Great! Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Bernie McTernan. I'm the internet analyst here at Needham & Company, and it's my pleasure to introduce the team at Real Brokerage, the fastest-growing real estate firm in the country or in the world probably, or country at least. We have Tamir Poleg, CEO. He's going to give a brief presentation, and I'm going to come back for Q&A, but I'll turn it over to Tamir. Thank you so much for joining us.
Thanks, Bernie. Hi, everyone. Thank you for being with us today. Hope you're having a good day. This is the first time I'm presenting with slides in the past two, three years, so hopefully it'll go well. But Real is a real estate technology company. We founded it back in 2014, and at this point in time, we're probably the most exciting growth story in our industry. Over the past 12 months, we grew revenue by 92%. We generated over $600 million in revenue, over $5 million in EBITDA. We're growing agent count very rapidly, and that's during a time where the industry is facing some strong headwinds. So over the past two years, we grew revenue by more than 400%, while the market was down 40%.
We're demonstrating that we can grow despite of all of the market conditions. This is primarily driven by our ability to attract agents and help them close more deals. This is what's driving our growth. At this point in time, we have over 14,000 agents in our platform. We're licensed in 50 states and in four provinces in Canada. As Bernie said, the fastest-growing brokerage, maybe in the world, but definitely in North America. Going back to 2014, the reason why we started the company is because we've looked at the industry, and we realized... Maybe I should jump a couple of slides. We realized that there are 1.5 million agents in this country. The majority of them are affiliated with traditional brokerages.
You probably are familiar with all the names, RE/MAX, Century 21, Coldwell Banker. All of those folks operate in the same way. All of them rely heavily on office space for distribution of service. And when we looked at what they offer agents and how much they're charging agents, we realized that there is an opportunity to create a brokerage that provides better value at a lower cost, and this is how we started our journey back in 2014. We also understood that the operating model of a brokerage is not sustainable. They pay a lot of money on office space, a lot of money on manual labor, and we thought that there is a more efficient way to operate a brokerage overall. And as I said, we're growing agent count very rapidly. And why are agents joining us?
Why are we the fastest-growing brokerage in the country at this point in time? I would say four main things. One, the freedom and flexibility for agents to operate their businesses the way they want to. So think about an agent. Agents are independent contractors. They're small business owners. They have to be affiliated with a brokerage. That's the regulation. But when they work for a traditional brokerage, let's say RE/MAX, for example, they end up building somebody else's brand. There's a broker, a manager, that tells them exactly what to do, how to market themselves, when to come to the office. Someone is controlling their business. When they move over to Real, they have the freedom and flexibility to build their businesses the way they want to, and this is a huge benefit for those agents. The second is the compelling economics.
The average agent switching to Real will end up paying half of what they're currently paying at their traditional brokerage. Majority of brokerages charge commission splits, so 70% of the revenue, the commission revenue, will go to the agent. The brokerage will keep 30%. On top of that, the brokerage will be charging different fees, desk fees, monthly fees, transaction fees. Our model is based on an 85/15 split and no monthly fees, so this is very attractive to agents. On top of that, we have a cap. Once an agent pays us $12,000 a year in commission split, they get to keep 100% of their commission and only pay a transaction fee of $315.
This is extremely attractive for high-performing agents and high-performing teams, and this is why we're seeing a lot of traction within those segments. The third is the technology. We are a pure technology company. Yes, we do operate a brokerage. We also own a mortgage company and a title company. But the technology that we developed for our agents and have been building for almost a decade now, helps them with four main things. One is productivity. Everything they need, from a CRM to a transaction management system that allows them to draft contracts and send them for review and e-signature, an education module, a powerful dashboard that shows them or provides them better visibility into their business. Everything is in the palm of their hands. We're a mobile-focused company, and everything we develop is for our agent-facing app. Second is marketing.
We decided that we are not going to brand Real as a consumer-facing brand. You probably heard of RE/MAX and Coldwell Banker, but you never heard about Real, and this is why... This is because people are not choosing agents today based on their brand affiliation. Nobody goes into a RE/MAX office and says, "Hey, I'm looking to buy a home, and I'm here because I thought, or I know RE/MAX has great agents." People choose agents based on referrals, based on knowing that that person is an expert, seeing their yard sign, seeing their social media. We decided that we are going to take those marketing dollars and invest them in making our agents better known within their community, communities.
It has an offline aspect, which means that when an agent needs to order business cards, yard signs, brochures, car magnets, listing presentations, everything ordered through our marketing platform, and every agent receives a personally branded website, a personally branded app. They can invite their clients to download the app, look at the website, look at their bios, look at their listings, communicate with them over there. So all of that is free as part of our package to the agents. The third bucket of technology is community. As a company, we do not have offices for the agents to use. This is a huge cost saving for us, but at the same time, agents do want to interact with each other, collaborate, ask questions, and we have a community feature on our app where agents can do exactly that.
It's like a Facebook feed, where agents ask questions, celebrate success, schedule in-person meetups. It's pretty amazing to see all of the engagement in the community, and the beauty of it is that agents are not confined to a physical office anymore. They can tap into the knowledge of thousands of successful agents around the country and learn from them, instead of just being in interaction with people in their office. The fourth segment of the component of the technology is brokerage operation, and this is probably our forte. Think about all of the things that are being... all of the tasks that are being handled in the back office of a brokerage. Things that have to do with transaction management, reviewing files, reviewing documents, processing payments, supporting the agents. We took all of that, and we automated it.
We are by far the most efficient brokerage in the country. Typically, at a brokerage, you would have one employee for every 20 agents. Our ratio is around 1 to 100, so very efficient. And the reason is because we took all of those tasks that consume human time, and we put software into work. So right now, it takes us about two-three minutes of human labor to process a transaction and review a file, versus two-three hours that it typically takes a traditional brokerage. So that's a huge competitive advantage that we have and nobody else does. The fourth reason why agents use us, or join us, and this may not resonate with some of you, but culture.
Agents want to be in an environment where they can grow, they can learn from others, and typically at a brokerage, there is a fierce competition. You compete with the person in the desk next to you. At Real, we've built a culture of collaboration versus competition, and it's pretty amazing to see that people are just really trying to help each other achieve their goals. But we're not just a brokerage. In last year, we did two acquisitions. We acquired a title company and a mortgage company. And the reason was that we realized that if we truly want to work to help our agents, we also have to help our agents serve their clients in a better way. And we think that there is a just a tremendous opportunity to create a better home buying experience.
I don't know how many of you went through the process of buying a home lately, but it's not great, it's not fun, it's not transparent enough, it's not quick enough. It just builds up a lot of anxiety. And we thought that if we combine the main building blocks of a real estate transaction, which are the brokerage services, everything that you would do with an agent, the mortgage and title into one app, we will be able to dramatically improve the experience for consumers in this country. And this is what we're working on right now. Now, the benefit, aside from being recognized as the company that will change the way people buy and sell homes using technology, again, while leaving the agents in the center of the transaction, title and mortgage are very high-margin businesses.
In our title company, we have 83% gross margins. In the mortgage company, we have close to 50% gross margins. Those are high-margin businesses that will become accretive to our profitability. So right now, we're starting to scale those businesses. We're building the consumer-facing app, but we believe that this is the future of real estate, and obviously, this is the future of our company as well. Another very interesting initiative that we announced is the Real Wallet. Today, when agents close a transaction, we collect that money, and then we transfer their share directly into their bank account. In April, we're releasing the Real Wallet. The Real Wallet is a digital wallet that every agent in Real will have. When they close a transaction or when they get any kind of payment from us, the money will go into that digital wallet.
In the digital wallet, they will have a debit card. They will be able to use the debit card to spend that money or withdraw it into their own bank accounts. If they swipe the debit card, they earn points. Those points help them offset the brokerage fees that we charge them, and we earn the interchange fee. But it's not only that. Agents build different financial assets on top of our platform, so their pending transactions are an asset because they will turn into cash within the next days or month. Their past transactions are an asset because they enable us to predict their future productivity. They earn equity in the company. Our agents have equity in the company. That's an asset because it is, and they also earn revenue share for referring their friends to the company.
So based on those assets, we're able to underwrite them to a specific or dedicated credit line, and that will be a part of the wallet. There will be a debit card and a credit card for the agents with a dynamic credit limits dedicated for each one of the agents. So those are two high-margin products that we will be offering starting in April, and those are one of the reasons why we're excited about our business, because at the end of the day, it's not only a brokerage, it's a financial ecosystem around buying, selling homes, and operating agent businesses. That's an illustration of a typical transaction and gross margin. So right now, a typical transaction or commission on a home sale or a home sale transaction is $10,000 commission.
If we add mortgage to that, that's $4,800. If we add title, that's an additional $3,000, and then there are ways to increase the margins as well. Yes, we started as a brokerage, and the brokerage for us is just a way to drive transactions into this huge funnel that we're building, and now we're starting to monetize transactions in other ways, compared to before. Looking into 2024, and I know that the housing market in 2023 has been a big kind of discussion, but we're starting to see signs of recovery. We're starting to see more inventory coming into the market from existing homeowners that are willing to list their homes, and we're seeing very strong demand.
So in some areas of the country, we are seeing some bidding wars again, multiple offer situations. We think that 2024 will be a recovery year for our industry. But despite of that, as I said, we've managed to grow through a down cycle, and an improvement in the housing situation will probably provide us some tailwinds as well. So taking our growth, our ability to attract agents, the market conditions that are improving, and our ability to attach more higher margin services to our transactions, we're just extremely bullish on our business moving forward.
Great. Great presentation. Thank you so much. Maybe sticking on the macro, I mean, recovery year in 2024, what does that mean? When do you think the market can get back to growth?
So if you look historically, there are roughly 5.2-5.3 million homes sold in the U.S. per year. In 2023, the number was around 4.1, so we're still around 25% below the historic average. I think that in 2024, we will see an improvement, not to 5.2-5.3 million homes, but I think that we'll probably see an improvement of anywhere between 8%-10% in home sales. I don't think that we're-
Really?
Yeah. That's-
That's-
... my estimate. I don't-
You're normally not the most bullish.
Yeah, I'm pessimistic, usually. But, I mean, at least in what we're seeing right now and the indications that we're getting from the market, from our agents, we do see some improvement.
So, how quickly do you think the market can get back to growth? Like, because I think when we spoke in November, you were thinking maybe it would be a second half event. Is that still the right timing, or?
I actually think that the spring market will be strong, stronger than last year. Yes.
Right.
I think that going back to 5.2 million homes sold, that's probably a 2026 number.
Okay. Wow!
Yeah.
That's great. So one thing that, you know, just from, you know, looking at my facts and screen all day, the stocks move violently with interest rates. It's not just you guys, but it's the whole industry.
Yeah.
How sensitive do you think the market is to, like, a, you know, a 50 basis point change, in interest rates or however you want to gauge it? And then also, maybe within that too, we know what it was like when rates went up. It was paralyzing for buyers. Is it... Like, what's gonna happen when they come down, if they do?
It's a good question. I think that what we've seen in recent weeks when rates pulled back from the 8s or even the 7s, and people started to see a six on the mortgage offers, that drove a lot of demand. So I think that there are two things that are coming into play right now. One, the fact that mortgage rates are at the 6-point-something%, which is psychologically, it seems at least compelling for a lot of buyers that used to see seven or even eight. So that's one thing, but maybe something that's even more important, I think that people's confidence in their ability to buy now, but refinance in a year from now for a lower rate, now they see that path, which they haven't seen, you know, six months ago.
So I think that that provides a lot of confidence to a lot of folks. I also think that a lot of people were anticipating some drop in housing prices, and now they're starting to understand that it's not coming. And maybe it's likely that home prices will go up a notch. So, you know, they might be waiting for a better mortgage rate, but at the same time, maybe six or 12 months from now, they will be paying more for their home. People are starting to to make those kind of calculations.
Got it. And then, so within that thought on where home prices are going, what are you guys currently seeing on supply? Obviously, inventory's been constrained, but do you think-
Yeah
... that's gonna be unlocked?
It's starting to be unlocked a little bit. I mean, if you look at data over the past couple of months, we do see a little bit more inventory coming into the market, and maybe that's the effect of, you know, people who were locked in and are still locked in, very, very low, percentage or interest, mortgages. I think that a lot of people are now starting to realize that, okay, I have a 4% mortgage, but I still want to, to move to a new home or have to move to a new home. And now, when rates are around 6.5% or 6.4%, and maybe I'll be able to refine it i- in a year from now for 5.5 or 5.8, that's not too bad.
So, I think that also... That's starting to move the market a little bit on the supply side. So, I think that supply will get better.
Interesting. So, just the last one on the macro here. Just like as, you know, typically, you know, the industry goes up by, you know, 3%-4% per year. So you think that snapback can happen 8%-10% this year. Like, how long can that last? Like, when are we going back to prior levels of existing home sales, or are we just in this trough level for an extended, like, multi-year period of time?
Well, we still have the structural lack of inventory in the country, so we're missing a lot of homes just because they did not build enough between 2010 and today.
Right.
So I think that that would still continue to be a problem for years to come. I do think that in 2026, we'll probably see home number of units in the 5.2 million being sold, and there will be kind of a gradual increase between now and then, so.
Okay.
So probably, I don't know, 4.4 million-4.5 million sold this year, and then a little bit more next year in 2026. We'll get to 5.2.
Get back.
Yeah.
Great. I know there's probably not much you can say on the NAR lawsuit, but, are you getting questions from your agents on it? Like, is that starting to be something where you have to spend your time kinda answering questions?
Yeah, it's interesting because two months ago, there was a lot of chatter in the industry on what's going on, and you know, what does it mean for us? We immediately jumped in and just educated our agents as to what does it mean, who's impacted, what does it mean for your business, what do you need to do differently, what type of conversations you need to have with your clients? Right now, there's, I would say, silence. Like, people understood that, okay, like, let's go back to business, let's continue and focus on serving customers or buyers and sellers. There's barely no discussions around it.
Interesting. And do you guys have any lean... I'm assuming you or do you skew more towards buy-side leads or sellers leads or, just where most of... If there's a-
Yeah.
Big shift in the business.
Around 60% of our transactions are buy side and almost 40% sell side.
Right. Okay, got it. Saw the press release, surpassed 14,000 agents. Congratulations. Can you just remind investors on just what the value prop... I know you went through it in the slides-
Yeah
... but if you want just to summarize kind of what the value proposition is for agents to join Real.
So again, it's the freedom and flexibility to build their businesses the way they want to. It's a very favorable economics of 85/15 splits, no monthly fees, and very small transaction fees. So at the end of the day, and the cap of $12,000, so high-performing agents that are, you know, generating hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in commissions will end up paying us, you know, $12,000, $13,000, $14,000. So they keep eventually 90-something% of their money, which is very compelling. The technology that helps them save time, make more money, become more efficient, serve their clients in a better way, get paid faster, and get educated on different things through the Real Academy. And then the fourth thing—I would say a couple more thing. One is the opportunity.
So agents are shareholders in the company. We have a program for them to be able to, to earn, RSUs if they hit certain sales milestones or even use a per- percentage of their commission in order to buy company shares, and then we add a bonus on top of that. So it's a, it's an opportunity for them. The revenue share program, which is the way, agents attract other agents to the company and earn a portion of, of the revenue that's generated by that friend that they referred. That's a huge benefit for a lot of agents. And the culture, I mean, we're known within the industry as having a very unique culture of working hard, being kind, and, and just collaborative, very collaborative environment.
Got it. I saw within that press release as well, too, I think it said you had 500 agents in the first week of January.
Yeah, in one-
Is that-
one single week.
Yeah, so is that typical, or was that, like-
No, that was, that was very atypical. It, it-
Because also the fourth year growth, I think, accelerated a little bit sequentially.
Correct.
So it wasn't like it wasn't just, like,
Correct. Yeah, we had a strong fourth quarter in terms of agent addition, and we had an outstanding first week of January. 500 agents within a single week is something that we did not experience before, so that's great. But we are... I mean, the thing about a year ago, we were not very well known within the industry. A lot of agents never heard about us. Now, a lot of agents are hearing about us. We do not spend any money on marketing, so we do not advertise, we don't have any campaigns going on. Everything is either referrals from our existing agent base or inbound inquiries, and we actually have seen an uptick in inbound inquiries lately. So a lot of high-performing teams have been starting to or have been reaching out to us.
Some of them joined in the first week of January. Some of them will be joining in the next few weeks. But we are still seeing an acceleration in interest and demand from agents for our services.
And do you think that's driven by the market? Like, so all of a sudden, agents expect market, you know, 30%, 30% year-over-year declines, and all of a sudden, it starts to tick up. You think about, "Okay, where do I want to be, where that upswing happens?" Or, or what do you- or is there any... I'm just trying to think about, like, why is the- why does it seem like things are accelerating right now?
I'm not sure.
Or is the technology, it could be more organic as well.
I think that as we add more and more features and more and more benefits to our, to our-
Yeah
... offering and our technology, people hear about it, and people want to become a part of it. And the thing is, it's a large industry, but it's really a small industry because everybody knows everybody. Everyone is following, like, some leaders, and once you're getting a few head-turners or high-profile folks into your platform, then others are likely to follow. So it's kind of a game of going into a market, talking with the major players. Some of them are coming over, and then it's like a wave of agents joining. So I think that this is what we're now seeing in multiple markets.
Mm-hmm.
For example, in California, we've been growing like crazy. I think that we're very close to dominating the southern part of California, like significant market share. And it just has an effect, like a snowball effect.
Yeah.
I'm not sure it's related to the market conditions, though.
Okay, interesting. Where are agents coming from?
... everywhere. So we cannot identify one single broker that agents are transferring from. We barely accept newly licensed agents, so the agents that are joining us have been affiliated with a different brokerage before. By the way, agents can only be affiliated with one brokerage, so they're coming from all different kind of traditional brokerages. We're not focusing on any one in particular, but I think that it's in line with our theory that the traditional brokerage model is kind of dying a slow death, and still 90% of the agents in the country are affiliated with traditional brokerages, and probably over the next 5-10 years, 50% of them will be switching to models like ours and probably to Real, primarily.
But it's just an evolution of an industry, and it's a change in kind of agent behavior.
Yeah, I mean, we have the same thesis as you. We compared it to almost like when you look at, like, the pay TV industry in the U.S., where cord-cutting was happening, but then all of a sudden streaming services launch-
Mm-hmm.
- And then all of a sudden that really drives the dip in pay TV penetration. I mean, is Gen AI that technology-driven catalyst or, you know, like why now for that you think the 50% move?
It's a part of it. So we were the first player in the industry to do something with Gen AI. We launched Leo, our personal concierge for agents, and Leo really started as a way for agents to ask questions and get answers very rapidly. So they would ask, "Where is my money?" Or, "What am I missing on this transaction?" Or all kind of support questions. And Leo is really helping us because it's answering close to 1,000 agent questions a day. So just think about the number of humans you would need in order to answer 1,000 questions a day. So it's saving us a lot of money internally. But now Leo has evolved into a more proactive creature.
So Leo has access to all of our systems, all of our databases, and Leo is able to tell agents proactively, "Hey, you have a closing coming up in two days, and we're missing a signature on this addendum," or, "There's a phone number missing on that document. Please complete it." So Leo is evolving to be very proactive and helping the agents. But I'm not sure that by itself is a driver of the growth. I think that it's a combination of a lot of things that we're doing, and obviously, Leo is one of them. But I do think that Gen AI will play a bigger and bigger role in everything that our agents do and everything that consumers are...
or the way that consumers are interacting with our agents and, and other services like mortgage and title, moving forward.
Got it. In a competition, and really just, like, high level, like, how do you think about competition? Are you thinking about how do we get every agent in the country onto Real? Are you thinking about how does Real agents win listings? Like, when you think about, like, where are you... Like, where are you focused your energy for when you think about competition?
Yeah. Well, I don't wanna sound arrogant, but we're not really thinking about competition. I think that, first of all, this is a huge market, and there's enough room for a lot of players or a few big players. Second, I think that the opportunity is so vast that you just have to execute, and if you execute well, you will be rewarded, and you will continue to grow. I think that if you look at what competition is doing, and try to follow or iterate, then you're being led, you're not leading, and I think that we're trying to lead. So we're not trying to think about what competition is doing. We're trying to think about what's best for our agents and what is best for our agents' clients.
And I also think that as long as we were kind of in the same bucket of brokerages alongside others, such as eXp or Compass or the traditional brokerages, people saw us as a brokerage. But right now, when we're adding the consumer-facing app and the wallet, and we're kind of branching out to be a, a pure tech player, people don't really know how to place us. Like, is this competing with brokerages? Is this competing with Zillow? Is this something in the middle? So I think that we're creating a category for ourselves, and probably in two, three years, nobody will be comparing us to what you consider is our competition at the moment. But at the same time, as I said, I think that this is a, a huge market, and there's enough room for a lot of players.
Understood. Maybe hitting on the financials, you know, growth versus profitability, how you think about it. I think it's been two consecutive quarters of adjusted EBITDA being positive.
Yep.
Is that just getting to a certain revenue scale?
Mm-hmm.
'Cause I think OpEx has ticked up as well too, but just kinda thinking about it and, and as we're looking forward to 2024.
Well, as a company, we've been always very responsible in how we spend money, and we always wanted to see the ROI when we invest in something. One thing that we're measuring is the OpEx per transaction, and we would like to see a continuous improvement in that. So in the third quarter, OpEx per transaction was actually down by 10%. So as long as you can continue to grow revenue and at the same time continue to lower your expenses per transaction, you're winning, and I think that this is what we've been seeing. This is probably what we will see moving forward because growth will continue. I think that we will continue to make improvements on the operations.
Just all of the systems that we build allow us to scale and serve a higher number of agents and a larger volume of transactions without needing to invest more, or put more resources in place, hire more people. Everything is software-based.
Right. Okay, but, I mean, then we, you know, we look at the presentation, and you guys are investing a lot in, in technology and, and rolling out new products. Any investments we should be thinking about in 2024, or it's just kind of all-encompassing in the, no OpEx per transaction just continuing?
I mean, obviously, we've invested a lot in 2023, I mean, on the app and all of the systems. In 2024, we will continue to enhance the consumer-facing app, and the wallet is coming in, but everything is kind of inside already. So, I don't think that the market should expect any kind of pullback in profitability.
Right. Okay, great. Two recent product launches, the Private Label program and also the ProTeams program.
Yeah.
Would just love to dive in, and what's the use case?
Yeah.
Especially on the, on the Private Label program, it's... Yeah, what's the pitch for, you know, or would love to just get some of maybe the economics of, like, what it like, what the brokerage gets for, for joining this program.
So those two programs came as a result of a demand and conversation from the market, conversations that we had with a few brokerages that wanted to roll over and a few teams that wanted to join us. So typically, they have a lot of concerns when they're thinking about switching brokerages, or if they're operating a brokerage and thinking about shutting down their brand and moving over to our company. And you need to be able to make that transition very seamless, smooth, and with as little objections as possible. So the Private Label is essentially the ability for a team, or mainly a brokerage, to come over to Real without changing anything in their brand, in their marketing materials, just remaining and operating under the same name.
So for example, if you were a broker under Berney Realty and you wanted to come over, because of regulation, you would need to put Real on all of your marketing materials, yard signs. That would be an investment on your part, and also, you have built a brand for many, many years, and all of a sudden you don't wanna operate under somebody else's brand. Private Label allows you to come over and keep everything the same. You don't have to change anything in your marketing, no change in branding, everything remains the same, and that's very compelling for a lot of brokerages and a lot of teams that are currently focused on one brokerage called Side.
In terms of the ProTeams, typically at a brokerage or if you're running a team, you have different arrangements with different agents. So one agent could be on an 80/20 split, the other agents could be on a 50/50 split. This agent could be paying $100 a month in desk fees, the other agent is paying higher fees, higher splits for leads that you're providing them. So ProTeams is essentially a dashboard that we provide to them, which allows them to configure all of those individual arrangements with different team members without the team members having any disruption in-
Mm-hmm
... in their closing. Everything kind of looks the same. When they're closing a transaction, everything looks the same. All of the accounting or the arrangement between us and the team leader is done in the background. So, it's another way of making the transaction kind of smooth and seamless for a lot of teams, and I think that those two programs will probably have a very positive effect on our growth that has been staggering regardless.
Yeah. And so just from the outside looking in, like, it seems like some of these products are more geared at bringing on larger brokerages. Is that, is that the case? And if so, like, what are the implications?
Yeah, I mean, probably ProTeams is geared towards attracting very high-performing teams and brokerages. I think that when you're building a brokerage business, you're probably starting with kind of the, you know, the low producers, then you're going to the average producers, then you're trying to-
Mm-hmm
... to attract the high producers, and then the teams, and then, you know, small teams, larger teams, mega teams. I think that right now we're at this stage where a lot of mega teams and some of the nation's highest-performing teams are looking at us and being in conversations with us. So I think, it's just, kind of a another step in our evolution as a company.
Have those conversations changed? Because I think Compass was, you know, leading the industry in terms of offering incentives to agents. As you're smiling, and you know, over the past year or two, like, has the bid-ask spread changed in terms of what gets an agent to come over?
Well, first, it's a good point in time to kind of say that we grew organically. We never acquired a brokerage. We never offered anyone cash for joining us. And early on, we did offer some equity incentives just to create a sense of partnership between us and the team that was joining. We haven't done that in a very long time. So if you're asking me about changes lately, I think that it's becoming easier and easier for us to attract high-performing teams, and we don't have to do all of the things that we did before. It's kind of people know who we are, people know exactly what the offering is. They see the benefit, and I don't think we've done any, even equity incentive for the past, probably 18 months or so.
Great. Just wanna pause for a moment and see if there's any questions from the audience. But if not, just last one from me. I mean, you went through a lot of the technology, but just it would be great just to get kind of like a summary at the end in terms of, like, what we should expect for the tech product roadmap over the next year or so.
Yeah. I would say three main things: One, when it comes to Leo, our Gen AI personal assistant for agents, I think that Leo will continue to evolve, become more proactive, and we're now looking for ways to involve Leo with consumers. For example, when an agent meets a buyer for the first time, they can introduce Leo virtually to the buyer, and Leo can take that buyer through the loan application process. So Leo can become a part of the transaction and enhance the kind of experience for consumers. Just because Leo is there, it's able to answer questions and actually perform tasks. So that's one. Second is the One Real app, which is the consumer-facing app that's designed to take home buyers from searching listings up to closing in one single place.
So it's an end-to-end, consumer-facing app. That's kind of a... That's something that has never been tried in the industry, and we think that it has the potential of being a game changer, for us and for the industry overall. And the third thing is the Real Wallet. The Real Wallet is, again, something that nobody else tried. And I think that if you think about Real going in that fintech direction, it just opens up a whole sea of opportunities when it comes to lending, to leveraging the data that we have on our agents, data that we have on their clients, and just being able to leverage that data into offering other fintech services for agents and home buyers. So that's gonna be exciting as well.
Great. One last check on the audience to see if there's any questions. But if not, Tamir, thank you so much for joining.