The fast-growing real estate firm The Real Brokerage just added to its agent count. Salt Lake City-based agent and team leader Dustin Brohm announced Monday that he and his teamerage, the Massive Agent Team, are leaving eXp Realty to join Real.
Brohm and his team have been with eXp since 2018. The Massive Agent team has roughly 340 agents in 36 states and three countries, and Brohm said he expects roughly half of the team members to make the move with him to Real over the next few months.
“eXp is a great company, but it has gotten a bit bloated and there is so much red tape that things have gotten difficult for myself and some of my agents,” Brohm said of his decision to leave the firm. “We just no longer felt that it was the best brokerage for what we are building.”
According to Brohm, the move to Real was partially inspired by his mentor Clayton Gits, a former eXp team leader who also chose to move to Real earlier this year.
“For years I discounted Real, but once I took my eXp jersey off and looked at things objectively, and asked what the best place for our people and our agents is, the answer was overwhelmingly Real,” Brohm said.
Brohm also noted some of the reputational challenges eXp is currently facing with the three sexual assault lawsuits the firm has been named in.
“When The New York Times is writing about it, it is not good,” Brohm said. “Some of my agents have told me that their clients want to list their property with us, but they did not want to put an eXp sign up in their front yard because of the reputation.”
At Real, Brohm is looking forward to more opportunities for himself and his agents to grow their business.
“Real operates as one big company,” Brohm said. “At eXp we operate in silos, and it is collaborative within each silo, but it means that not all resources are available to all agents. That openness is just incredible. Agents become collaborators versus competitors.”
As of mid-February 2024, Real had more than 15,000 agents nationwide, up from 8,200 agents at the start of 2023. In 2023, the firm recorded revenue of $689.2 million, up 81% annually, and a net loss of $27.5 million, which is slightly larger than the $20.6 million net loss it reported in 2022.