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Real Broker LLC is a virtual brokerage that is completely changing the way Realtors conduct business, and it is revolutionary! I accidentally stumbled across this company and was immediately intrigued and wanted to learn more.
The ad in my Facebook newsfeed claimed they pay 85% commission split with no monthly real estate desk fees!
It sounds too good to be true, so I sought out two Rockstar Realtors with Real Broker LLC so that I could interview them and share my findings.
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Meet Javante Vasquez: Real Broker LLC Realtor
I reached out to Javante Vasquez, of Real, Buffalo NY, for an interview, and he was super helpful in breaking down the key differences between Real and other brokerages. You can watch the video here or visit YouTube and subscribe to my channel for more money, blogging, and business videos!
Visit Javante’s website here, or give him a call if you’re interested in real estate in the Buffalo NY market. He can be reached at716-495-6929.
Meet Jessica Owens, Real Broker LLC, Albany, GA Realtor
I found Jessica Owens after researching Join Real reviews and testimonials online. Of course, they have some on their website, but I was looking for legit reviews that were unbiased.
So I found their Facebook page and reached out to Jessica, who’d left a 5-star review. Here is a bit from our Q&A session:
Q: How Long Have You Been Selling Real Estate? Is This Your First Brokerage Affiliation?
A: I have been selling real estate for 11 years. July will be my 11th Anniversary! I went to work originally with a franchise called ERA.
I wasn’t there for even a year before I moved over to ReMax.
That was more of a personal choice because I knew most of the ladies at ReMax, and I got most of my experience from working with them but because of the fees, it isn’t a place where a beginner wants to start.
I hit the ground running, and, thank the Lord, I was able to, within the first 24 months, move over to ReMax. Nothing against ERA. I still have a wonderful relationship with them, but ReMax was the ultimate goal.
Q: I know the office fees vary per location, but can you give me an idea of how much you were paying per month in desk fees with Re/Max?
A: It was quite a lot. I’d rather not put them on blast because I have such a good relationship with them. It seems very scary, but it worked because you did get 95% of your commission.
It was a big deal for me to make this decision move to Real because I had been watching this company for a while. And I consider myself to be pretty tech-savvy. I enjoy riding the curve, so to speak.
Q: How Would you Rate Real’s Support?
A: When I made the initial contact with them, from the onset, their support team was incredible. Not that my support team wasn’t great at Re/Max, but I think that they focus so much on support because that’s what everybody’s gonna think
“Well, I don’t have anybody local that I can lean on”.
They make it so easy and they are so available to you and I got my commission checks faster than I would with a local office!
Q: Wait…You Get Commission Faster? How is That Possible??
If you do the paperwork early enough, you’ll leave the closing with a check made payable to YOU. As long as the deal funds, the paralegal will scan in a signed HUD and as long as it’s fully funded, they initiate a wire to the closing company and the closing company cuts you a check!
Q: Random Question: How do You Feel About Open Houses? I think they’re a complete waste of time.
A: I’m right there with you! They’re a safety issue and liability issue, both. A lot of people stroll the same houses that are not interested in buying a house. There are some that just enjoy poking around open houses…no big deal.
But there are others that will scope the place out which is a safety issue for you and also for the homeowners if they were to come back and rob them. Those things do happen.
I’ve never sold a house from an open house, other than new construction neighborhood-wide open houses where we have all of them open, and we’ll have a radio station there. We have procured sales that way but regular open houses are just not successful.
Q: Have Others Been Receptive to Real Broker LLC?
The older population of Realtors are not susceptible to this change, and I’ve met with a lot of resistance by switching to this broker because they thought “She’s taking the cheap way out or the easy way out”. And that is so not the case.
You have to be MORE accountable. Your documents have to be uploaded, submitted, reviewed and approved. Everything has to be done because you are not doing a face-to-face thing and having a paper trail.
Everything is digital, so you have to be more conscientious and on your toes because they’ll just send it back. They’re never ugly about it, though. They’re always super helpful.
Q: What type of training is required/offered?
Real does require mandatory sales calls where you call in through Uber Conference, but they’re so informative.
It doesn’t feel mandatory because they’re so helpful. But they’re in the evenings. So they’re not your typical Tuesday morning, 9:30-11 rigamarole where let me tell you, I feel like if I’m in my office, I’m not making money.
I’m not selling and I’m not listing. I had someone tell me this long ago, [click_to_tweet tweet=”‘If you’re spending too much time in the office, you’re probably not making money.'” quote=”‘If you’re spending too much time in the office, you’re probably not making money.'”]
Q: What Else Can You Tell Me About Real?
A: They’re completely app-based, which you know as well as I do, that is where technology is leading us. Everything is on an app. If you’ve got it on an app, then you’re gonna do fine.
And within your app, you literally have your support chat, and it doesn’t matter (any time of day), you can submit a chat and somebody is gonna get back with you.
I think the longest I’ve had to wait for a response was 30 minutes…even on the weekends. Their headquarters is in New York, and almost everyone I’ve spoken with has been in New York, but you also have a managing broker.
And our broker is over 3 or 4 states, and last week I had an UpNest referral that needed to be signed last week, and he had it signed right away and sent back.
I’ve just not encountered any obstacles so far with them, even down to getting paid.
Now they have a form called a CDA that you submit prior to closing, and I’ve not had a problem submitting it after we get the “clear to close”.
I don’t know about you, but around here, sometimes we get our clear to close 5 minutes before we’re walking through the door of the title company.
Once you do close, you can scan in your car: the HUD, a copy of the check, and termite, if necessary. You email it right to them, and they go ahead and start processing your payment.
Getting Paid at the Closing Table
The first two commission checks, I just dropped overnight to them. It cost $6 priority mail, USPS, and as soon as they get your check, they wire you the money.
They also don’t do any integrations or partnerships with any apps or companies that will cost you money as a requirement. Everything that costs money is completely optional. They do Facebook ad campaigns and they have different plans that guarantee you so many leads, but they do all of the posting…every bit of it. They just bill you.
I’m in a very rural area, so they kind of had to take a chance on me. I’m the only agent in my area that’s with them. Now I’m working on doing some recruiting for them, especially since they have the revenue sharing plan and the equity plan.
Q: Ok…tell me about this revenue sharing and equity plan. What’s that all about?
A: I think the equity plan is closed off because they offered it to the first 1000 agents and I just barely got in on that. They’re still fine-tuning it. You basically become share-holders in Real.
Now the revenue sharing plan, everyone can participate in, and for agents you recruit, you get a percentage of their commission up to a certain amount. It seems like multi-level, but it’s not because you’re not having to pay anything in. It’s strictly based on referrals.
I look at the income from revenue sharing like bonuses that I don’t have to think about. If you bring on a heavy hitter, that’s just extra money coming in.
Features of the Real App
Immediately upon joining Real, which costs no money, you get assigned an app where you can create a profile. You link your social media accounts, and they have integration with Yelp and can advertise for FREE with Yelp.
You can add to it and pay for more than what they offer, but I haven’t done it.
You have a listings tab where your listings pop up and an integrated CRM, and they just did a drip campaign marketing tool.
The dashboard shows your level of completeness of your profile, and everytime someone logs into your app or interacts with your social media accounts, it gives you statistics: campaign clicks, leads generated, likes, views, etc.
And you have a pipeline that shows where your leads are coming from, whether it’s Zillow, Realtor.com, Facebook, and if you’re set up with your joinreal.com email address, it’s all linked through the app.
You can send reports and everything with just a couple of clicks.
Q: And this is all on your phone?
It’s all on your phone. Even Dotloop is integrated. You can see in your dashboard what your closed transaction count is, your net commissions, gross commissions, and how much more you need to reach 100% split. And that’s pretty incredible to be able to reach 100% split with no fees.
Q: So there are no sign-up fees, no monthly fees…they literally just take 15% of your commission up to $75k gross commission?
A: YES! I haven’t received a single bill since joining.
Q: How long have you been with Real?
A: This is my second full month with Real.
Q: Have you had support or backlash from the community of Realtors in your market since joining Real?
A: I’ll tell you, they question it, but I have a good rapport with most of the agents. I was a top 3 agent in my market for 9 years straight.
The other two agents recently joined together as a team. We know it’s a dog-eat-dog world, and it can be a nasty, ugly place if you let it be. But a lot of people snub their nose at it and say, “What is THAT?!”
They probably saw the same Instagram ads that I did but didn’t even consider it because it seemed too far-fetched. But when you start doing your research, just like
[click_to_tweet tweet=”The taxi-business, it has forever been changed because of Uber. Forever. And I think we all have to be open to technology or it’s just going to leave us behind.” quote=”The taxi-business has forever been changed because of Uber. Forever. And I think we all have to be open to technology or it’s just going to leave us behind.”]
And because of my experience, I’ve got a pretty strong client base anyway, and they were willing to follow me.
I’ve closed 4 or 5 transactions since I switched to Real. I absolutely adore this company, and every week it seems like they are adding something new.
In Atlanta, there’s a headquarters, and I think you’ll see those popping up in districts. But you really don’t need an office. Everything, as you know, can be done with your phone.
Q: So I’m pretty sure that Real isn’t a part of my MLS either. How did you make that happen?
I actually clicked on the Instagram ad I saw to learn more, and I got a call from a recruiter who was super nice! We did one phone call and everything else was through email. And then I put it off. I just kept checking the website and thinking, “Why wouldn’t I do this? Why wouldn’t I?” It was a loyalty factor…and I was scared.
I had a lot of things happen, so I put it on the backburner until a couple of months ago. I had a lot of personal things that came up and through it all, I managed the transition, but I’m just getting ready to take off and hit the ground runnin’ again.
I’m trying to decide which lead generation platform to use because I did the Zillow advertising at $1100 per month, but I just don’t think it’s fair that they divide the leads and whoever can spend the most money is going to get the majority of the leads.
I think when you have a managing broker who is still out there listing and selling, they’re still competing against you. And with Real, you never feel like there’s anybody not wanting you to succeed.
A lot of times in brokerages like we’ve worked at, you might think, “I don’t think they want me to do well”. I was Agent of the Month every month. It got so repetitive to the point that the broker would stop emailing it out.
Nobody would say congrats, but if someone else got Agent of the Month, they’d make the biggest deal about it. You NEVER feel that way with Real. They want you to do your absolute best. And that’s the way every brokerage should be, I feel. If I’m doing well, they’re doing well.
Q: Did you fear the judgment from your peers doing something totally out-of-the-box?
A: I did, but it was totally unnecessary. I have a good rapport with all agents. That’s important.
My business hasn’t changed at all as far as my interactions with others, and honestly, my business hasn’t changed at all except I do think that they went in and checked out my website.
It has piqued the interest of other agents, and it’s different. But if they were to ask me, I would tell them exactly as I’m telling you today. “What are you waiting for?” I wish I would have done this a long time ago.
Generally speaking, my commissions are anywhere from $300-350k per year, and between the office fees and the advertising, that’s a substantial amount of money I could have saved had I joined a year ago when it first showed up in my Instagram feed.
I would have met their cap for the 100% commission within the first two months of the year.
When I announced the change on Linkedin, I had so many positive messages from people congratulating me, and because I’m the only agent in this area with Real, many agents thought I had started my own company.
Q: Have you gone prospecting for new listings yet since you’ve joined Real?
A: I have not yet because I’m putting together my marketing materials as we speak. Real offers a listing package and a buyer package that is just incredible.
There are many agents that offer techniques, and I’ve started receiving probate leads for free, and it’s very interesting how you can get estate listings.
There’s a wealth of information. I’m blessed to have a loyal following of clients from the past 11 years of business as a Realtor, and I haven’t missed a beat through the transition.
But I say confidently that I’m with Real Broker LLC anytime I’m leaving a voicemail. It’s all about confidence and proudly telling yourself that you’re going to succeed.
Last Question: Have you received any leads since you’ve joined Real?
A: Yes, I’ve gotten leads from large companies that found me for foreclosures/asset management type listings. As my MLS is added to Real’s system, I’ll get the exclusivity of those leads since I’m the only agent in this market (for now).
I’m really looking forward to that!
You can find more information about Jessica on her website. If you’re looking to buy or sell real estate in the Albany, GA area, give her a call or email her.
Real Broker LLC-Brokerage Locations
Real is connecting buyers and sellers in the following states so far:
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- District of Columbia
- Florida
- Georgia
- Illinois
- Iowa (coming soon!)
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Missouri
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- Pennsylvania
- South Carolina
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Virginia
- Washington (coming soon!)
- West Virginia (coming soon!)
I think you can tell from the length of this post that I have done some heavy-duty research on Real Broker LLC, and I am genuinely intrigued by this company.
Real Broker Has Joined the Springfield IL Real Estate Market!
After visiting with these two agents, I spoke with Real Broker LLC and activated our membership here in the Springfield Illinois real estate market! If you’d like more information on the benefits of “joining Real”, you can find info here.
