The Real Brokerage Inc. (NASDAQ:REAX) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

And we have seen a spike in new listings coming into the market. I don’t know if that’s indicative of the future. But I think that as soon as we understand what the Fed is going to do with the rates, and the market gets a little bit clarity, I think that we will see mortgage rates stabilizing and maybe even decreasing a little bit toward the end of the year, and that would be a positive. But at the moment, we’re seeing just solid demand, not enough supply, I think that 37% of homes are now selling over asking price, which is interesting, and we are also seeing prices starting to go up naturally. So interesting market dynamics.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Your next question is coming from Tom White from D.A. Davidson.

Thomas White : Two, if I could. One, we’re seeing some signs that the momentum that you guys have been enjoying is triggering a bit of a kind of a competitive response at some of the other kind of brokerages with similar models to yours, in terms of them having to kind of sweeten the value prop for their agents. Tamir, I’d be curious to hear about how you think about kind of needing to stay ahead of some of those maybe larger competitors when it comes to kind of the overall appeal or the overall value prop or financial package for your agents? How do you think about needing to kind of stay ahead? Or maybe your willingness to do so or ability to without kind of impacting maybe the margin ramp of the business? And then I just have a follow-up.

Tamir Poleg : Sure. So we are very happy to see other brokerages following our path and doing some of the things that we are doing, I think that, that benefits with the agents. And at the end of the day, everything we do is for our agents. And if other agents and other brokerages can benefit from that, that’s great. We don’t see any need to change anything right now. We don’t really feel that pressure that you’re talking about. We think that we have an amazing offering for agents and a lot of agents are buying into that. I understand why others want to make some changes to be able to offer something that is close to what we’re offering. I think that we have a huge competitive advantage when it comes to technology and it will probably take others a few years to catch up to that.

So not really concerned on that front. But overall, I think that yes, other brokerages are hurting and they’re feeling the pain and maybe they need to do things to kind of alter their value proposition. I don’t feel that this is the case with Real.

Thomas White : Okay. That’s very helpful. And then just second, congrats on the EBITDA profitability. And there was a nice kind of gross margin expansion year-over-year in the quarter. I imagine that the fee model changes were a driver of that, maybe fewer agents or a lower proportion of agents capping. Can you help us think about the potential for gross margin expansion kind of next year like or after — like once you lap the fee model changes? Just kind of curious whether you think maybe by this time next year, things like ancillary, services, Mortgage and Title or maybe even things like Instant Payments might be ramped to a degree where we can kind of continue this upward march on gross margins?

Tamir Poleg : Sure. I can start and maybe Michelle would want to add to that. I think that we have a few initiatives in the pipeline on further monetization of the platform. I think that if you look at a brokerage, the vast majority of the revenue is kind of pass-through. So the agent portion of revenue is not monetized at any other brokerage, and this is something that we’re looking at and just exploring opportunities to monetize that because just think about it Real, and I’m just throwing out a number, closing, let’s say, $500 million, $600 million this year, about 90% of that revenue is passed through. And we think that there are ways to monetize that huge portion of the revenue, and we will be coming up with some initiatives towards the end of the year.