- 2 hours ago
On this episode of RealTrending, Tracey Velt sits down with Eddie Garcia, founder of Realty of America, a brokerage that stormed onto the Real Trends Verified rankings in its very first full year of business — landing at number 45 by transaction sides, 63 by volume, and 24 among private independents. Eddie shares how growing up in poverty, with parents who were once homeless, fueled his ambition to build his own version of the American dream and ultimately a fast-growing national brokerage.
Eddie breaks down Realty of America’s cloud-based but culture-focused model, anchored by a 27,000-square-foot national headquarters in Chicago and powered by more than 3,500 agents across 24 states plus Puerto Rico. Unlike many legacy structures, the company is built on revenue share and agent ownership, with hundreds of thousands of dollars in RevShare paid out monthly—money that, in the traditional model, would have gone to the broker-owner. He stresses that the firm was intentionally designed to be profitable without mortgage, title, or insurance, operating with no debt and no outside investors.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
Eddie Garcia’s Realty of America debuted on the Real Trends Verified rankings in its first full year, hitting number 45 by sides, 63 by volume, and 24 among private independents.
Garcia’s journey from poverty and humble beginnings fuels his mission to create opportunity and a modern path to the American dream through real estate.
Realty of America runs a cloud-based model anchored by a physical 27,000-square-foot Chicago headquarters, emphasizing culture, collaboration, and centralized support.
Seven founding partners with 170 years of combined experience and $17 billion in closed production still run teams, ensuring leadership decisions are made from a producer’s perspective.
The company is intentionally profitable without mortgage, title, or insurance, operates with no debt and no outside investors, and still posts rapid agent growth across more than 24 states plus Puerto Rico.
He sees disciplined, tech-forward, debt-averse growth as critical in a market defined by affordability challenges, rate uncertainty, and mounting competitive pressure on traditional brokerages.
Related to this episode:
Tracey Velt’s LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/traceyvelt/
Eddie Garcia's LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/eduardo-eddie-garcia-603a858/
Realty of America
https://www.realtyofamerica.com/
Buy one, get one FREE tickets to the Mortgage Banking Summit on October 1st
https://events.housingwire.com/mortgage-banking-summit-2026
Want more from Tracey? Don’t forget to subscribe to Real Estate Daily.
The RealTrending podcast features conversations with the brightest minds in real estate. Every Monday, brokerage leaders, top agents, team leaders, and industry experts join us to share their secrets to success, trends, and the lessons they’ve learned. Hosted by Tracey Velt and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio.
Eddie breaks down Realty of America’s cloud-based but culture-focused model, anchored by a 27,000-square-foot national headquarters in Chicago and powered by more than 3,500 agents across 24 states plus Puerto Rico. Unlike many legacy structures, the company is built on revenue share and agent ownership, with hundreds of thousands of dollars in RevShare paid out monthly—money that, in the traditional model, would have gone to the broker-owner. He stresses that the firm was intentionally designed to be profitable without mortgage, title, or insurance, operating with no debt and no outside investors.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
Eddie Garcia’s Realty of America debuted on the Real Trends Verified rankings in its first full year, hitting number 45 by sides, 63 by volume, and 24 among private independents.
Garcia’s journey from poverty and humble beginnings fuels his mission to create opportunity and a modern path to the American dream through real estate.
Realty of America runs a cloud-based model anchored by a physical 27,000-square-foot Chicago headquarters, emphasizing culture, collaboration, and centralized support.
Seven founding partners with 170 years of combined experience and $17 billion in closed production still run teams, ensuring leadership decisions are made from a producer’s perspective.
The company is intentionally profitable without mortgage, title, or insurance, operates with no debt and no outside investors, and still posts rapid agent growth across more than 24 states plus Puerto Rico.
He sees disciplined, tech-forward, debt-averse growth as critical in a market defined by affordability challenges, rate uncertainty, and mounting competitive pressure on traditional brokerages.
Related to this episode:
Tracey Velt’s LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/traceyvelt/
Eddie Garcia's LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/eduardo-eddie-garcia-603a858/
Realty of America
https://www.realtyofamerica.com/
Buy one, get one FREE tickets to the Mortgage Banking Summit on October 1st
https://events.housingwire.com/mortgage-banking-summit-2026
Want more from Tracey? Don’t forget to subscribe to Real Estate Daily.
The RealTrending podcast features conversations with the brightest minds in real estate. Every Monday, brokerage leaders, top agents, team leaders, and industry experts join us to share their secrets to success, trends, and the lessons they’ve learned. Hosted by Tracey Velt and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio.
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NewsTranscript
00:00It seems like brokerages are making it quicker and quicker into the Realtrends Verified rankings.
00:05And my next guest is one of them. It's Eddie Garcia. He is the founder of Realty of America,
00:11and they rose to number 45 by transaction sides and number 63 by volume in one year of business.
00:21Their first full year of business, they were on the Realtrends Verified rankings.
00:24So I spoke with Eddie about that growth, what his value proposition is, why he thinks they grew so quickly.
00:34And then he also offered some information on really exciting trends that are happening in the industry
00:40and his take on what brokerage looks like moving forward. So enjoy the podcast.
00:56Eddie, welcome to the Realtrending Podcast.
01:00Thank you for having me.
01:02Yeah. And congratulations on your first year. You're already on the Realtrends Verified rankings,
01:08number 24, private independence, number 45 by transaction side and number 63 by volume,
01:15which is amazing for one full year in business. So congratulations on that.
01:20Yeah, no, it was a huge honor and to be ranked with the with the big boys on the big
01:25list. So thank you so much.
01:27Yeah. So you grew up in poverty and now you obviously lead a brokerage. You're focused on growth.
01:34How has your personal story shaped the way you think about opportunity in real estate?
01:41You know, I think when you come from like humble beginnings, you know, both my parents were homeless before they
01:46met each other.
01:47Then they had my brother and myself, you know, kind of always, I think, grew up poor, like majority of
01:51my young childhood.
01:53Um, it really kind of showed me like who had what and who didn't have anything.
01:59And, um, you know, just, just a lot of, um, a lot of memories, not having a Christmas tree and
02:05not having a turkey for Thanksgiving.
02:06And, and that really fueled my, my fire in my belly to, to achieve my version of my American dream.
02:12And at a very early age, I think 12, 13, I knew I wanted to do something in business, didn't
02:17know what it was going to be.
02:18And then at 18, I'm not at 21, uh, that's when I got the real estate bug and, and just
02:23the rest is history.
02:25Okay. So tell me a little bit, you were founded in 2024.
02:29Um, how many agents do you have right now? I had 3000, but that might've changed.
02:35Yeah, no, uh, we're at 3000 and I haven't checked today, but as of yesterday, we're at 3533.
02:42Agents. Okay.
02:43And the company in 21 markets still, or have you added markets?
02:47Uh, I think we're 25, 24 States plus Puerto Rico. So 25.
02:51Okay, great.
02:52We'll be opening, uh, Connecticut, Ohio, Colorado, uh, in the next 45, 60 days.
03:01Okay. Um, so what do you think that growth says about the, what agents are looking for right now?
03:08You, you know, I, I, I haven't done anything differently as far as work ethic, as far as culture,
03:15you know, cause I, I used to have, you know, I, I had realty of Chicago, uh, for 13 years
03:21and it took
03:22me 13 years to do 4 billion, 13 years to do 13,000 transactions. It took me 13 years to
03:28get to about
03:29350 agents. And, uh, what we've been able to do here at realty of America in 23 months to get
03:36to
03:36over 3,500 agents. It's, I think it shows showcases the power of unity, the power of
03:42collaboration, and also the power of the model. Um, you know, at, in Chicago was me kind of making
03:48all the decisions and figuring out all the issues and making all the mistakes, you know,
03:52learning from the mistakes. Now, I think what the most unique piece here is, is I guess all
03:59the, all the massive producers and the massive broker owners and the massive teams that we
04:05collaborated with at the very beginning that joined forces. And now it was seven people making
04:09decisions and, you know, we had 170 years of experience. So that really helped us build what
04:16we built at realty of America. And I think that's the reason why we're having this much success.
04:20That's amazing. And so you, um, tell me about your, your model. What, how would you describe
04:26your business model or your compensation model? Um, it's, it's, it's, it's cloud-based, but we still
04:32have a 27,000 square foot national headquarters in Chicago. So obviously it's different than being
04:37completely cloud-based. We believe in having 80% of our corporate staff working out of Chicago. So that
04:42way there's culture that come to the office, uh, 20% can, can work anywhere. Um, our, we don't have
04:48any offices outside of our national headquarters, but we have tons of team offices because we attracted
04:54the, you know, some of the biggest teams in the country, which that's the reason why we ranked
04:57it, you know, so high in, in your rankings our first year, because we brought, we work,
05:01we, we brought production and volume, um, and those producers already had offices. So again,
05:07different than, than the other models. Um, you know, we're rev share. Um, we, we believe in, in
05:13making sure that not just the broker owner wins, but also the agents win. Uh, last month we paid
05:18$743,000 in one month of rev share. Uh, this month it's coming up in two days. We'll probably pay
05:25close to north of $800,000, uh, which is in the old model that, that profit would have gone to
05:31the
05:31broker owner. Uh, so now being able to distribute this to all our agents across the country, I think,
05:37uh, that's, that's part of the win, uh, giving also ownership to our agents by doing specific,
05:43um, tasks that also is a win and, and, um, all parts of the reason why we're succeeding.
05:50Are you looking at an IPO anytime soon or, um, you know, we're in no rush to, to go IPO.
05:57I think
05:57we're uber focused on growing the U S uber focus on pouring into agents, uber focus on training our,
06:04our teams to produce even more, uh, uber focus on helping the new agents coming into the business
06:10become successful. And I know that if we focus on that, that the IPO will come.
06:15Okay, great. And so you, you built the company kind of the challenge, the traditional brokerage
06:20model. Um, so what part of that model did you feel like was overdue for a change?
06:26So it was my model, right? The, the, I was part of the old model. I was real to Chicago,
06:31a hundred percent owned by me. And I kept all the profits and we were doing about 2,200 deals
06:36a year
06:36and, you know, successful, but I saw the limitations of that model. Um, I saw that there was a changing
06:45of the guard. I saw these bigger cloud-based companies coming into the market and taking market
06:50share. And, um, I could either ignore it, or I could either be part of the solution and decided
06:56to, to build my own cloud-based company. And, um, and I think that that so grateful and so happy
07:03that
07:04we did that because now looking in the future today with all the, you know, like the mergers
07:09and acquisitions and, and how mortgage is coming into real estate and acquiring Redfin. Um, I would be
07:16in a bad spot if I was still real tier Chicago with a brokerage of 300 agents with no equity,
07:21with no rev share, with no growth. Um, you know, but now we're on your rankings and, and doing good.
07:29Yeah. It's a really amazing. I've seen that evolution of, um, kind of the single entity
07:36national brokerage, um, that focuses on maybe teams. Um, and do you have any affiliated services?
07:44I feel like there's a little bit of a move away from kind of those core services or affiliated
07:49services toward kind of a new model. Um, do, do you see that or are you looking at affiliated services
07:57along with, um, you know, just generally having a virtual type model?
08:03So the first thing we did when we, when we, all the seven partners decided to do this,
08:08um, we took about a year off and said, Hey, how do we build a true modern real estate company?
08:15If we build it today, right? This is with 170 years of experience, 17 billion in,
08:19in closed production. Um, we really looked at every single angle, but the most important thing is we
08:25wanted to make sure that we built a real estate company that was profitable. So we focused on building
08:30a brokerage that was profitable without mortgage, without title, without insurance. Um, I see it the
08:36other way. I see a lot of companies are not profitable and they're just chasing agent count
08:40to get into the mortgage business. And we didn't do it that way. Our first year we were profitable.
08:46Um, you know, our second year we expect to be profitable. We have no debt, we have no investors.
08:51Um, and when we decide to add, um, you know, mortgage or title that would just make us even
08:59more profitable. Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting kind of that move away because I feel like more,
09:04um, teams are very profitable. Uh, obviously the margins on a team or a team Ridge, um, you know,
09:12is, is a lot different than the margins on a brokerage. Um, but by bringing in teams, um,
09:18you're kind of exponentially growing your company as well. And I've seen that with,
09:23with several other models, how do you differentiate your model, um, compared to some of the others
09:29that are, that are kind of taking a similar tack, what would be your value proposition different from
09:34them? Um, I think our vision or story, um, I don't think there's ever in history been a brokerage
09:41where seven people, the first starting at seven had so much experience. Um, typically I think if you
09:47look at the history of real estate brokerages is typically two people, or it's a hedge fund or
09:51it's somebody else that's coming into the world and, and telling realtors how to do it. And I think
09:56the reason for us to do this was like, Hey, we're the ones doing production. We're the ones doing
10:00all the open houses. We're the ones that have put in so much in this industry. Why not build it
10:05ourselves? Um, and I think that that resonates with a lot of realtors, uh, to know that the CEO of,
10:12of the company, you know, has sold a ton of real estate, that the president of the company was
10:17the number one realtor on the Wall Street Journal in 22 and 23. Um, you know, we, we still all
10:23have
10:23teams there. I don't think there's anyone on the corporate side, or at least on, on a C-suite that
10:28is not doing production. We're not physically opening doors, but our teams are doing it. Um,
10:34that goes to show that we understand every decision that comes from us will affect our teams as well.
10:39So we make sure that we lead with a lens of a realtor. And so why was it so important
10:44to,
10:45um, operate with no debt or outside funding? You know, I got my license November of 06 and
10:51the crash happened in Chicago, like around 2008, uh, I believe September, October away. And,
10:58you know, I saw some of the biggest players go, go down. I saw some of the wealthiest people in
11:02Chicago
11:03go under because they had everything cross-collateralized and they lost their mega mansions. They lost
11:08their beautiful offices and they lost their brands. And that was such a great learning
11:13lesson for me that it's not always the fastest, or it's not, you know, like to over leverage and try
11:19to grow. So my whole history, I've always been kind of that guy that didn't take out credit,
11:25didn't, uh, over leverage. And it's helped me in my business. My last 13 years in Chicago,
11:30no matter what happened to the market, we were still succeeding. We were still growing.
11:33And now with real team record, that was one of the basic principles that we wanted to make sure
11:38that like, Hey, we're going to do this without no debt. Uh, we saw some of these big, massive
11:42cloud-based companies grow, but they took on massive debt. They gave a majority of their equity.
11:48And now I can almost guarantee that if they go back in time and they knew they would have grown
11:52so
11:52fast, they probably wouldn't have taken all the equity. I mean, given all the equity away or,
11:56um, you know, took on so much debt. So we decided, Hey, I will know growth will come.
12:01Um, but what if we build a company that grows seven times faster than them
12:05with no debt and is profitable and there's no investors. So the investors are not telling us
12:10what to do. Yeah. I mean, I think that's amazing. And so as far as growth, um, you know,
12:18what are your thoughts on, on growth? How quickly are you looking to grow from here? And what is,
12:25what is your plan moving forward? You know, it's, it's uncharted territory. Um, I got to
12:32chat with a past president at Remax and he told him, he told me that it took them 10 years
12:36to get
12:37to 3000. I think EXP did it in eight years to get to 3000 real did in about seven years.
12:42We did it in
12:4217 months. Right. And that's without giving out equity packages. That's without paying for agents.
12:48That's literally just organic growth coming over. Um, so I, you know, we're at 3,500, I think we'll
12:56end the year with, you know, 4,500, 5,000 agents, um, next year. I don't know. It's, it's, it's
13:02uncharted
13:02territory. I never been part of a ref share company. I never worked at a big, uh, franchise. I've always
13:08worked at independence. So this is, you know, Mark and I are just working hard, uh, building relationships,
13:13having fun, crisscrossing the country. Um, I'll tell you a quick story. When Mark and I decided
13:18to build this company, we thought it would take us five years to hit 5,000 agents. And obviously
13:25like in under two years, we're about to, you know, we're over 3,500. So, um, I guess we were
13:31wrong
13:31there, but you know, it's, it was, it was good to be wrong at that in, in this, in this
13:35scenario.
13:36Yeah. With so much competition out there, what, like, what is that magic? What do you think
13:41is attracting agents to your firm or, or teams? Uh, I think that when we talk to, again, um,
13:49you know, coming from the production side and, and talking, you know, producers hang out with
13:54other producers and then top producers hang out with top producers and someone like Mark that did
14:00a billion dollars in one year. It's really, it's, that's a really small circle. So, um, you know,
14:05we started talking to all these top producers, they saw the visions, they saw what we were doing.
14:09Uh, they saw what was happening in the market and, uh, they started saying yes. And what that created,
14:14what was this magnetism that attracted other producers? And I think for history can tell
14:19you that whenever producer moves, the agents follow as well. So it was good. Our strategy
14:24of focusing on top producers. And then that created this magnetism that created agents to follow and
14:29join realty of America. Uh, so let's talk about agent productivity. Do you know what your per agent
14:34productivity numbers are? I don't know for a comp for the company, but I do know who the most
14:40productive organization is at realty of America. And that's the Chats Smith organization. I believe
14:45last year they did about 4.3 transactions per agent. Oh, that's great. And so, um, coming from
14:52realty of Chicago, she turned into a $3 billion business. What were some of the lessons you've talked
14:57about a couple of them, but what are some other lessons you learned that you brought to the new
15:02company? Um, you know, I learned how culture is so important. Um, how stickiness, how taking care of
15:09the people, um, you know, pouring into their businesses, making sure they're successful. Um,
15:15you know, just, just caring about your agents because they're the foundation of whatever you
15:19decide to build. Um, and with a strong foundation of agents, then you can really accomplish some big
15:23things. And obviously that reflects that what we're doing at ROA. Yeah. And, you know, obviously
15:28the, the real estate industry right now has a lot going on. There's a, you know, big consolidation,
15:34there's lawsuits over private listings. Um, we've got new compensation models. We've got pressure on
15:41margins, which is an old story. Um, but where do you think the industry is heading over the next,
15:48maybe couple of years? You know, um, these mergers and acquisitions have happened almost
15:55at every single industry. Um, the airlines did it. I mean, almost every single industry
15:59in real estate kind of was late to the game. Um, I think that there'll be five or six mega
16:04brokers in the future. I mean, you're already starting to see them, uh, with hundreds of thousands
16:08of agents. Um, but I think also with, on the other side of that coin is that real estate is
16:14very
16:14local. And I think the boutiques are still going to survive. I just think they're going to have,
16:18find it harder and harder to compete with a brokerage that's regional or national, uh, one
16:23that can compete across the country. No, um, you know, no franchise restrictions, um, equity
16:32and rev share, uh, everything's going on social media. So it's just, I think that the, the change
16:38that realtors were talking for the last 10, 15 years that, oh, it was going to be Zillow or it's
16:42going to be Redfin or it's going to be this. And it wasn't, it was this. And now you're seeing
16:47the
16:47change literally happening underneath our feet. And, um, you know, I think, I think it's for the
16:51better and, and, um, it'll make the strong survive and it'll make the industry better, make the agents
16:56better, smarter, bolder as well. Yeah, absolutely. I'm interested in kind of the, the next model that
17:03comes up because it's really interesting how I've been in the industry for a long time and I've seen
17:08the rise of, you know, like Keller and the rise of Remax and then the rise of, well, I wasn't
17:13around
17:13for Remax's rise, but, um, but then, you know, exp and compass and now kind of the, you know, kind
17:22of like your model. Um, and so it's really interesting, like what could possibly be next?
17:28I can't imagine what, what will be next. So, um, I think that'll be really interesting, especially
17:35I do believe that change comes in these types of markets where it's not a great market. I think
17:42it's an okay market. Um, it's not the financial crisis, thank God. But, um, but yeah, so I'm
17:49interested in just what changes happen in the industry, whether it's another new model or whether
17:56it's a move away from, you know, full transparency and the listings and, um, yeah, it'll be interesting.
18:06You know, if you start seeing the numbers on, on, uh, RevShare, you start seeing that now it's,
18:12I think 10, 12, 13% of agents are in some form of RevShare. A few years ago, it was
18:17less than seven.
18:18A few years back, it was less than 2%. So, um, I think that, that the next change will happen
18:24once
18:24we're probably reaching 40, 50% of agents being in some form of RevShare, whether it's a one line,
18:28two lines or, or a full RevShare model. And then I think that something else will be created just
18:33because, you know, we're, you know, very, very entrepreneurial spirit, our agents, and I'm sure
18:39something else will come out. Maybe it's a global model. Don't know, excited for that. But, you know,
18:43right now I think this is a, uh, like the, the next revolution of real estate and, you know,
18:48we're excited to be part of that and to be part of the growth and, and to be excited to,
18:52to have all these agents joining our, our office. Yeah. And, and so, um, obviously it's because of
19:00the market and affordability right now, rates, inventory, it's, it's been a difficult market.
19:05So what are the realities that consumers need to understand right now and how should agents be
19:11guiding them? You know, always looking at the bottom line, making sure what they can qualify and
19:17not. Um, I'll tell you that for the last few years, people have been waiting and waiting because
19:21prices were so expensive and rates were so expensive. They started coming down a little bit,
19:25uh, but kind of been going more sideways, but I'll tell you that, you know, people are still
19:28getting married. They're still having kids. There's, there are some are having divorces and
19:32there's only so much that they can hold off on buying a piece of real estate. Um, so I think
19:38that,
19:38that, you know, it's, it's going to have to, the market will start to increase more and more
19:44depending on what happens with the rates. Obviously, you know, with the whole thing in Iran and the oil
19:48prices, that's a big hit on consumers, especially the middle market, because who gets impacted more
19:53by the price of oil is right. Middle America, people that are, um, you know, living, some people
19:59are living to check, get affected even heavily. So with that being resolved, um, and the rates coming
20:05down, I think the market is, is due for, uh, another baby boom. And, you know, we're excited for that
20:10to
20:10happen. Yes, I hope so. Um, so I'm going to do a lightning round of questions. So this is just
20:16the
20:17first thing that pops up in your head. Um, one brokerage kind of rule that you think needs to
20:23be broken. Um, I think the, the world of not investing and not, uh, going into technology,
20:31there are still a lot of brokerages right now that don't believe in tech and, and crazy. It's
20:352026. So hopefully that changes. Yeah. Um, one trait you look for in every agent or team leader
20:42that joins Realty of America. Opportunity. Biggest lesson from starting in real estate,
20:48um, before the crash or a crash. We, we, we touched on it earlier. Um, making sure that
20:55you don't over-leverage yourself. Uh, you grow smart. Um, you know, you, and you build a strong
21:01company. Okay. Um, most overrated thing, um, pertaining to brokerage growth. Uh, age income.
21:08Yeah. Okay. Um, and one word, what drives you? Um, you know, taking care of my people,
21:16uh, making sure that I, I, I a hundred percent understand that there's a lot of people that
21:20depend on me, uh, now thousands, uh, to provide, uh, for their families and make sure that I go
21:26out to work hard every single day to make sure that I make this company better every single
21:30day. So that way they have better opportunities and more success.
21:33Yeah. No pressure. So only 3,500 people.
21:38It's funny because, you know, I tell this to my team the whole time, you know, I'm not the same
21:43CEO I was six months ago or a year ago or two years ago. Cause the guy that was running
21:48a team
21:48of 340 agents is not the same person that's running a team of now 3,500. And so I mean,
21:55once we cross 4,500 and 5,000, you know, we, my, my entire leadership team has to evolve and
22:01become better and better every single day. Yeah, absolutely. Well, Eddie, thanks so much
22:06for joining the real trending podcast. I appreciate having you on Tracy. Thank you for having me.
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