The Real Brokerage Inc. (REAX) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to The Real Brokerage Earnings Call for the Second Quarter ended June 30, 2026. [Operator Instructions] 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.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question is coming from Stephen Sheldon from William Blair.

First, just -- 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. So 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 from -- that are not with The Real RE/MAX group. So we're trying to attract agents from other brokerages and making sure that we protect the network on the RE/MAX side and making sure that we protect the broker owners businesses as well. So we are focused on attracting agents from the outside and at the same time, also working on integration, but the pipeline is strong, and we are -- we have a few very large opportunities as well 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, I think, in the grand scheme of things. So I think 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 kind of show that momentum later this year or at the beginning of 2027. So I think that, 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 JVs. I think that we can do a better job at just propelling revenue over there as well. But we're mindful of that. And again, those 2 companies continue to grow. I think that Leo 2.0, which we just launched for beta, which I'll just maybe spend a minute on. Leo 2.0 is a version of Leo that 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 before even integrating mortgage and title flows into Leo. Leo is able to nurture leads and just create opportunities for agents. So 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 the -- on Leo. How many [ INSs ] 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 2, which one do you think you're seeing greater momentum than you had expected? And thoughts kind of where should growth rates be maybe exiting the year or early next year in these 2?

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, we're looking at -- for eligible deals, we're looking at 3.24%. So kind of no change from last quarter. Our highest rate -- attach rate JVs, we're looking at Texas at 67% and some others north of 80% or between 67% and 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, and back to your question, I think that in terms of momentum, we're feeling more momentum on the mortgage side, even though it's still not manifested in the revenue, I think that it will start manifesting in the next couple of quarters. But both companies are on the right track. I think that 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. And so, I mentioned 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. And so that, combined with -- which should be 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.

[Operator Instructions] 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 just any insight into where you are currently adding headcount? And I guess, assuming the RE/MAX transaction does close, does that change the strategy around future headcount at all? Or is there an opportunity to kind of improve that again over time as [ reasons ] leveraged across the broader network?