The Real Brokerage Review 2026 | Real Brokerage vs eXp Realty | Commission Split, Stock & Revenue Share

The Real Brokerage Review 2026 | Real Brokerage vs eXp Realty | Commission Split, Stock & Revenue Share

The real estate brokerage landscape has never been more competitive — or more agent-friendly. Cloud-based, technology-driven brokerages have fundamentally disrupted the traditional split model, and The Real Brokerage Inc. (NASDAQ: REAX) is one of the fastest-growing names in that conversation. In just a few years, Real Brokerage has gone from a little-known Canadian startup to a publicly traded company with tens of thousands of agents across the United States and Canada, and it's done so by offering agents something that most traditional brokerages never have: a genuine ownership stake in the company they're building.

But is the buzz deserved? Is Real Brokerage the right move for your career in 2026? And how does it honestly compare to the biggest cloud brokerage in the industry, eXp Realty?

This Real Brokerage review breaks down everything agents need to know — commission splits, revenue share, stock awards, fees, technology, culture, and a head-to-head comparison with eXp — so you can make a fully informed decision about your next brokerage move. Whether you're a solo producer, a team leader, or a broker evaluating your options, this guide gives you the complete picture.

What Is The Real Brokerage?

The Real Brokerage Inc. is a publicly traded, technology-powered cloud brokerage founded in 2014 by Tamir Poleg and Uri Resnick. The company is headquartered in New York and operates across all 50 U.S. states and throughout Canada, making it one of the most geographically broad cloud brokerages in North America. Real Brokerage trades on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol REAX, a distinction that sets it apart from virtually every other brokerage agents might consider.

Like eXp Realty and other cloud-based brokerages, Real Brokerage operates on a fully remote model — there are no mandatory physical offices, no desk fees, and no requirement to show up anywhere in particular. The brokerage provides agents with technology, support, training, and infrastructure through a digital platform rather than a physical building. This keeps overhead low and allows the brokerage to pass savings directly to agents in the form of better splits, lower caps, and equity participation.

What makes Real Brokerage genuinely distinctive — even relative to other cloud brokerages — is the degree to which it has built an agent-as-owner culture into its core model. Agents at Real Brokerage don't just earn commissions and revenue share. They earn actual shares of company stock tied to their performance milestones, which means that as Real Brokerage grows, agents who helped build it grow with it financially. That concept has resonated strongly with a generation of agents who want more than just a favorable split — they want equity, upside, and a sense that their brokerage is working with them rather than extracting from them.

Real Brokerage has grown at a pace that has turned heads across the industry. As of 2025, the company had surpassed 20,000 agents and continued expanding its agent count, transaction volume, and geographic footprint year over year. Revenue growth has been consistent, and the company's public financials make it one of the more transparent brokerages an agent can evaluate.

Real Brokerage at a Glance: 2026 Key Facts

Before diving into the details, here's a snapshot of where Real Brokerage stands heading into 2026:

Category
Details
Founded
2014
Founders
Tamir Poleg, Uri Resnick
Headquarters
New York, NY
Stock Ticker
NASDAQ: REAX
Agent Count
20,000+
Geographic Coverage
All 50 U.S. states + Canada
Brokerage Model
Cloud-based / fully remote
Commission Split
85/15 (agent/brokerage)
Annual Cap
$12,000
Post-Cap Split
100% to agent
Post-Cap Transaction Fee
$285 per transaction
Monthly Fee
$250/month
Revenue Share Tiers
5 tiers
Stock Awards
Yes — performance-based
Technology Platform
Leo AI + proprietary suite
E&O Insurance
Included

Real Brokerage Commission Split and Cap Structure

The commission split is always the first thing agents want to understand, and Real Brokerage's structure is one of the cleaner, more transparent models in the industry. There are no complicated tiers based on production level, no hidden splits for different transaction types, and no confusing franchise fee calculations layered on top. What you see is what you get.

The Base Split: 85/15

Real Brokerage operates on an 85/15 commission split, meaning agents keep 85 cents of every dollar they earn in gross commission income (GCI), while Real Brokerage retains 15 cents. This applies to every transaction from day one of your anniversary year until you reach your annual cap.

For context, this is meaningfully better than the base split at eXp Realty, which starts at 80/20, and dramatically better than what most traditional brokerages offer agents — particularly in the early years of their careers when production volume is still building.

The Annual Cap: $12,000

Once an agent has contributed $12,000 to Real Brokerage through the 15% split, they have capped for that anniversary year. From that point forward, agents keep 100% of their commission on every additional transaction closed before their anniversary date resets.

To understand what that means in practical terms: an agent earning $80,000 in annual GCI will reach the cap exactly — $80,000 × 15% = $12,000. Any agent earning above $80,000 GCI annually will spend at least a portion of the year on a full 100% split. For high producers earning $200,000, $300,000, or more in GCI, the cap is reached relatively early in the year, and the financial advantages compound quickly from there.

Real Brokerage's $12,000 cap is $4,000 lower than eXp Realty's $16,000 cap, which is a significant difference. Capping sooner means more transactions fall into the 100% split window, and that adds up meaningfully over the course of a productive year.

Post-Cap Transaction Fee: $285

After capping, agents pay a flat $285 per transaction fee rather than any percentage of their commission. This fee is fixed regardless of the size of the deal — whether you're closing a $150,000 condo or a $3,000,000 waterfront estate, the fee is the same. For agents working in higher price-point markets, this structure is especially valuable because the post-cap fee becomes an increasingly small fraction of GCI as deal sizes grow.

Monthly Fee: $250

Real Brokerage charges a $250 monthly fee that covers access to the brokerage's technology platform, E&O insurance, and administrative support. This is comparable to what eXp charges and is far below the desk fees and monthly minimums agents pay at most brick-and-mortar brokerages.

Team Structure

Real Brokerage has invested meaningfully in building out team-friendly infrastructure. Teams operate under customized cap arrangements that allow team leaders to bring agents under their umbrella with reduced individual caps. The team model is one of the fastest-growing segments within Real Brokerage's agent base, and the brokerage has built specific resources, onboarding paths, and support systems for team leaders who want to build or bring an existing team into the Real Brokerage ecosystem.

How the Cap Compares Across Major Brokerages
Brokerage
Base Split
Annual Cap
Post-Cap Fee
Real Brokerage
85/15
$12,000
$285/transaction
eXp Realty
80/20
$16,000
$250/transaction
Fathom Realty
100%
None
$600/transaction
Compass
Varies (70/30–80/20)
Varies
Varies
RE/MAX
Varies
Desk fee model
Varies
Keller Williams
70/30
$21,000 (market center varies)
$0 post-cap

Real Brokerage's combination of an 85% base split, a $12,000 cap, and a $285 post-cap fee represents one of the most competitive financial structures available to independent agents in 2026 — particularly for mid-to-high producers who can realistically cap within the first half of their year.

Real Brokerage Revenue Share Explained

Revenue share is one of the defining characteristics of modern cloud brokerages, and Real Brokerage's program is built to reward agents who help grow the company by introducing new agents to the brokerage. Understanding how it works — and how it differs from similar programs — is essential for any agent evaluating Real Brokerage as a long-term home.

The Basics: What Revenue Share Is and Isn't

Revenue share is not a referral fee in the traditional sense. When you sponsor an agent at Real Brokerage — meaning you introduce them to the brokerage and they join — you earn a percentage of the revenue Real Brokerage collects from that agent's transactions. Critically, this revenue share comes out of Real Brokerage's 15% portion of the split, not from the sponsoring agent's commissions. The agents in your network are not paying you anything directly. The brokerage is sharing its own revenue with you as a reward for helping build the network.

This distinction matters because it means revenue share is genuinely passive — it doesn't cost the agents you sponsor anything beyond what they'd already be paying in their standard split, and it doesn't create any adversarial financial relationship between sponsors and their sponsored agents.

The Five-Tier Revenue Share Structure

Real Brokerage's revenue share program spans five tiers, with each tier representing one additional degree of separation in your sponsored network:

Tier
Relationship
Revenue Share
Tier 1
Agents you directly sponsor
5% of Real's portion
Tier 2
Agents your Tier 1 sponsors
4% of Real's portion
Tier 3
Agents your Tier 2 sponsors
3% of Real's portion
Tier 4
Agents your Tier 3 sponsors
2% of Real's portion
Tier 5
Agents your Tier 4 sponsors
1% of Real's portion

All percentages apply to Real Brokerage's 15% share of the commission, not the agent's full GCI. There are no qualification thresholds required to begin earning revenue share — as soon as an agent you sponsored closes a transaction, you start earning.

A Revenue Share Calculation Example

Here's what Tier 1 revenue share looks like in a real transaction:

An agent you sponsored closes a $500,000 home at a 2.5% buyer's agent commission. Their GCI is $12,500. Real Brokerage's 15% = $1,875. Your 5% Tier 1 share of that $1,875 = $93.75 from a single transaction.

That may seem modest in isolation, but revenue share compounds as your network grows. An agent with 10 active Tier 1 agents each closing 20 transactions per year at average GCI of $10,000 would generate roughly $15,000 in annual revenue share — completely passive income that arrives regardless of whether that sponsoring agent personally closes another deal.

Agents who built large networks early in Real Brokerage's growth — particularly those who came from eXp or Keller Williams with existing relationships — have reported revenue share income that meaningfully supplements or even rivals their personal production income.

What Happens to Revenue Share When an Agent Caps?

Once an agent in your network has capped and moves to paying the $285 flat post-cap transaction fee, the revenue share calculation changes accordingly — your share is calculated from a smaller fee amount. This is worth understanding so expectations are realistic for months when your sponsored agents are operating post-cap.

Real Brokerage Stock Awards: How Agents Build Equity

This is the feature that makes Real Brokerage genuinely different from virtually every other brokerage an agent might consider, including eXp Realty. Real Brokerage awards agents actual shares of REAX stock tied to specific performance milestones — not options, not synthetic equity, not participation in a hypothetical future liquidity event. Real, publicly traded shares on the NASDAQ that agents can hold or sell.

The Agent Equity Program

Real Brokerage's agent equity program ties stock awards to several key milestones in an agent's career with the brokerage. The specific award amounts and thresholds are updated periodically, but the program generally rewards agents for reaching their annual cap, for attracting agents to the brokerage, and for achieving production milestones. Agents receive stock awards at events like:

Capping — When an agent reaches their $12,000 annual cap, they receive a stock award. This reward is structured to acknowledge that the agent has contributed their full cap amount to Real Brokerage and is a way of sharing the value creation that came with it.

Attracting Agents — When an agent sponsors a new agent who joins Real Brokerage, the sponsoring agent receives a stock award. This is separate from and in addition to the ongoing revenue share that agent will earn from the sponsored agent's transactions.

Elite Agent Status — Agents who achieve Elite Agent designation through consistently high production levels receive additional stock awards and enhanced benefits within the brokerage ecosystem.

Elite Agent Team — Team leaders who build qualifying teams within Real Brokerage earn additional equity awards on top of the standard program.

Why Stock Awards Matter

The practical financial value of any stock award depends on the price of REAX shares at the time of award and what the company does with its stock price over time. As with any publicly traded company, that value can go up or down. However, the concept itself matters in a way that goes beyond the current dollar amount.

When an agent earns stock in Real Brokerage, they become a partial owner of the company they're producing for. They have a direct financial interest in the brokerage's success — not just as a place to hang their license, but as a business they own a piece of. This fundamentally changes the relationship between agent and brokerage in a way that no traditional commission split or even revenue share program can replicate.

For agents who are thinking long-term — building a business rather than just a book — the equity component of Real Brokerage's model is worth serious consideration. Agents who joined Real Brokerage early and have accumulated meaningful stock positions have seen that equity appreciate as the company has grown, creating wealth that would simply not have been available to them at a traditional brokerage.

Real Brokerage Stock vs. eXp's Stock Program

eXp Realty also offers agents a stock purchase plan and stock awards, which has been a significant part of eXp's agent value proposition. However, there are meaningful differences in how the two programs work. eXp's program is more heavily weighted toward a discounted stock purchase plan where agents can voluntarily direct a portion of their commissions toward buying eXp shares at a discount. Real Brokerage's approach to equity is more focused on performance-based awards — agents earn stock by doing what they already do as agents, not by choosing to redirect income.

Neither model is universally superior, and agents who are bullish on one company's growth prospects over the other will naturally weigh these programs differently. But Real Brokerage's framing of equity as a reward for production — rather than something you have to opt into and fund yourself — resonates with many agents as the more aligned approach.

Real Brokerage Technology: Leo AI and the Agent Platform

A brokerage without a physical office lives or dies on the quality of its technology, and Real Brokerage has invested heavily in building a platform that supports the entire agent workflow from lead generation to closing.

Leo AI

The centerpiece of Real Brokerage's technology stack in 2026 is Leo, the brokerage's proprietary AI assistant. Leo is embedded directly into the agent platform and is designed to serve as an always-available support resource, transaction assistant, and coaching tool. Rather than waiting for a managing broker to respond to a question, agents can query Leo for guidance on contracts, compliance, transaction procedures, market analysis, and other day-to-day operational questions.

Leo represents Real Brokerage's bet on AI as a fundamental part of the brokerage model — not as a gimmick, but as a genuine operational layer that allows the brokerage to provide high-quality, responsive support to tens of thousands of agents without building out a massive human support infrastructure. For agents who are self-directed and comfortable with technology, Leo is a significant productivity asset.

The Agent Platform

Beyond Leo, Real Brokerage's platform includes a transaction management system, document storage, compliance workflow tools, onboarding resources, and access to the brokerage's training library. The platform is designed to be mobile-accessible, which matters for agents who are rarely at a desk during the workday.

Real Brokerage also integrates with third-party tools that agents are likely already using — CRM systems, e-signature platforms, and MLS data feeds — rather than forcing agents to abandon their existing workflow for a proprietary ecosystem. This is a meaningful quality-of-life advantage over brokerages that require exclusive use of their in-house tools.

Training and Development

Real Brokerage offers ongoing training through virtual events, on-demand video content, and community-driven knowledge sharing. The brokerage runs regular webinars and virtual masterminds where high-performing agents share strategies, and its annual gathering — RISE — has become a signature event within the Real Brokerage culture. RISE functions similarly to eXp's EXPCON, bringing agents together in person for training, networking, and community building despite operating a fully remote model the rest of the year.

Real Brokerage Culture and Community

Culture is harder to quantify than a commission split, but it's often the deciding factor for agents choosing between brokerages with similar financial models. Real Brokerage has worked deliberately to build a culture that feels more like a community of entrepreneur-owners than a traditional brokerage with its top-down hierarchy.

Much of this culture flows from the agent-as-owner ethos that underpins the stock award program. When agents are actual shareholders in the company, they have a different relationship to its success. They're more likely to recruit well, to help other agents succeed, and to engage constructively with the brokerage's leadership — because their financial interests are aligned, not at odds.

Real Brokerage's leadership is also unusually transparent for a real estate brokerage. As a publicly traded company, Real Brokerage is required to disclose its financials, and CEO Tamir Poleg has been notably active in communicating with agents directly through town halls, social media, and the brokerage's internal channels. Agents who want to understand the business they're a part of can actually read the quarterly earnings reports and SEC filings rather than guessing at the brokerage's financial health.

The community within Real Brokerage tends to skew toward agents who are entrepreneurially minded — people who are attracted to ownership, who appreciate transparency, and who are interested in building something beyond their personal production.

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