Correct, there are REALLY no monthly fees… with REAL, anyway. You still have to pay your board/organization dues.

Before you cap ($12k USD or $15k CDN), there are two transactional fees you MAY pay. The mandatory one is the $40 USD/CDN Compliance & Broker Review (CBR) fee. The second one is part of your annual $1,200 brokerage fee. This one is actually split between your first three (3) transactions of your anniversary year.

Once you cap, then you are no longer paying a 15% split. Instead, you pay a $285 USD/$375 CDN transaction fee UNTIL you reach ELITE status. At that time, the transaction fee drops to $129 USD/$175 CDN.

Every agent at Real is eligible for up to three (3) personal deals per year. Agents only pay a $250 USD/$275 CDN transaction fee instead of the 15% split to Real on personal deals. The CBR fee also applies.

A personal deal is any real estate transaction where the Agent, the Agent’s spouse, a business entity controlled by the Agent or Agent’s spouse, or a revocable trust controlled by the Agent or Agent’s spouse, has an ownership interest.

Once you cap, then you are no longer paying a 15% split. Instead, you pay a $285 USD/$375 CDN transaction fee UNTIL you reach ELITE status. At that time, the transaction fee drops to $129 USD/$175 CDN.

As an added bonus, you are also awarded with 150 shares (current value: REAX). If you are opted in to the Stock Purchase Plan, you’ll have Real’s contribution increased from 10% to 15% (up to $2,250).

Honestly, this was one of my largest concerns. The moment I see a “tiered revenue” structure, my flags go up. But let’s get technical.

According to the Competition Bureau of Canada, a Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) plan “promotes the supply of a product to participants in the plan. Participants earn compensation based on supplying products to other participants or customers. A legitimate multilevel marketing plan has three or more levels of participants.”

Based on the government’s definition, yes, the Real Brokerage allows for a legal MLM plan through it’s revenue sharing program. However, they recognized the flaws in many legal MLM programs and sought to mitigate their risks and negative perceptions. One way they did this is by implementing an “Ethical Agent Attraction Policy” that all agents sign, which curbs the ability to solicit other agents. They also require agents to have a minimum production level of one (1) transaction every six (6) months in order to be eligible for revenue sharing. They also do not allow agents to make special considerations for their network/downline – what is offered to one agent must be offered to all (the “No Silo” effect).

I would also point out that real estate brokerages are, in general, in the business of recruitment – it is the lifeblood of the business. In most brokerages, the “recruiter” is the owner and/or managing broker. Some firms even hire recruiters. The advantage of an “attraction based model” that rewards agents for sponsoring agents is (a) it allows managers to focus on managing, (b) money goes back to agents instead of ownership/staff, and (c) the “cost”/time of onboarding agents is downloaded to the agent who receives the reward instead of onto staff, which everyone pays for in the end at a traditional brokerage.

Yes, you may have heard about Real’s unique “Co-Sponsorship”. Real is always looking at fostering collaborative efforts to attract new agents. Especially as the company grows, many new and established agents are attracted to the company by multiple agents. If you decide to join Real, you can name up to two (2) agents as your sponsor and they are equally responsible for onboarding you.

Those agents will also share the revenue sharing component by approximately half (less a small admin cut).

Not at all! The vast majority of Real agents will never attract another agent to the company and yet will receive more than enough value.

Personally, I see the revenue sharing as a “thank you” by the company for attracting the right kind of agents.

My caveat to this is that if you are top producing agents with a lot of influence in the real estate community, this may be an economic factor for you. Some top producing agents are provided significant incentives by traditional brokerages to make sticking around make sense. Real does not negotiate its terms – you won’t see secret deals based on how big you are. Instead, the incentive is built into the system.

Being completely honest, I think the answer to this is highly subjective. I generally find that this industry will reward self-motivated individuals who don’t require a lot of hand-holding.

Real offers ongoing training seminars and videos fairly similar to other brokerages that I’ve been with. New agents must also be placed with a mentor. However, there is no curriculum for mentorship, so the strength of this program rests on the individual mentor and the commitment of the mentee.

There is definitely a tremendous amount of support and education available to new agents, but in the end, your success will be about “doing” more than learning.

Yes, Real has a mandatory mentorship program for new agents. Each jurisdiction has their own list of approved mentors.

Mentors must have a minimum of 3 years in the business & 20 lifetime deals (or upon broker invitation) while also demonstrating a mastery of Real’s tech stack and local MLS, compliance with company policies, and have the approval of the Mentor Committee.

If you are a brand new licensee looking to join Real, I highly recommend you interview a few Mentors well in advance of finishing your coursework.

Prior to Real, I had been with 6 brokerages in 5 firms. All had been in traditional brick & mortar buildings at different scales (ie small boutique buildings with no/limited office space to large buildings with big bullpens and private offices). I had my own private/team office at 3 of these brokerages – I didn’t really use any of them. I’ve always worked from my home, my car, coffee shops and breweries. I find myself being highly distracted at real estate offices – often by “water cooler” agents.

However, everyone works differently. Many Real agents use the money they save or gain through revenue sharing and rent co-working or private office space in their hometown or with other agents.

I really don’t know. I’ve never been at another cloud based brokerage. I believe that the economics of the model makes more sense and it is likely the way that even “traditional” brokerages will probably have to go. Rent is generally the most, or one of the most, expensive line items on a brokerage budget. This is paid for by agent dues.

I personally wasn’t drawn to any other cloud based brokerage due to the differences in the attraction/recruitment policies and the tech offerings. I also had gotten to know one of the managing brokers at Real very well and I was extremely impressed by his humility, candor and commitment to ethics. This was something fairly rare in the industry in general.

For sure. Our BC office has unofficial weekly virtual masterminds, an official monthly province-wide virtual townhall hosted by our Brokers, and a monthly company-wide virtual “Real Connect”.

We also have regular “IRL” in person events throughout the region. I would say there is approximately 8-10 in person events every year, so there are definitely lots of opportunities to get to know your colleagues.

I would also add that the real “magic” happens on the group chats. The collaboration is next level and it’s not uncommon for online connections to get offline quite often.

Real is GREAT for teams. Even in the great province of British Columbia, where we have fairly strict “registered team” rules, the Real model offers various options for teams:

-Network affiliations: This would be for a group of agents that don’t really act like a team. You don’t advertise together, don’t share confidential information, etc. While you may collaborate in non-public facing ways, neither BCFSA (our provincial regulator) nor Real consider these “teams”.

-Registered Marketing Group: This is your standard BCFSA-registered team, but you don’t yet meet the requirements as a “ProTeam” for the sake of certain benefits. However, a BCFSA-registered team must follow all the rules of the regulator. You don’t need to have a formal agreement.

-Registered ProTeam: this is where we get into some unique value propositions. However, the team must have met a minimum of $5 million in production in the previous year, all team members must have a minimum split of 10% to the team leader, and they must have a formal agreement on file at Real. What this allows for, however, is for Team Members (not including the Team Leader) to have an annual cap of $7,500 CDN (or $5,000 for teams with over 12 agents and $100 million in production).

-Domestic teams: This allows for a domestic partnership/spouse/family team to shared a cap of $15,000 CDN. I personally don’t know all of the restrictions with this other than there is a 2 person maximum, so it can’t be the whole family.

All you have to do is take a look on Instagram to get your answer to this. Real not only allows their agents to get creative, they encourage it. Real IS protective of its brand, so you do have to use its logo properly. Other than that, as long as you meet your jurisdiction’s requirements, you’re free to explore your personal brand.

I have never been at a brokerage with so much community support. However, sometimes it can be TOO MUCH support. For many issues, your knowledgeable colleagues will be able to help out. However, when a Managing Broker is required, you’ll have access to your Manager through our ROAR system in ReZen.

The great thing about ROAR is that if your State/Province has more than one Managing Broker, it’ll automatically link you with whoever is on duty. Furthermore, it’ll record and transcribe the conversation and automatically place it in the appropriate transaction file for future reference.

If your question is more administrative, you can either use Leo, our AI-assistant, or you can send in a support ticket. Alternatively, for a specific transaction, you can chat directly with your transaction team. The communication is all saved with the appropriate transaction file.

No… not yet. Since coming to BC in 2023, they have provided a heavily subsidized version of Lofty website/CRM. However, at Rise 2025, the company announced, following the purchase of Flyhomes Tech, that they will be releasing a version of the HeyLeo AI-integrated website for each individual agent.

Every agent with a smart brand has their own marketing and listing systems, but Real definitely does it’s part to help agents either streamline their marketing or expand their reach.

Creative Studio is Real’s comprehensive portal for all your marketing needs. Through Creative Studio, you can access the Design Center, which provides a wide range of customizable, Real-branded marketing materials—everything from flyers and brochures to social media templates. The platform is powered by MAXA, allowing you to easily create and personalize materials for your listings and brand.

In Creative Studio, you’ll also find ready-to-use social media shareables, national holiday graphics, company milestone announcements, evergreen campaigns, and more. There’s a curated selection of Canva templates for both digital and print marketing, which you can edit with either a free or pro Canva account.

You can use Creative Studio to quickly generate professional marketing materials, helping you showcase your properties and reach more potential buyers.

In the near future, Leo will be able to help you create more types of marketing materials directly, but for now, these tools will help you market your listings effectively.

Aside from these tools, there is what I think is even more important: the power of collaboration. Real’s Instagram account is probably one of the most progressive, agent-focused social media accounts I’ve ever seen. They regularly re-share agent listings and posts, adding to their own dynamic content. On top of this, we have our own “social media content creating” whatsapp support groups and our own agents regularly share each other’s content. I’ve sincerely never experienced a more collaborative office.

This depends on a few variables. First, it’ll depend on your current brokerage. Second, it’ll depend on your jurisdiction/regulator. Third, it’ll depend on your specific situation. I want to be as candid as possible for you, so let’s break it down.

1. I’m not going to lie: some brokerages actually make it painful for you to leave. However, those are in a minority. Nowadays, I would make sure you double check your Independent Contractors Agreement (ICA) to see what the provisions are for terminating the agreement. Of the 6 brokerages I left, only 1 made it especially difficult to leave. Generally speaking though, brokerages want to make sure you’re clear of any debt. Most will sign off on transferring your current listings. For pending deals, Real does offer what is called a “passthrough deal” which allows you to transfer those deals to Real without paying a split. This helps out because you maintain agency (technically if you leave a pending deal, even if you’re getting paid at completion, the agency remains with the brokerage – this can make things legally and logistically awkward). Read more on moving your deals here.

2. Most regulators that I know make it fairly painless, but there are usually some costs. Here in BC, there is a nominal license transfer fee. This can actually be avoided IF you do your license transfer around the same time as your license renewal. There can also be a board initiation fee if you’re coming from another board – although Real is in most regional real estate boards. As far as timeline goes, I’ve seen a lot of different gaps. This is usually the main inconvenience. For a period of a few days you feel like you’re in limbo. I’ve seen BCFSA approve a license transfer in just a few days, but I’ve also seen two weeks – both extremes are, however, anomalies. I just make sure that I’m as prepared as possible either way.

3. This leads me to your specific situation. If you have a LOT of listings, a bunch of pending transactions, and tens of thousands of dollars in advertising out there, this becomes more of a complication than someone with no listings, no deals, and no advertising. Most of us are somewhere in between this. I’ve made about half a dozen brokerage changes at different levels of my career and gone through a wide range of experiences. I strongly recommend talking to your Real sponsor about the best way to navigate this for your specific situation. Or, if your sponsor doesn’t have strong experience with switching brokerages, talk to the Managing Broker – they’ve usually seen it all.

I know why I’ve left other brokerages – but I won’t get into that. I haven’t left Real, so I don’t know exactly, but I can make some educated guesses.

First, there are the standard reasons why people leave any brokerage… or the industry. This would be just the stark reality that 10% of agents fo 90% of the business and this is a really difficult industry. But this goes with any brokerage.

Second, I’m going to throw this back on the agent for this one – you get out of Real what you put into it… moreso than most brokerages. If you don’t show up and be a part of the community, you’re not going to get the full value. This doesn’t mean you have to be an extrovert – I certainly am not. It just means that by being involved, you’re going to experience the maximum collaborative support, the referrals, the (even accidental) attraction opportunities, and more. You’ll also get to learn more about how to leverage all the tech that Real offers and take advantage of the social media connections. The agents that leave are often those who just couldn’t bother to get connected to the family.

Third, I can admit that Real might not be for everyone. If you REALLY need to go into a physical office, for whatever reason, this isn’t for you. If you need to sit down with your Managing Broker at your convenience, any time, all day, etc… you probably won’t get that here. If you’re looking for the cheapest brokerage available, again, this won’t be the place. There ARE cheaper options out there in your market, guaranteed.