The Platform Play: How Real, Lpt Realty Are Reshaping Brokerage Growth

RealTrends Verified’s 2026 brokerage rankings reveal clear momentum for technology-fueled challengers, with The Real Brokerage and LPT Realty again emerging as significant movers.

The Real Brokerage, led by CEO Tamir Poleg, held steady at No. 5 by sales volume with $65.2 billion.

But the company’s more notable achievement came in transaction sides, where it jumped to No. 5 — overtaking Hanna Holdings — and led all brokerages with a 40,749 yearly side gain.

Meanwhile, LPT Realty, headed by founder and CEO Robert Palmer, delivered one of the breakout performances of the rankings.

The firm vaulted from No. 10 to No. 7 in transaction sides — increasing its total to 61,04 and ranking third nationally with a 24,672 increase.

Poleg: ‘Agents follow value’ — not sign-on bonuses

For Poleg, Real’s sustained growth comes down to a single bet; agents will pay for tools that actually work.

“Real is the only brokerage that managed to grow so substantially in 2025 and 2024 as well, while we actually increased our pricing and increased our fees three times in the past three years,” he told HousingWire. “Typically, in times like these, brokerages cut fees and add a lot of concession and promotions, but we did exactly the opposite.”

That strategy, he argued, proves that agents follow value — not the lowest price, sign-on bonuses or recruiting checks.

“We just believe that the model by itself is very attractive,” Poleg said, pointing to Real’s proprietary platform reZEN as the technological backbone of that value proposition.

“reZEN consists of multiple features and products for agents, but essentially it’s like an operating system for an agent business,” Poleg said. “It gives full visibility into the agent’s business and finances on our platform. It’s been a huge, huge driver and we keep adding more layers to reZEN.

Roughly 18 months ago, Real added Real Wallet — allowing agents to open checking accounts, access lines of credit and more.

The results have been striking, Poleg said.  

“We have over 7,000 agents right now banking with us on the wallet,” Poleg said. “Their churn is about 80% lower compared to agents that are not on the wallet.”

That retention metric has helped keep revenue churn at its lowest level in five years.

“We are determined to think very long term,” Poleg said. “That means investing in technology that will give our agents an unfair advantage in the next five or 10 years. We are thinking about profitability, but at the same time, we put a lot of resources into tech development.

“In 2026, our [research and development] budget has increased, but we were able to both grow significantly, lower our operating expenses per transaction, and invest heavily in technology, all three together, which is outstanding.”

When asked about the risk of a growth plateau — a common concern for rapidly expanding firms — Poleg dismissed the idea.

“If you look at the past three years, we were able to add anywhere between 5,000 to 10,000 agents on an annual basis for three years in a row,” he said. “I think that that trajectory will continue. What’s happening right now is a paradigm shift in real estate. Agents are migrating from traditional models such as Keller Williams or Century 21 to newer models like Real and even LPT and eXp.

“Agents today are looking for something else. They’re looking for more freedom, more flexibility, more technology and just a brokerage that is a platform for them to grow their businesses on — rather than a brokerage that you join and you actually build somebody else’s business.”

Palmer: Meeting agents where they are

For LPT Realty’s Palmer, the secret to his firm’s rapid ascent — from No. 10 to No. 7 in transaction sides — is rooted in a philosophy of individualized support rather than a one-size-fits-all model.

“A big part of what we did is we built models that meet agents where they are,” Palmer said. “Instead of trying to force them to be something for us, we try to meet them where they are in their career.”

That approach centers on what Palmer calls an “individual definition of success.”

“Whether that’s an agent selling three, four or five houses a year, or a team leader who wants to build a 2,000-unit-a-year team, we’ve got a plan and infrastructure here at LPT to help them grow and achieve that definition of success,” he said. “I think that’s probably been our single biggest differentiator.”

On compensation, Palmer pushed back against the notion that agent-friendly cap models necessarily hurt brokerage margins.

“When people think about the cap model, if you look at the other publicly traded cloud models, having too many high producing agents is actually more damaging to your margin than our model is,” he said. ”We have lots of high-producing agents. I think we’re submitting 600-plus agents and teams for [RealTrends Verified’s rankings] this year.

“We also didn’t leave the smaller agent behind. We didn’t leave the agent who’s just getting going behind. It’s really helped us balance out the business.”

Recruiting, Palmer said, has been driven by productivity — not just headcount.

“You’ll see in our rankings there, our transaction count grew faster than our agent count,” he said. “Agents continue to become more productive as they get on the platform.”

On the question of a potential growth plateau, Palmer shared similar sentiments to his counterpart at The Real Brokerage.

“We’re the fastest brokerage to ever reach the top 10 — the fastest brokerage to ever reach No. 7,” he said. “But we’ve actually been pretty judicious about the growth. We’re focused geographically and a dominant force in the state of Florida. We’re the number one brokerage by agent count and transaction count in Central Florida, where we originally launched.

“We’ve got dominant agent counts and transaction counts in California and Texas, but there’s still a lot of room for us to grow.”

As for commission compression following the NAR settlements, Palmer said LPT’s average price point in the high $300,000s insulates the firm.

“We’re very much helping the average first-time homebuyer, the average American buy a home,” he said. “We’re not specializing in multi-million-dollar properties, which is where I think you see the most commission compression. The nature of our cap and our flat fee means that we’re really in a great position to [hit financial goals] and still give the agent plenty of room to succeed if there is a little bit of commission compression.

“But I can tell you to date, we haven’t seen any commission compression happening across our business.”

Steve Murray: Plateaus hard to avoid

Longtime industry expert Steve Murray — senior advisor for HousingWire and founder of RealTrends and RTC Consulting — offered a dose of perspective for Real and LPT.

“They still have room to grow, but the big factor is when you’re the new guy and you have a different model,” he said. “When you’re using equity in your business as a means to recruit agents, sooner or later, you run out of equity, as Compass found out. Sooner or later, you can’t just keep offering your stock to agents and teams.”

On the question of a growth ceiling, Murray was unequivocal.

“Every firm I’ve ever noted in my years of doing this — they use various means to grow rapidly — and every one of them seems to hit a plateau of some kind,” he said. “Then it becomes harder to keep growing at that rate, because there’s always new forms of competition offered out there.

“At their current levels of production, [Real and LPT] would need to quadruple in size to be doing enough transactions to break through to the top three.”

Even if a slower growth period comes for one of or both companies, Murray said what Real and LPT have achieved demands respect and acknowledgement.

“At one time, REMAX was the new guy on the block,” he said. “At another time, Keller Williams was the new guy on the block. eXp was the new kid with the new model and new offerings. They all grew extraordinarily rapidly. Then they all seemed to hit a certain level, and they’ve all kind of plateaued. It’s just the nature of our industry and the way it works.

“Still, [Real and LPT] should be proud of what they’ve achieved, and I’m greatly respectful of what they’ve accomplished.”