Real unveils 'very valuable' shift in rev share program
“A lot of agents are going to make more money,” says CEO Tamir Poleg as Real reduces the threshold to move up in its rev share structure.
Key points:
- Real Brokerage President Sharran Srivatsaa announced that agents will only need five referrals to achieve the company’s second tier.
- This cuts the current threshold in half, allowing many existing Real agents to make more money starting November 1 when the changes take effect.
- The goal is to help with agent retention and recruiting, company leaders said, as well as bolstering “small but mighty” teams.
The Real Brokerage is making it easier for its agents to earn more money. In a change to the company's revenue share model, any agent who has recruited at least five producing Real agents into their network will be bumped to the company's second tier, opening the door to higher compensation and a more streamlined downline system.
The current rev share model requires agents to successfully attain 10 referrals before hitting the second tier. The new model not only cuts this number in half, but it will automatically bump many existing Real agents into the higher tier when the change takes effect on Nov. 1, Real Brokerage President Sharran Srivatsaa said today during the company's monthly video call to roughly 900 participants.
According to Srivatsaa, nearly half of Real's split — or typically 15% of the commission from a transaction — goes back directly into the revenue share pool.
"What this does is it changes the number of people that unlocked tier 2 by over 250%," Srivatsaa said. "Just think about that number — I know that is very valuable for all of you. This unlocks immediate network effects for everybody."
Srivatsaa cited several reasons for making the change: It gives more agents the ability to access profit sharing, it will help with recruiting, and it will bolster smaller teams, he said.
"We're going to start to see more small and mighty teams because that's the way we're seeing people service clients in a much better way," Srivatsaa said.
Additionally, Real is launching an opt-in "Attraction Accelerator" to help agents get to the magic "five referrals" number more quickly. Once an agent hits the company's second tier, they will "graduate" from the accelerator.
"We're going to teach you how to attract the right way, how to attract the kind way, how to attract the fair way, and how to attract the supportive way," Srivatsaa said.
Along with the changes comes a need to refocus on sponsor quality and ethics, Srivatsaa added. The company is currently exploring and working on rolling out a "sponsor creed" that will help reinforce sponsor responsibility, he said. The hope is to have a more standardized and formal framework that guides sponsors going forward, Srivatsaa said.
The move comes just a couple of weeks after Keller Williams announced a major overhaul of its profit-sharing system that would dramatically reduce compensation for agents who are leaving the company. The change is designed to reward agents who stay with the company, or who come back within six months after the policy change takes effect.
But Real sees its move as a game-changer for its agent recruitment and retention efforts. During its second quarter earnings call, Real noted that its agent count, then at 11,500, had doubled from the year before.
"[The rev share change] is going to help with retention because a lot of agents are going to make more money," CEO Tamir Poleg said during the call. "The bottom line is that there's just going to be more revenue share spread to more people, which is the most exciting thing for all of us."