The moment has arrived — the moment to take charge. This summer, at Inman Connect Las Vegas, July 30-Aug. 1, 2024, experience the complete reinvention of the most important event in real estate. Join your peers and the industry’s best as we shape the future — together. Learn more.
EXp Realty paid $232.6 million in revenue share and equity benefits to agents and brokers in 2023, according to the company’s annual program update published Monday. The lion’s share of the payouts — $197.9 million — came from revenue share. The remaining $34.7 million came from 2.2 million EXPI stock shares.
Revenue share payouts are based on the number of productive agents a current eXp agent or broker sponsors, and equity shares are given when agents and brokers meet certain key performance indicators, such as hitting the full commission cap. Agents can also enroll to be paid 5 percent of every transaction commission in stock purchased at a 10 percent discount.
Glenn Sanford
“Our mission is simple: empower agents to succeed and solve their biggest pain points,” eXp Realty founder and CEO Glenn Sanford said in a prepared statement. “Before we created this company, real estate agents were not offered any meaningful ownership in the brokerages they were part of, so we built eXp to compensate our agents for their contributions to our growth.”
“We’re not just a brokerage, we’re a community of forward-thinkers committed to shared growth opportunities,” he added. “Despite market challenges, our resilient model continues to thrive, proving that when our agents succeed, we all do.”
This year’s revenue share was a 4.86 percent decrease from 2022 when eXp doled out $244.5 million in revenue share and equity benefits. More than $200 million came from revenue share and $42.5 million came from equity benefits. The 2022 revenue and equity share was 20 percent above 2021’s total of roughly $162 million.
The decline in revenue share and equity benefits stems from the company’s 2023 performance.
EXp’s latest earnings report revealed the virtual brokerage’s full-year revenue declined 7 percent to $4.3 billion. The company’s profitability took a 180-degree turn from a $15.4 million net income in 2022 to a $9 million net loss in 2023. The company’s earnings per share also suffered, dropping $0.02 or 118 percent.
A previous Inman article outlined eXp’s rocky journey on the stock market. The company’s shares traded in the mid-$13 range during the first quarter of 2023 before rebounding to $25 per share by Q3. However, shares slid again before ticking up in December and falling back to the $12 range this year.
“Our unique approach to agent compensation and equity ownership is a testament to our belief in shared success,” Sanford said.” As we continue to build in the evolving real estate landscape, our focus remains on empowering agents, fostering their growth, and ensuring they have a significant stake in the collective success of our company.”
Although Sanford has made the revenue and equity share program a crown jewel, a recent lawsuit suggests that the compensation structure opens the door for those who benefit from it to ignore problem behavior when it occurs in their downline.
Four former female real estate agents have said that Sanford and other leaders overlooked the actions of two male agents who were in the top tiers of the revenue share program.
Fabiola Acevedo, Tami Sims, Christiana Lundy and another woman who is referred to as Jane Doe 3, said in a 2023 and 2024 complaint that eXp Realty “violated a federal sex trafficking law by turning a blind eye” to the actions of former agents David Golden and Michael Bjorkman.
The plaintiffs said Golden and Bjorkman invited female agents to industry and eXp events under the guise of networking. However, the plaintiffs claim Golden and Bjorkman instead drugged and sexually assaulted the women they invited.
The plaintiffs said Sanford and eXp team leader Brent Gove ignored claims against Golden and Bjorkman since they financially benefitted from Golden and Bjorkman’s production.
“By choosing to allow defendant Golden and defendant Bjorkman’s behavior to go unchecked for years simply so they could continue to reap the financial benefits provided by defendant Bjorkman and defendant Golden, defendant eXp Realty, defendant Gove and Defendant Sanford were complicit in allowing assaults to occur,” the complaint read.
An eXp spokesperson told Inman in March that Bjorkman and Golden were never eXp employees and the company “has zero tolerance for abuse, harassment, or misconduct of any kind — including by the independent real estate agents who use our services.”
