Much of HIS success is about coaching oneself and coaching others. He’s really into reframing and fostering good habits; it’s no wonder a successful company of this nature is willing to hitch themselves to the organization he leads.
Anyway, cue the Out of Towner Haters…
Looks very diverse….