There was no cloudy thinking when Eddie Garcia decided to make his move to a cloud-based real estate brokerage. On the contrary, Garcia was about as laser-focused as one could be after having risen from humble beginnings to build Chicago’s 11th largest real estate company—only to shut it down to launch Realty of America (ROA) in 2024.
ROA has grown exponentially since then, currently ranking No. 57 in RISMedia’s 2026 Power Broker Report for total residential sales volume in 2025 and No. 41 for total residential transactions completed.
While Garcia’s business success is admirable, his life story is even more so, coming from a dirt-poor upbringing. RISMedia asked him to share his personal saga while also explaining in detail how ROA came to be, how it works and its plans for the future.
Michael Catarevas: How did ROA grow so quickly, and what makes the model profitable?
Eddie Garcia: The growth came from solving problems agents have been frustrated with for years. Agents want better technology, stronger operations, faster support, more transparency and a clearer path toward building long-term wealth. Before launching ROA, our leadership team spent over a year traveling across the country meeting with top producers, brokerage owners and industry leaders to study one question: What would a modern real estate company look like if it were built from scratch today?
We did not build ROA to chase growth at any cost. We built it around sustainability, scalability and profitability from day one. That meant creating a company with no outside investors, no corporate debt and a business model designed to operate profitably from the onset. We wanted the ability to make long-term decisions based on what benefits agents and strengthens the company, not decisions driven by outside investor pressure.
The model scales efficiently because we are cloud based and technology driven. We can expand nationally without carrying the massive overhead associated with large office footprints and disconnected systems.
In its first full operating year, ROA closed nearly $4 billion in sales volume nationwide. That level of production validated both the scalability of the platform and the operational infrastructure supporting it.
MC: What is your model, and how is it different from traditional brokerages?
EG: Realty of America (ROA) was built for the modern agent, not the traditional brokerage structure. Most brokerages were designed decades ago around physical offices, fragmented systems and corporate models where the majority of the upside stayed at the top. We believed the industry was ready for something different.
Our model is centered around partnership. When agents contribute to the growth of the company, they participate in the value being created. Instead of operating in silos, agents become part of a larger ecosystem focused on growth, production and long-term business building.
We also removed many of the friction points that slow agents down at traditional firms. Every ROA agent receives enterprise-level technology, operational infrastructure, training and access to a national network of top producers working together at scale.
Since launching in September 2024, ROA has welcomed more than 3,300 agents across 23 states nationwide, making it one of the fastest-growing brokerages in the country. The growth is not happening because we built another brokerage. It is happening because agents believe the industry is evolving and they want to be part of where it is going.
MC: This rapid success is even more impressive considering your childhood struggles. Please share a little about your past.
EG: My family and I shared a one-bedroom apartment with another family, and I witnessed firsthand the sacrifices my parents made to create a better life for us. Weekly visits to the local food pantry and getting clothes from the Salvation Army were simply part of life. Those experiences had a profound impact on me. My parents couldn’t afford the private college I wanted to go to so I ended up going to a state school. I didn’t like it and dropped out, and I think for a long time my parents felt some kind of guilt. For four or five years they knew I was in real estate, but I think they probably thought I was maybe making $30,000 a year and not growing. But then they started seeing me opening one office, two offices, three, four and five.
When we eventually launched ROA in front of a thousand people in California, it was very important that my parents join me, so I flew them there. They were front row and were able to see that their son went from dropping out of college to becoming an agent, selling houses, opening an office in Chicago, becoming one of the largest brokerages there and now launching a national platform. They were able to cherish that moment, and that was really important for me.
MC: How beneficial for your career has it been to speak Spanish? Was capturing the Hispanic market in Chicago a goal from the beginning?
EG: Speaking Spanish was certainly helpful early in my career, but growing up and building a business in Chicago taught me something even more valuable. Chicago is one of the most diverse cities in America and a true melting pot of cultures, backgrounds and languages. Being able to communicate with people from different communities helped me build relationships, earn trust and better understand the needs of the families we served.
MC: How has your personal journey helped shape the culture you’ve established at ROA?
EG: If you ask our agents, “What’s the heart of the company? Where’s the culture?” It all came from Chicago. I’ve done a turkey giveaway for 13 years in Chicago, because when I grew up, we didn’t have the funds to have a turkey. We wouldn’t celebrate Thanksgiving.
The reason I do a back-to-school event and give 20,000 kids new school supplies and haircuts is because I never had new school supplies. I always had hand-me-downs. Last year we held our turkey event in 23 different markets on the same day at the same time, and that to me was one of my biggest accomplishments. It was getting people from different cultures, from different communities, from different states together to say, “Hey, let’s do this.” It’s all volunteer work and for people to raise funds to give back to the community in different markets with no ROA logo, with no branding, with no registration. That’s culture 101. I think people want to give back. They want to help.
MC: Getting back to business, how does your service level as a cloud-based brokerage compare to a traditional brokerage?
EG: In many ways, we provide more. There is a misconception that cloud-based brokerages sacrifice support. Our experience has been the opposite.
Agents receive transaction support, broker oversight, compliance guidance, technology systems, marketing resources and structured training designed to support serious business growth. But one of the biggest advantages of our model is accessibility and speed.
At many traditional firms, growth can create layers between agents and decision-makers. At ROA, our leadership team remains highly engaged throughout the organization, allowing us to move quickly, solve problems efficiently and stay connected to the needs of agents in real time.
We also built a proprietary training ecosystem focused on every stage of an agent’s career, from foundational sales skills to leadership, scaling teams, leverage and wealth creation. The objective is not simply to help agents close more transactions, it is to help them build larger and more sustainable businesses.
MC: How do you address the churn that has historically been an issue for cloud-based brokerage models?
EG: We were blessed to see eXp being born, and then The Real Brokerage being born. We were able to see what they did really well, and what we would have done differently. When we decided to build Realty of America, we took a full year.
In Chicago, my agent retention had always been 92%. The national average is not that number, and we’ve always led with culture because I know that real estate could be the loneliest industry. You’re working from home if you’re not connected with your leadership. So we really focus on what’s the best CRM, what’s the comp plan, what’s the split? Is there a monthly fee? Why is there no monthly fee? We don’t want monthly fees because there’s such a thin line between success and failure, and if we add an extra $100 a month and you haven’t sold the house in five months, you’re going to be out of the business.
I saw myself in that same perspective that if I would have had to pay monthly fees in my journey, maybe I wouldn’t be here today.
MC: What’s your position on the private listing debate?
EG: I do believe that the listings belong to the agents. But a lot of things are changing. We’re building our own portal. That was one of the things we started doing even before Realty of America was built. We bought Realtyofamerica.com and every time we expand into a market we sign on to all the MLSs, so we’re prepared. It’s not like I went and hired a bunch of executives from Toyota and General Electric to run the company. It’s all real estate salespeople that became executives.
MC: Do you consider ROA a disruptor?
EG: Yes, because we believe the economics of the real estate industry are changing. For decades, the traditional brokerage model concentrated most of the financial upside at the corporate level while agents remained responsible for driving production. We believe the next generation of brokerages will be built around alignment, collaboration, revenue share, ownership opportunities and scalable national ecosystems.
That is where ROA fits in. We are redefining the relationship between the brokerage and the agent by creating a structure where agents can participate in the growth of the company they help build. One of the clearest examples of that is our revenue-share model.
Since launching in September 2024, ROA has paid over $6 million in revenue share back to agents across the company. Our very first monthly payout was approximately $54,000. Last month alone, we paid nearly $650,000 in a single 30-day cycle. That changes the dynamic of the brokerage relationship.
MC: How is your equity-share model different from other brokerages who also offer stock options and equity?
EG: We’re 100% owned by agents and the corporate staff, so that would answer that question.
MC: Is this the future of real estate? What happens to traditional brokerages?
EG: We believe the industry is moving toward more integrated and agent-centric ecosystems.
Traditional brokerages are not disappearing overnight. But agent expectations are changing rapidly. Today’s agents want mobility. Technology. Collaboration. And increasingly, participation in the value they help create.
Brokerages that evolve around those expectations will continue to grow. Those that resist change will likely face increasing pressure around recruiting, retention and scalability.
MC: How has industry consolidation affected your strategy?
EG: I owned Realty Chicago, and we had 350 agents. We never had an issue of people leaving and didn’t have to race to the bottom on a commission split. I had all seven verticals: mortgage, title, real estate school, construction, staging, photography and videography. I also invested heavily in real estate and never had a mortgage even though I bought over 200 homes. I was in a really good spot. To close that company down and open Realty of America was a big, big decision for me, but if you look at it now, it was the best move because there’s never been this much movement in real estate in the last 20 years.
Now Compass is buying Anywhere, Rocket buying Redfin, Real closing on REMAX. You’re seeing this massive shift. Instead of fighting the market trend, we’re with the current and in a good spot.
MC: Who would you consider your biggest competitors, and what’s your competitive differentiation?
EG: I don’t compete with companies, I don’t compete with REMAX, I don’t compete with Anywhere. I don’t think we’re competitors. I think we’re all on the same team because we’re all on the rev-share team. Our job is to let the rest of the agents know, the rest of the industry know that look, there’s two models. There’s a model where there’s a franchise and there’s six levels where people have to get paid, or there’s a model like ours where the agents that are growing the business, they’re doing the open houses and doing the showings, they get to earn equity and they get to earn also profit on what the company’s making.
MC: By the way, congratulations to you and your wife, Brianna, on having your first child. Was it a conscious decision to delay becoming parents as you built your businesses?
EG: Thank you, and yes. Coming from super-humble beginnings, I promised myself that I wouldn’t get married at an early age and wouldn’t have kids at an early age. So I didn’t have a child until I was 40 years old. If you look at a lot of tech CEOs, they tend to be immigrants. When you’re a little kid, you don’t really understand that you’re poor because you’re having fun even if you’re playing with rocks and sticks. But once I became 11 or 12, I started learning that I was poor. I thought that while I don’t know what I’m going to do in this world, I’m going to make sure that I break the cycle of poverty. I promised myself that I’m not going to get married. I’m going to focus on myself and my business.
Thankfully it paid off. I started in real estate at 21 years old. I’m celebrating 20 years this November and now I’ve had the opportunity to get married and provide for my family. My kids will never know what it is to hear their parents worry about paying the light bill or how they’re going to feed the kids.
