Another major acquisition, eXp acquiring NextHome, has reshaped the residential real estate landscape—and industry leaders are taking notice. In an exclusive RISMedia Industry Briefing, Leo Pareja, CEO of eXp Realty; James Dwiggins, president of NextHome; and John Featherston, founder and CEO of RISMedia, engaged in a lively conversation centering on the acquisition and what it signals for the future of brokerage growth and consolidation.
Featherston noted that the two leaders actually began having discussions about their joining forces at RISMedia’s Annual CEO & Leadership Exchange. “I heard you talking about the possibilities, and I believe it was about that time that you started considering an opportunity with NextHome,” he said to Pareja, who agreed.
“I think where James and I started to really talk was actually at your event,” he said. “The part that is most exciting for me about this opportunity is that it was a really organic conversation. I had the pleasure of seeing James speak on your stage, and we were just aligned. Normally, it’s a hyper-competitive industry—so he loses people to me, and I lose people to him. But there’s been so much change that the conversation became a friendship and genuine respect, and we ended up aligned on many, many subjects.”
The webinar discussion explored eXp Realty’s acquisition of NextHome as a strategically aligned consolidation of two growing, philosophically similar organizations, emphasizing cultural fit, agent-centric leadership and complementary business models rather than traditional cannibalistic mergers. The leaders described how their relationship evolved organically from industry dialogue into a partnership grounded in shared views on transparency, consumer-first fiduciary duty and support for entrepreneurial agents.
Featherston introduced various topics, encouraging the CEOs to share thoughts on how the deal came together, as well as their views on how consolidations are transforming the industry.
Financially and structurally, the leaders emphasize that parent company eXp World Holdings remains debt-free, cash-rich and majority-owned by founders, executives and agents, with the acquisition funded in cash and framed as “built by agents, built for agents.”
NextHome franchisees, who historically invested without equity, can now participate in ownership by purchasing stock, thereby gaining exposure to all eight businesses under eXp World Holdings and reinforcing alignment between agents, leadership and shareholders.
The conversation also situated the acquisition within broader industry upheaval, including private equity-driven consolidation, ownership changes at major brands and ongoing litigation and regulatory shifts, which are driving agents and franchisees to reassess alignment on transparency, leadership and consumer treatment. Both CEOs agree that the next three to five years will bring significant change, but maintain that 4-7 million Americans will continue to move annually, preserving demand for professional guidance even as technology and AI automate routine tasks.
“One of the reasons that we affiliated with eXp is because of their size,” said Dwiggins. “If this is the world we’re going to play in with private listings, then I want to be aligned with a company that has a hell of a lot of inventory.”
Ultimately, the acquisition is presented as a “bold, dramatic” but deliberate move to build a multi‑model, well-capitalized, AI‑enabled platform that can support agents and brokers at different career stages, preserve and enhance the U.S. consumer-centric real estate system, and position the combined organization as a leading, values-driven competitor amid rapid consolidation and technological disruption.
Key takeaways
- The acquisition is different from other real estate consolidations, as it is a growing company (eXp) acquiring another growing company (NextHome). Pareja and Dwiggins started discussing the acquisition back in September.
- eXp’s scale, resources and capabilities in areas like technology, data and distribution will benefit NextHome and allow the brokerage to do things they couldn’t previously afford.
- Dwiggins and the NextHome leadership team are philosophically aligned with eXp, with agent mindsets and cultures that are very similar. They plan to address the needs of both cloud-based and brick-and-mortar brokerages going forward.
- The majority of NextHome’s members are excited about the acquisition, as it allows them to be part of a larger, better-capitalized platform. The corporate staff is also continuing on.
- The key competitive advantage is the alignment in philosophy and vision, not just the technology capabilities. Technology is a delivery mechanism, but the shared beliefs and priorities are the most important aspect.
Here’s some of what the webinar participants had to say:
Leo Pareja
- “Even though NextHome is a franchise, and we’re a cloud-based company, 100% of their support and leadership is fully cloud-based and virtual.”
- “We have more full-time engineers than NextHome has on their entire staff, so we can spin stuff up if we decide we want to syndicate our data that way.”
- “The person who’s attracted to real estate has to love humans. It’s a highly emotional business, the one we’re in. We deliver a service that is infrequent, and the most expensive of someone’s life during probably the most emotional and heightened part of their life.”
- “Where AI is giving great results is on highly repetitive tasks, which at our scale, we do a lot of them. In the last 12 or 18 months, the dramatic improvements on workflows and processes have all been back of the house, and that’s the interesting lift that we think we’ll provide to NextHome.”
James Dwiggins
- “We chose early on to say, ‘You know what? We can read the tea leaves.’ We know this is where the industry is going to go. We want to put two of the best leadership teams in residential real estate together.”
- “We genuinely think the leadership part and the direction we take the organization is one of the most important things people think about, because how you position yourself in the next five years is going to determine a lot of where you’ll end up in this business.”
- “From the brick-and-mortar perspective, nothing changes. It’s just a matter of what that operator wants, and we obviously are pushing very heavily to keep overhead down because that’s one of the margins that you can control.”
John Featherston
- “Nine out of 10 transactions in the United States are with people choosing to use a real estate professional on the buy or sell side. That’s a pretty good indication of what we do. However, this battle going forward is a battle for value. It’s a battle for trust and effectiveness.”
- “Some of the challenges that we’ve seen NAR and other associations face have created a lot of angst in the marketplace, but there’s also been a shift. The shift is agents looking for leadership, and that has been one of the key components in the growth of eXp and other organizations that are providing a platform that supports their agents to enhance their value.”
For a deeper dive and more valuable insights on the acquisition and other industry topics, check out the full Industry Briefing HERE.
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