Global real estate brokerage eXp announced mixed financial results for the third quarter of 2024, with revenue up 2% year-over-year but a net income loss of $6.5 million, mostly due to $18 million in antitrust settlement legal expenses, the company reported during an earnings call Thursday.
However, eXp’s adjusted net income reached $7.8 million, a significant improvement from the previous year. Adjusted EBITDA also grew 15% to $23.9 million, driven by increased efficiency and higher revenue, the company noted.
“We continue to operate the most innovative, agent-centric real estate brokerage on the planet, improving the agent value proposition by leveraging technology like generative AI to help eXp agents and employees work faster, better and smarter,” Glenn Sanford, eXp World Holdings founder, chairman and CEO, said during the call.
Despite a one-two punch of high mortgage rates and home prices continuing in Q3, eXp maintained a strong cash position of $130.4 million and repurchased $35 million of its common stock. While sales transaction volume rose 5% to $50.8 billion over a year ago, eXp’s agent count fell 4% to 85,249 year-over-year.
In response to an investor question about agent attrition, Leo Pareja, CEO of eXp Realty, said the agents leaving are doing the fewest deals.
“More than half of the agents who’ve left eXp this year have left the industry,” Pareja said. “So if you segment it out , close to 77%, 78% of the people who left us had zero to two sales .”
Pareja pointed out that the company has seen 2% attrition among top producers and is focused on retaining those real estate professionals.
“The rallying cry for this year has been ‘where the pro is going to grow,’ and it’s really starting to continue to show in the level of talent we’re attracting in a lot of the programs,” Pareja said.
Although many of the same affordability headwinds that have troubled the market in 2023 and 2024 are likely to persist into, eXp executives expressed optimism about the path forward.
“Our competitive value proposition and continued strong agent NPS score indicate we are well-positioned for success as the market begins to turn. Worldwide, we continue to unlock the international opportunities by supporting tools like HomeHunter.global and our expected upcoming expansion of the eXp Realty model into Türkiye, Peru, and Egypt markets that we announced at eXpcon last week.”
During the call, Chief Marketing Officer Wendy Forsythe, who joined eXp in April, highlighted some of the brand successes her team achieved during the quarter, including a brand update and the expansion of the eXp Luxury division, which saw 94% agent growth over the previous year in Q3.
Near the end of the call, an investor asked what the company is telling agents to prepare for in the year ahead. Pareja said the lower mortgage rates come down (as many economists and trade groups have forecasted), the more buyers will wade back into the market. Meanwhile, we’ll see more rate-locked home sellers come off the sidelines, he added.
“We are bullish going into 2025 versus the feeling we had this time last year from ‘23 to ‘24,” Pareja said.
