Real Brokerage Inc (REAX) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to The Real Brokerage Earnings Call for the Second Quarter ended June 30, 2026. I will now turn the call over to Alix Lumpkin, Chief Legal Officer at The Real Brokerage. Ma'am, the floor is yours.

Thanks, and good morning. Thank you for standing by, and welcome to The Real Brokerage conference call and webcast for the second quarter ended June 30, 2026. We appreciate everyone for joining us today. With me on the call today are Tamir Poleg, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Jenna Rozenblat, our Chief Operating Officer; and Ravi Jani, our Chief Financial Officer. This morning, Real published an earnings press release, including results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2026. The press release, along with the consolidated financial statements and related management's discussion and analysis for the quarter have been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on EDGAR and with Canadian securities regulators on SEDAR+. Before we get started, I'd like to remind everyone that statements made on this conference call that are not historical facts, including statements about future time periods, may be deemed to constitute forward-looking statements. Our actual results may differ materially from these forward-looking statements and the risk factors that could cause these differences are detailed in our Canadian continuous disclosure documents, including our management discussion and analysis for the period ended June 30, 2026, our annual information form for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025, and our management information circular dated July 9, 2026, as well as our SEC reports and the S-4 registration statement filed in connection with the RE/MAX transaction. Real disclaims any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements, except as expressly required by law. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Tamir Poleg. Tamir, please proceed.

Thank you, Alix, and good morning, everyone. Real is a real estate technology company built to improve how real estate works for the professionals at the center of a transaction and ultimately, for the buyers and sellers they serve. We attract productive real estate professionals with a differentiated value proposition, help them build stronger businesses through superior technology and support and expand the products and services available to them and their clients over time. When we do these things well and operate with financial discipline, we create durable value for agents, consumers and shareholders alike. I want to frame today's call a little differently than usual as this could be the last time we report to you as a stand-alone Real. Our security holder vote on the RE/MAX transaction is scheduled for August 14. Assuming approval by both Real security holders and RE/MAX's shareholders and satisfaction of the remaining closing conditions, we expect to complete the transaction thereafter in the second half of 2026. The headline for the quarter is straightforward. Despite one of the most challenging housing markets in years, we again delivered significant growth, improved core profitability and further strengthened our balance sheet. Revenue increased 30% to more than $700 million. Adjusted EBITDA increased 38% to $27.6 million. We ended the quarter with record cash and short-term investments of $86.6 million. Those results reinforce something we've believed for a long time. When we consistently help great real estate professionals build better businesses, we can deliver differentiated growth, improve profitability and create long-term value. That's why we believe the RE/MAX transaction is such an important step in our evolution. RE/MAX brings an iconic global brand, highly productive agents and franchise owners with deep local market expertise. Real brings a modern AI-enabled technology platform, a differentiated economic model and a track record of innovation and disciplined execution. Together, we believe we can better support real estate professionals, improve the experience for buyers and sellers and build a stronger, more profitable company for the long term. Jenna will discuss the momentum in our operating results and integration progress. Ravi will then discuss our financials in more detail before I return with a few closing remarks. With that, I'll hand it over to Jenna.

Thanks, Tamir, and good morning. We ended the second quarter with approximately 35,350 agents, up 26% year-over-year and entered the second half with a strong pipeline. In fact, as of today, our agent count has already exceeded 36,000. Even in a difficult market environment, we continue to experience organic growth from entrepreneurial agents, teams and independent brokerages looking for better technology, better economics and a platform that helps them run their businesses more efficiently and more profitably. We also continue to make progress rolling out new technology that can meaningfully change how agents operate and how they serve their clients. As an example, HeyLeo, our AI relationship management platform for agents, continues to evolve to enhance both the agent and client experience. This includes several new features that Leo 2.0 has beta-launched in recent weeks, including direct integrations with some of the largest real estate CRMs in the industry. As a result, with the help of Leo, our agents can now seamlessly leverage agentic AI to help activate, engage and nurture their leads. This matters because most agents already have significant opportunities sitting inside their client database, but simply don't have the time or tools to consistently follow up with their clients. By helping agents respond faster, maintain more consistent engagement and identify when their clients are ready to act, we believe HeyLeo can improve agent productivity while creating a better experience for buyers and sellers. We're very pleased with the early results and feedback from our agents and look forward to making this technology available to all of our agents once fully rolled out. Turning to RE/MAX, as Chief Integration Officer for the transaction, my primary focus is straightforward: be ready to execute on day 1 while preserving the strengths that have made both organizations successful. Since our last call, we have established an integration management office, identified leaders across every major division and work stream and have engaged experienced third-party advisers to assist us with our integration plans and support day 1 readiness. Based on the work completed to-date, we remain confident in our ability to achieve approximately $30 million of cost synergies within 3 years of closing. As we gain better visibility after closing, we'll continue evaluating additional opportunities, and we'll communicate our progress transparently. Throughout the process, our priority is to bring together the best of both organizations while making the transition as seamless as possible for employees, agents, franchise owners and consumers. Success won't be measured by how quickly we change things. It will be measured by how effectively we strengthen the combined platform while preserving the relationships and culture that have made both successful. With that, I'll turn it to Ravi.

Thank you, Jenna, and good morning, everyone. Let me provide a little more context around the financial results. Consolidated revenue for the second quarter was $700.6 million, up 30% year-over-year. Growth was driven by a 27% increase in closed transactions to a record 62,380, substantially outpacing both the U.S. and Canadian home sales markets, together with a 1% improvement in average agent productivity and a 2% increase in average revenue per transaction. Ancillary revenue from Real Wallet, One Real Title and One Real Mortgage grew a combined 28% year-over-year to $4.2 million with wallet revenue growing 140%, title growing 29% and mortgage growing 10%. The key takeaway is that Real continues to take market share and grow at a significant rate despite a housing market that remains near historically low transaction levels. At the same time, our high-margin ancillary businesses are also delivering improved growth and profitability. Gross profit was $58.3 million, up 22% year-over-year, while gross margin was 8.3% compared to 8.9% in the prior year. The year-over-year decline was primarily a mix effect. In the second quarter, approximately 42% of our closed transaction sides came from capped agents, up 300 basis points year-over-year. Post-cap transactions carry a lower brokerage margin by design. That is the economic trade-off for retaining our highest producing agents and our strong retention rates give us confidence that it remains the right trade-off. Total operating expenses were $65.3 million in the second quarter, including $11.6 million in acquisition-related costs associated with the pending RE/MAX transaction. This resulted in a reported operating loss of $7 million in the second quarter compared with operating income of $1.7 million in the second quarter of 2025. On a normalized basis, excluding acquisition-related costs, operating income would have more than doubled from the prior year. Net loss was $8 million, and on a non-GAAP basis, adjusted EBITDA was $27.6 million, up 38% year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded to 3.9% from 3.7% in the prior year. We ended the quarter with a record $86.6 million in unrestricted cash and short-term investments, up from $49.9 million at the start of the year. Subject to the satisfaction of remaining closing conditions for the RE/MAX transaction, we expect to prioritize debt repayment and deleveraging following closing. With respect to the stand-alone Real business, we expect the third quarter to follow normal seasonal patterns across the residential real estate industry with revenue and adjusted EBITDA declining sequentially from the second quarter and gross margin lower year-over-year. Assuming the RE/MAX transaction closes as expected, we intend to use our third quarter call in November to provide a combined company baseline and preliminary 2027 guidance for the combined business. More details on our results and key operating metrics can be found in the earnings press release, financial statements and investor presentation that accompany this call. I will now turn it back to Tamir.

Thank you, Ravi, and thank you, Jenna. 12 years ago, we started Real with a simple goal; make life better for real estate agents. That mission has never wavered. While we can't control mortgage rates or the pace of the housing market, we can control how we innovate, how we execute and how we support the thousands of real estate professionals who trust us with their businesses. This quarter's results reflect that focus. To our agents and employees, thank you for believing in what we're building every day. And to the RE/MAX agents, franchise owners and employees listening today, thank you for the trust you've earned over more than 50 years. Together, we have the opportunity to write the industry's next great chapter by bringing together the best of both organizations for our agents, our consumers and our shareholders. With that, we can open the line for questions.

Your first question is coming from Stephen Sheldon from William Blair.

First, it would be great to hear what you're seeing and hearing kind of in the agent and team recruiting pipeline. You continue to go quickly there, which is great. I guess has there been any signs that the pending merger with RE/MAX is impacting that pipeline either positively or negatively? I would just love to hear what you're seeing there.

Thanks, Stephen. Yes, after somewhat a slower start for the year in Q1, Q2 was more robust in terms of agent adds, and we're seeing a stronger pipeline at the moment. I think that the announcement of the RE/MAX deal definitely gave us some tailwinds in terms of agents reaching out or teams reaching out and contemplating joining Real. So I think that all in all, it is a positive. We are seeing momentum. As Jenna mentioned, we are over 36,000 agents at the moment. So Q3 started very strongly, and we expect that momentum to continue through the rest of the year. Our focus at the moment is obviously attracting agents that are not with the Real RE/MAX group. We're trying to attract agents from other brokerages and making sure that we protect the network on the RE/MAX side and protect broker owners' businesses as well. So we are focused on attracting agents from the outside and at the same time working on integration. The pipeline is strong, and we have a few very large opportunities in the pipeline. Hopefully, they will materialize before the end of the year.

Got it. That's helpful. And then as a follow-up on ancillary solutions, title and mortgage continuing to grow quickly, but still remain pretty small in the grand scheme of things. Some investors are wondering when we might see more of a step function change within those high-margin revenue streams. And now with the RE/MAX merger, maybe things might change a little bit. But just as we think about the existing business, any signs that things might pick up as we enter into 2027?

Sure. So on the mortgage side, we see a lot of momentum. Kate is doing the right things and we're seeing some of our best agents opting into the Real Originate program. I think that revenue will probably show that momentum later this year or at the beginning of 2027. So on the mortgage side, you should expect some better results moving forward. On the title side, title did grow 30% year-over-year. We are seeing some great attach rates with some of the joint ventures. I think that we can do a better job at propelling revenue there as well. But we're mindful of that. Again, those two companies continue to grow. I think that Leo 2.0, which we just launched for beta, is important. Leo 2.0 enables our agents to connect their CRMs into Leo and allow Leo to nurture their leads. We are now integrating the mortgage and title flows into Leo so that Leo can actually offer One Real Mortgage and One Real Title solutions to our agents' clients, and we're seeing some great results even before fully integrating mortgage and title flows into Leo. Leo is able to nurture leads and create opportunities for agents. The feedback has been amazing, and we expect that to also push the ancillary services revenue moving forward. It's not a short-term effort. It's going to take a while, but we're confident that we're on the right track.

Your next question is coming from Naved Khan from B. Riley.

Maybe just one on Leo. How many MLSs are you connected to now? Are you able to have nationwide coverage with Leo? Or is that still something you are broadening out?

We're still broadening it out. I think that we are now covering close to 90% of the transactions in the U.S. and all of Canada. So it's almost fully built out in terms of MLS coverage.

Got it. And then maybe just on the attach rate for mortgage and title. Between the two, which one do you think you're seeing greater momentum than you had expected? And thoughts on where growth rates should be maybe exiting the year or early next year in these two?

So maybe I'll provide some information on the attach rates on the title side. Overall, on the JV attach rates, we're looking at 45% attach rates on the JV side. On a company-wide attach rate for eligible deals, we're looking at 3.24%, so no change from last quarter. Our highest attach rate JVs include Texas at 67% and some others north of 67% and up toward 80%. So within the JVs, we're looking at very high attach rates, and it's just a matter of getting more high-producing agents to partner with those JVs. On the mortgage side, in terms of momentum, we're feeling more momentum on the mortgage side, even though it's still not manifested in revenue yet. I think that will start manifesting in the next couple of quarters. But both companies are on the right track, and I think we can do a better job on the title side.

Your next question is coming from Matthew Erdner from JonesTrading.

This is Valen Alvar here filling in for Matthew Erdner. I just had a quick question here. So as you mentioned, gross margin was 8.3% versus the 8.9% last year. How should we think about the year-over-year trend in the back half of that?

Yes, thanks for the question. I mentioned we are seeing an increasing shift in our transaction mix towards post-cap agents. As it relates to Q3, we do expect gross margin to be lower year-over-year, albeit I wouldn't expect the same order of magnitude of a decline as we saw in Q2. Part of that is because we announced a couple of fee model changes that go into effect in September, and you'll see that carry through into the fourth quarter of the year as well. That, combined with a pickup in some of the ancillary businesses, should result in less of a year-over-year moderation in gross profit margin relative to what you saw this quarter. And I'll just clarify, as we look at Q4, we would expect it to be relatively flat year-over-year.

Your next question is coming from Nick McAndrew from Zelman.

Maybe just one on the headcount side of things to start. I know that the headcount efficiency ratio moved modestly lower this quarter, but operating expenses per transaction continue to improve. So any insight into where you are currently adding headcount? And assuming the RE/MAX transaction does close, does that change the strategy around future headcount at all? Or is there an opportunity to improve that again over time as those resources are leveraged across the broader network?

Sure, Nick. I'll take the first part, and then I'll let Tamir or Jenna chime in on the go-forward headcount outlook. This quarter, what drove the employee count higher and therefore the efficiency ratio moderately lower is something we discussed on the last call, which is that we have a number of contract roles that we've converted to full-time employees. Those are mainly in the brokerage and compliance space. Those were roles that we previously relied on third-party contractors, and we've converted a number of them to full-time employees. As we mentioned last quarter, it is P&L neutral, so you didn't really see an impact on our operating costs or operating leverage. From that specific ratio, converting a contractor to an employee does have an impact. We don't expect that to continue at a similar rate into the second half. If you look at last year, Q2 was the low watermark for headcount efficiency ratio. We did most of our hiring in the first half and then you saw the headcount efficiency ratio improve in the second half of the year. To your second question, yes, the ratio will be a little bit fluid post-acquisition. We'll do our best to provide you with that level of visibility. Given certain employees will be spanning both organizations, we'll try and give you the best ratio so you can compare on an apples-to-apples basis.

Sure. We plan to bring the type of efficiency that we have on the Real side into RE/MAX as well. We will continue to update after we close the transaction when it comes to headcount efficiencies and overall cost savings. We have a solid plan in place. We've been working very closely with RE/MAX management and their team to identify areas of opportunity. I think you will be happy with the results we will post in the coming quarters.

And just one on HeyLeo. Last quarter you discussed the early HeyLeo beta and the ability to help agents reengage leads. Any update on the rollout to the broader agent base and any feedback you've gotten so far and how agents and maybe consumers are using the product, if at all?

We actually rolled out the Leo 2.0 beta version about two weeks ago. We have over 200 of our most successful agents and teams that already connected their CRMs to Leo 2.0, and the feedback was immediate and overwhelmingly positive. Leo was able to create opportunities for them with dormant leads that were lying in their CRMs for years and engage them in the market without the agents having to proactively do it. Leo engaged in conversations with those leads, showed them listings and created appointments for the agents to go and meet with clients. The feedback was very positive. The bottom line is Leo is generating revenue for the agents. This is a great starting point for us if we want to monetize Leo in multiple ways. We'll continue to update, but the immediate feedback exceeded our expectations.

Your next question is coming from Naved Khan from B. Riley.

Just had some follow-ups. Between the U.S. and Canadian markets, I think last quarter you called out some weakness in the Canadian market. How did that trend in the second quarter? And then I have a follow-up.

You're right. The Canadian market has been weaker than the U.S. In the U.S., our average per agent productivity, transactions per average agent, was up around 3%, which is consistent with the market against quite a tough comp. But in Canada, our average transactions per agent was down 9%, and that's a combination of a challenging market in the provinces where we operate as well as a couple of specific tough comps where a couple of top agents had record first half last year and this year the numbers are significantly lower. There's a comp issue given the Canadian agent base is a fraction of the U.S. base, which exacerbates percentages. On an aggregate Canada basis, our revenue did grow and our agent count continues to grow as we've opened up new provinces. But on a per-agent basis, the broader market environment continues to be a headwind.

Great. And then maybe just to clarify something you said in answering another question. What type of contract roles did you convert into employees?

It was primarily state brokers and compliance specialists. These were roles that we've previously worked with third-party contractor firms that we've now brought on as full-time employees. Jenna, do you want to discuss the rationale and how it better serves our agents and get the local market expertise? Maybe you can give Naved some more context.

Sure, absolutely. There are really twofold reasons. One is, as we've grown, there's been more work and more demand for those resources. Having those in-house increases the commitment level of those individuals and allows for better connection between our agent population and those roles. What we have found is that there's better delivery from a work standpoint and better interactions from our agent population with those folks. So we brought them in-house to better serve the agents that we have.

And to add, part of the bonus compensation structure for those full-time employee brokers is attached to driving attach rates in the states where they serve. So there is alignment not just in the brokerage but also across title and mortgage. That's one of the other benefits of bringing those roles in-house.

There are no further questions from analysts in the queue. I'll now hand the floor over to CFO, Ravi Jani, for questions from retail investors.

Thanks, Matthew. So now that we've completed the analyst Q&A portion, we'd like to address a few questions that were submitted through our Say Technologies shareholder portal. We've received some great questions this quarter, and so we appreciate everybody who participated. First question for Tamir: As a RE/MAX franchise owner, how will combining two companies with different business models create value for existing franchisees? What specific benefits, opportunities or competitive advantages should franchise owners expect as the integration moves forward?

That's a great question. We recognize that franchise owners are the backbone of the RE/MAX network, and our objective is to make their businesses stronger, not to change what has made them successful. RE/MAX franchise owners have spent decades building successful local businesses around one of the most recognized brands in real estate. We believe the combination gives us the opportunity to strengthen that value proposition by giving franchise owners access to a modern technology platform, AI capabilities and a broader suite of services that can help them attract and retain productive agents while improving agent productivity. Just as importantly, we believe our technology platform can simplify the brokerage technology stack. Today, many brokerages and franchise owners rely on multiple third-party vendors for CRMs, AI tools, communication platforms and other agent productivity software. We believe we can replace many of those point solutions, reducing both complexity and cost for franchise owners while delivering a more integrated experience for agents. Beyond technology, we also see opportunities to expand the ways franchise owners participate in the economics of their businesses over time through ancillary services such as mortgage and title as well as Real's revenue share model, if they choose to, which has been a powerful driver of agent traction and engagement on the Real side. Throughout the process, we're approaching integration with a great deal of respect for the RE/MAX franchise model. Our focus is on preserving the strengths that have made the network successful while bringing together the best capabilities from both organizations. We believe that's how we create long-term value for all stakeholders. Lastly, I will say that I will be on the RE/MAX Broker Owner Conference in Nashville in 10 days, and I'm looking forward to meeting franchise owners and sharing more information on our plans moving forward.

Great. Thanks, Tamir. Next question for Jenna: What's one decision leadership has made over the past year that shareholders probably didn't notice, but you believe will have one of the biggest long-term impacts on Real?

I would point to a decision that probably isn't obvious from the outside, which is that we decided to invest just as aggressively in using AI to transform our own operations as we did in building AI for the agents. Most people have heard of Leo and see Leo, but behind the scenes we've also built an in-house AI automation team focused on rethinking how work gets done across every department at Real. Over the past year, that team has automated hundreds of workflows that we've estimated saved thousands of hours of manual work. That's one reason we've been able to maintain one of the leanest operating cost structures in the industry while continuing to scale at a very high rate. It allows our people to spend less time on repetitive administrative work and more time on activities that create value for our agents. We're still in the early innings. AI isn't just another product for us; it's becoming how we build software, how we serve our agents and how we run our company. Over time, we believe that will continue to improve the customer experience, strengthen our operating leverage and widen our competitive advantage.

Thanks, Jenna. I'll take the next question: How much expected profit will this merger bring and will there be positive free cash flow? As we noted back in April, on a pro forma basis, the two companies generated approximately $160 million of combined adjusted EBITDA in 2025. If you layer on the $30 million of run-rate synergies that we publicly committed to, that number moves to roughly $190 million. We see that as a floor, not a ceiling. There's a clear path to growing it further through revenue synergies, additional cost synergies and organic growth in the businesses. That strong foundation plus the numerous levers for adjusted EBITDA growth underpins our confidence in the deal's ability to drive higher profitability and durable free cash flow in the future. Last question for Tamir: How directly tied to the real estate market is the company's outlook for goals? Is there a plan and path to grow and increase profit, or is any major takeoff going to be reliant on a real estate boom?

Thanks for the question. The housing market certainly affects transaction volumes, but one of the things we're most proud of is that we've shown consistent growth through both good years and challenging years. To put that in context, in a typical year the U.S. sees about 5.2 million existing home sales. We've been running nearly 20% below that, around 4 million, for the past three years. Despite that backdrop, we've grown organically primarily by taking market share, attracting productive agents and increasing ancillary adoption and margins as we scale. Those are things we can control regardless of the macro environment. A healthier housing market would benefit the entire industry, including Real and our agents, but our strategy is not dependent on waiting for the market to improve. Our focus is on continuing to execute and expanding our share of the market that's available today regardless of market conditions.

Great. Thank you, Tamir. With that, we can close the call. If you'd be willing to provide the replay instructions, we can then close.

Absolutely. In order to access the replay, you need to call (877) 481-4010 with a confirmation code of 54149. The replay will be available two hours after this call concludes. You may disconnect your phone lines at this time, and have a wonderful day. Thank you for your participation.