The Real Brokerage has been on a record run for the past two years, tripling its agent count and sales volume all without increasing its back-office staff. However, the foundation of Real’s current success dates back more than 11 years, when brokerage co-founders Tamir Poleg, Yuval Niv and Gal Weiss began building an artificial intelligence-powered operating platform, reZEN.
Tamir Poleg, Real
“Brokerage is a low-margin business. If you continue to rely on humans for processing of transactions, and if you rely on office locations, and if you need to scale while adding more and more headcount, you would probably fail,” he said. “So for us, it wasn’t a choice. It was a necessity. Our ratio is one full-time employee for every 90 agents, and this is due to the fact that we automated so many of the tasks that people typically do at an office.”
Poleg said his team is continually refining the platform and pushing the envelope with Leo, the brokerage’s AI assistant that supercharges the agent and consumer experience through incredibly detailed operations and home search support.
“You don’t have to wait for a human to actually answer the question or go and collect information. Leo knows,” he said. “Leo has visibility into everything that you do at Real — all of your past transactions, pending transactions, closing payments, past support, tickets, revenue share payments, licensing situation, MLS situation. Leo knows everything.”
The CEO said his focus on technology and supporting his agents has helped him tune out industry noise and focus on what matters.
“So very often, people will say, ‘Hey, this company did this, maybe we should do it.’ And immediately we’re saying, ‘No,’” he said. “I mean, if you’re just reacting to what somebody else is doing, you’re following. That’s the wrong strategy.”
Inman: It’s been years since we’ve spoken, and obviously, a lot of exciting things have happened since then. The first thing I’d like to touch on is the tremendous growth REAL has seen over the past two years in sales volume and agent count. How were you able to achieve that?
Poleg: I think that we’ve demonstrated that we know how to grow in good markets and in the worst possible market conditions. We are constantly improving our per-agent productivity, which means we’re attracting agents who are more productive than the industry average. What that tells me is that we’ve built a platform that is compelling to agents.
When we ask them, ‘Why did you join Real?’ we get a few answers. One is the freedom of flexibility. Agents are small businesses, and we ask them to run their businesses however they want, as long as they’re compliant. We give them all of the technology that they need, which saves them a lot of money on third-party tools and time spent on each transaction.
The next thing is the culture we’ve built here. Agents want to be surrounded by agents who support them, who root for them, and who are there, especially now when the market is tough. Real agents don’t compete. They collaborate. Most of our agents are shareholders in the company, so they have a vested interest in seeing their fellow agents succeed.
You mentioned being able to grow in both the good and the bad times. How does your growth strategy differ based on market forces?
I think that, generally speaking, we think very, very, very long term in terms of 10 years, sometimes five years. What [that mindset] enables us to do is eliminate the noise created, sometimes by temporary events, sometimes by market conditions. It gives us a North Star and a way to kind of plan for the future and what agents will need in 10 years, and what buyers and sellers will need in 10 years, and eliminates the need to cater or react to what others are doing.
In terms of market conditions, there are opportunities to win in every market — some of our largest teams are experiencing their best year ever. Even when the market is challenging, people are still buying and selling homes, and we’re focused on giving them the edge they are looking for.
When it comes to noise, there’s plenty of it right now. Before we officially started our conversation today, we briefly chatted about the legal battle between Zillow and Compass. How do you think these things will impact real estate five to 10 years from now? And what does that mean for your strategy as one of the smaller players in the industry?
Good, good question. I think that, generally speaking, there are no winners in wars. And if Zillow and Compass are at war, I think both are losing and will lose. And I think that the entire industry will lose. Instead of showing the amazing ways agents make the American Dream come true and help families, it just shows the negative side of real estate.
In terms of private listings, they — or the idea of them — have been around forever. At the end of the day, it’s about what’s right for consumers. If I were the average homeseller, I would want my property out in the market with as much exposure as possible so I can sell it as quickly as possible for the highest price. That would be my motivation as a homeseller, and I think that contradicts the idea of [a private exclusive].
When this whole thing emerged — the debate over private listings and bypassing MLSs, or even creating a nationwide MLS — for me, that was noise. I think people are underestimating the power of MLS infrastructure and agents’ habits of using MLSs, and I don’t think that can be easily changed.
But I think that at some point, Zillow and Compass will probably settle and return to focusing on their own businesses, and the sooner they do that, the better.
Shifting focus, Real has 100 percent agent tech adoption. I can’t think of another brokerage that can say that.
That’s a metric we’re really proud of. There’s a real struggle to convince agents to use the technology that the brokerage provides, but most brokerages are just buying third-party tools. But adoption for us was about ‘You have no choice but to use our technology.’
You cannot be an agent at Real without using our technology, so that naturally pushes agents to interact with it. You cannot generate a transaction, you cannot close the transaction or get paid outside of the Real platform.
That naturally forces people to use technology, and once they actually use it, they fall in love with it, understand the benefits and appreciate the time saving. They understand the ease of use. They understand the visibility it provides and the 24/7 support available. Everything is done automatically on our app.
So all in all, it’s just a set of benefits that works in favor of the agent, but they also don’t have any other option.
One thing to remember is that everything we build is done in collaboration with our agents. It’s not ideas that came out of nowhere. It’s a process of brainstorming with our agents about what their day-to-day looks like, what they’re missing, what’s not working well for them, where they can actually improve and save time, and creating software solutions.
Our time is winding down, so I’ll ask you the same final question I’ve been asking everyone else: What are you most excited about in 2026? What do you plan to do next year that advances your goals for Real in 2036?
What I’m excited for in 2026, first of all, I care deeply about our agents. And a lot of our agents in the industry are just struggling right now, and I hope that 2026 is just going to be a better year for agents overall, not necessarily just at Real. I think that after three very challenging years of very low home sale figures, hopefully 2026 will bring a change.
I’m excited about everything we’re building on the AI front, and I’m just excited to continue, grow, take market share, become a more meaningful player and deliver value to more agents.
Email Marian McPherson