Above, from left, John Featherston, Vanessa Bergmark, OB Jacobi, Bess Freedman and Christina Pappas at LeadingRE’s LIMITLESS conference March 3.
Calling 2026 “a Renaissance year” in real estate, a time of opportunity unlike we’ve had in the last several years, RISMedia Founder and CEO John Featherston recently led an “Industry Outlook” panel with four leaders of prominent independent brokerages who shared their thoughts about the challenges and opportunities in the year ahead.
Joining the panel, held during Leading Real Estate Companies of the World’s (LeadingRE) 2026 LIMITLESS conference March 2-4 at Wynn Las Vegas, were Vanessa Bergmark, owner and CEO of Red Oak Realty in California; OB Jacobi, president of Windermere Real Estate in Washington; Bess Freedman, CEO of Brown Harris Stevens in New York; and Christina Pappas, president of The Keyes Company and Illustrated Properties in Florida.
The broader event brought together real estate professionals from nearly 30 countries for a dynamic series of educational and networking events designed to advance performance across all areas of the industry.
Several targeted learning opportunities were offered to brokerage leaders, sales professionals, luxury specialists, marketers and relocation experts, with a focus on innovation, business growth, consumer trends and the future of real estate. Across the conference, attendees explored topics including artificial intelligence, marketing strategy, lead generation, operational excellence, brand positioning, high-net-worth consumer trends and evolving buyer and seller expectations. The program’s combined keynote presentations, member-led case studies and peer discussions offered both strategic perspectives and practical takeaways.
Keynote speakers at the event included Mike Walsh, a futurist specializing in AI-powered business transformation; Jon Dorenbos, former NFL Pro-Bowler and “America’s Got Talent” finalist, who spoke on resilience, leadership and performance; and Kim Lear, a demographic researcher who addressed shifts in consumer behavior and generational trends.
“LIMITLESS reflects the strength and diversity of our global community,” said LeadingRE president and CEO Paul Boomsma. “By bringing together leaders, agents and specialists from across our network, we create an environment where ideas are shared openly, relationships are strengthened and members gain insight they can immediately apply in their businesses and in service to their clients.”
During Featherston’s session, the four industry leaders discussed several timely topics including succeeding and thriving as independent firms and agents amid mass consolidation, private listing networks, agent development, AI and more. Here is part of their Q&A:
John Featherston: Amid the industry mergers, acquisitions, private listing networks and real estate portal wars, how are you approaching these challenges—and where do you see the opportunities?
Vanessa Bergmark: I think there’s a great opportunity to just dig deep into what you’re doing correctly and then having that voice. Right now, there’s so much propaganda everywhere, but there’s a lot of propaganda within the industry of a narrative that is being played out, that it’s got to be this one way. And this kind of group (independent brokerages), what we are examples of, won’t survive. You’ve got to embrace that message. What we’re doing is just doing the same business, not trying to be something we’re not, and then really driving home that message and using that voice very candidly in the market.
OB Jacobi: I got my license in 1989, and what I can tell you is that there is always noise in this industry. And so what this is, will be something different tomorrow, and will be something the next time. For us as a company, we dig very deep into our values. We talk to our brokers a lot about what our values are. When you stick true to that, you don’t have to worry about the noise. For us, growth is finding the right people who share the same values that we have.
Bess Freedman: For us, we are leaning into who we are more. Building trust and connection is crucial to being successful in the real estate space, because it’s an emotional commodity. I mean, many times people are going through challenging times or good times, but they need somebody they can rely on that’s going to give them good advice. All the noise that’s going on today is just a distractor. We should stick to what we do well, which are the fundamentals, and not get caught up in this sort of fake narrative that has been created to dupe the consumer and hurt buyers as well. We have to focus on transparency and fair housing and all the things that matter because if we don’t, it’s going to destroy our industry as a whole. We have to still speak the truth, tell everybody what’s going on and educate them.
Christina Pappas: I’m not sure sellers ever felt like they didn’t have a choice. I think they’ve always had choices. They choose to work with the independent brokers in this room. They choose to work with our agents every single day. We are leaning hard into our agents every single day and looking at how we can support them through their marketing efforts and what the consumer wants. That doesn’t mean not remaining transparent, but helping to overexpose and get the best price possible. And I think overcommunicating to our agents about what we have to offer, what being independent truly means. We’ve grown very organically through mergers and acquisitions throughout the state of Florida. And for us, it’s finding other independents that want to work with an independent brokerage that is led by Main Street, not Wall Street.
JF: Each of you runs incredible firms and you’re constantly doing your best to help your agents achieve success by improving their value in the community. Tell us what you’re doing in 2026 to continue that.
OJ: We are in an industry where we have to be leaders, period, end of story. The landscape changes all the time. And if we don’t take the reins of our own industry and lead through it, then it’s going to slide away, and it’s not going to be what we have worked so hard to build. And so we are constantly talking to our people about things like that, about our values, about the value of being an agent, about the values that we provide to our consumers. I am a strong believer against private listing networks. And the whole reason behind it is that it’s not good for the consumer, period. We have to go out there and fight that battle, and it’s engagement in the industry that takes all of us to do it.
VB: I also think this distraction of trying to fit into this narrative of, “Oh, we’ve got to grow, grow, grow.” One of the biggest problems we have is mass growth at the cost of more growth and more buying. I’m leaning so far out of that. It is not about agent count. It is about the experience between my agents, me, my lifestyle brand, in my market. I’m pulling all my campaigns away from big, expensive, corporate and that media play and going into absolute local everything. Everything is about the return in my community right in front of me with school baseball teams and very hyperlocal.
JF: Christina, you talked earlier about your growth organically and locally. Tell us a little more about your stance on what Vanessa just said and about being led by Main Street not Wall Street.
CP: Our company was started a hundred years ago by someone named Ken Keyes. Ken Keyes tied 10% of his profits to the church. And we’ve continued that in a unique way by partnering with our agents and saying, “You have to get into the community.” And the only reason we all exist is because there’s a community to serve. And so we match dollar for dollar up to a thousand dollars for our agents to go into the community, sometimes even more. And so our goal is to give away over $100,000 each year, meaning over $200,000 into the marketplace, to support what our agents are doing—with little league, their place of worship, school, charity—because each agent is unique, and we know their business is unique. We know if we can pour into the agents as they pour into the community, we’ll be better because of it.
BF: One of the topics that’s important to think about is AI because it’s everywhere, right? And so we have to also make sure as independents, as privately held companies, that we have all the things that agents need so that they can empower their relationships with the technology. It’s important to have technology, but what we do is very much a relationship business. It’s showing up, it’s building trust with people, it’s taking care of them. It’s meeting them where they are. It’s gotten so chaotic today. There’s so much noise. You have to focus on your own race and not get caught up in the noise. We recently had this team join us, they left Compass and joined us, and they said, “Look, we were sick of hearing about lawsuits and debt and mergers; we want to do business. I want to work with my buyers and my sellers and see my colleagues in the office. I don’t want to hear all this chaos.” And I think that’s really important. We have to focus on what we do, not worry about all this other stuff. And so we’re sticking to that plan.
JF: Understanding we’re heading into a significant Renaissance year, what excites you about this coming year, and how are you translating that to your companies?
CP: The world is becoming so focused on technology, but at the end of the day, people still need connections, right? And at the end of the day, this business has been built with people because it is a unique business. And I’m excited about the amount of technology that is going to help streamline our agents while allowing them to continue to do what they do best, which is get out, belly to belly and work with our customers day to day. And that’s what makes a Realtor® unique; they love to be with people.
BF: Because there’s so much tech and AI and all that stuff, people want a more human touch. They want to be with people more. They want to talk to you on the phone. They want to see you. They want to break bread with you, all of those things. A few years ago, a friend of mine, her daughter was killed in a car accident and a year or so later she reached out to me and wanted to sell their home. And so I know that that required so much connection and disconnection from their home and her daughter’s room and all of that. And so what we do is delicate, right? It’s sacred. We’re opening drawers. We’re doing things that nobody else gets to do. And so I remind myself of that all the time. It’s sometimes a death, but it’s sometimes a new baby and all of those things. And look, we only get paid for results, and we have to work really hard, and it’s seven days a week. We have to keep focusing on all the great stuff that we do and not get caught up in the noise.
OJ: We’re a second-generation company, and we are moving into the third generation currently. So I have two kids in the business. My sister has two kids in the business. And to hear the voices of that generation coming in, questioning the decisions we’re making and just everything, our communication, the way we’re talking to people, it’s really refreshing. It’s fun to watch. It’s a reminder of how hard this is. This is not the easiest business in the world. You all know that. And so for me, I’m just really looking forward to actually retiring (panel laughs).
VB: By the time we figure out the next big fight that’s been going on, it’s going to shift again. What I love and what’s exciting is that it’s constantly a game. It’s constantly on. And just when you think that it’s almost over, the game shifts again and someone wins Free Parking and then they’re back in the game with a couple of hotels on your block. In 50 to a 100 years from now, there will be an entire new network of independents on a stage saying, “In 2026, I started my company. I broke off of this thing and I launched this,” and that’s what’s exciting. It’s just never game over.
CP: My father will talk about how he wrote his paper on how Coldwell Banker went public and it was the first of the residential brokerages to go public and it was going to break everything—and then when we put our listings online, and we were going to be this first internet company. There’s always something, right? When we go back and we look, and to Vanessa’s point, it’ll be fun to do. We’re 100 years old, and we’re looking at how do we time capsule this because every brokerage in the entire world is going through this shift. And so the (brokerage) independence will continue to be there because of our mindset and the way we handle it.
BF: I just wish everybody a lot of luck—and stick to what you do best and don’t change what you’re doing or try to be something else because people love authenticity. And whatever you love, lean into that big time. Be you, show up that way because people want to work with you when you’re like that. They’ll recognize that. They’ll see that you’re being real and you’ll have more business and be happier.
For more information, visit https://www.leadingre.com/.
