RealTrending

This week on the RealTrending podcast, Tracey Velt sits down with Steve Murray, founder of RealTrends and a senior advisor for HousingWire. Steve and Tracey discuss the key points from the latest RealTrends GameChangers report on brokerage growth and compare the housing policies and their potential impacts of both the Harris and Trump campaigns. They also examine current activity in the M&A landsc...

This week on the RealTrending podcast, Tracey Velt sits down with Dan Duffy, the CEO of United Real Estate Holdings, and a 2024 RealTrends GameChanger. Under Dan’s leadership, United Real Estate Group has grown over 727% in transaction sides from 2019 to 2024. Dan and Tracey dive into United’s primary focus on organic growth and franchising opportunities, as well as their strategic approach to mer...

This week on the RealTrending podcast, Tracey Velt sits down with Nick Krautter, author of The Golden Handoff and a real estate broker based in Portland, Oregon. Nick shares his expertise on the process of selling your book of business and planning a good exit strategy if you are ready to phase out of your business.  Nick and Tracey talk about the potential challenges and pitfalls you can expect i...

This week on the RealTrending podcast, Tracey Velt sits down with Luis Carrion, the CEO and Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Home Services, California Properties and a 2024 RealTrends GameChanger. In 2022, Luis acquired and took over the firm from the family of the late Bruce Malhern. He and Tracey talk about the growth and restructuring of the company under his leadership these past two years, and...

This week on the RealTrending podcast, Tracey sits down with Stuart Sim, the Vice President of Industry Development at Lofty. Stuart joins us to talk about the impact of the NAR settlement on agents’ business and marketing strategies. Now that the new regulations are in practice, what can real estate professionals do to market themselves effectively? Stuart believes in automating your business and...

This week on the RealTrending podcast, Tracey sits down with Ryan Michaelis, the Chief Growth Strategist at Worth Clark Realty. Ryan shares his journey in real estate and discusses Worth Clark Realty's growth plan and how its strategy has evolved over the past few years amid changing market times. Ryan explores Worth Clark's strategies for recruiting and retaining agents, the impact of the NAR set...

This week on the RealTrending podcast, we sit down with Ilan Bracha, a seasoned real estate broker and investor. Now leading IB Global and The Bracha Team with Corcocan in New York City, Ilan shares his insights on navigating market shifts, the trends he’s seeing working with family offices and how he is preparing for the next business cycle of real estate.. Ilan discusses his current strategies f...

Today, we are bringing you a special crossover episode with the Power House podcast and featuring a great conversation between HousingWire’s CEO Clayton Collins and someone many of you recognize: Anthony Lamacchia, the founder, CEO and broker of Lamacchia Companies. Anthony shares his career journey from working in his father’s landscaping business to building Lamacchia Realty. He talks about the...

This week on the RealTrending podcast, Tracey sits down with Chandra Etienne, the broker-owner of The Core Real Estate Advisors in Miami, Florida. She is also the elected secretary at Miami Realtors and serves as a Director for Florida Realtors and the National Association of REALTORS. Chandra has built her career and network on the belief in the power of being involved in not just your industry,...

Navigating the impending commission changes can feel confusing, frustrating, and downright impossible. However, it's not impossible. Today on the RealTrending podcast, we spoke with Mark McLaughlin, the Chief Strategist of Compass. He originally joined Compass back in 2018 when the brokerage purchased his firm, Pacific Union for $80 million. He left the Company back in 2021 to pursue other venture...

On today’s episode, we sat down with Rylie Schroeder, an inspiring real estate professional and 2024 honoree of National Association of Realtors 30 Under 30. Rylie is the team lead of Schroeder & Co Real Estate of Compass, which practices out of Houston and Austin. Rylie joins Tracey to discuss the importance of building and nurturing relationships and how she uses a successful 36-touch system for...

On today’s episode of RealTrending, we are joined by Christine Hansen, the broker-owner of Century 21 Hansen Realty, which has been serving the South Florida area for over 38 years. She is also the 2025 first vice president of the National Association of Realtors. Today’s episode discussion focuses on what we can gain from not only our successes but also from our failures. Christine talks about th...

This week, we welcome Travis Robertson to the show! Travis is a real estate coach and the CEO of The Don’t Settle Group, a sales and executive training and coaching company.  Travis believes in the importance of treating real estate as a fully realized business, not just a practice or side hustle. He and Tracey talk about the need for agents to understand and communicate their value to clients and...

On today’s sponsored episode, we had the opportunity to sit down with Jason Mitchell, the founder and CEO of JMG Real Estate, one of the top mega teams on the 2024 RealTrends Verified Rankings. JMG is a B2B brokerage that works diligently with big brands to drive worthwhile business into their company and give their agents high-quality referrals.  Tracey and Jason talk about JMG’s strategy when bu...

Today, we welcome Howard Lorey to the show! Howard is the Executive Vice President and Brokerage Manager of Nourmand & Associates with 24 years of real estate experience. He and his team at the LA-based Nourmand & Associates closed over 380 transactions this past year with a total sales volume of over $693 million to date.   Tracey and Howard discuss how he transitioned from being a professional m...

This week, we are bringing you a fantastic chat with Michelle Berman-Mikel, the owner and founder of Berman Media PD and the developer behind a program called Beyond the Method, which teaches real estate professionals how to use Instagram in a way that helps them grow their business. She and Tracey do a deep dive into how to use and leverage Instagram and other social media to turn superficial fol...

In today’s episode, we have a fantastic chat with Jim D’Amico, the CEO and president of Century 21 North East. Jim is a 2020 RealTrends Gamechanger, touting an impressive transaction growth rate of 179% between 2014 and 2018. Jim shares the one small change that he made early in his career that led to massive growth in his professional and personal life. Jim also discusses his specific approach to...

In today’s episode, we speak with the co-founder & CEO of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP), Gary Acosta. Gary is a real estate and mortgage entrepreneur, public policy advocate, investor, and advisor, who has served on boards for several Fortune 500 companies including Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and JP Morgan Chase. Tracey and Gary’s conversation focuses on Gary...

Today we welcome Sharran Srivatsaa, the president of Real, to the RealTrending podcast! Sharran joined Real in 2022 and has personally overseen the onboarding of over 13,000 agents while Real has moved up to #6 from #11 by transaction sides in the 2024 RealTrends Verified brokerage rankings. He brings over two decades of business and entrepreneurial experience to today’s conversation from several...

On today’s episode of RealTrending, we talk to the newly appointed CEO of eXp Realty, Leo Pareja. He has over two decades of real estate and entrepreneurial experience, and it was just announced last month that Leo was to move from his role as Chief Strategy Officer into the role of CEO, which was previously held by Glenn Sanford. Sanford moves to Chairman of eXp Holdings. In today’s conversation,...

On today’s episode of RealTrending, we welcome Jason Mitchell, the founder and president of the Jason Mitchell Group. In 2023, JMG had over 8500 transaction sides and almost $4.2 billion in transaction volume according to RealTrends verified data. Jason offers insight into the impact of the NAR settlement on the industry as well as the lack of transparency in the settlement agreement. JMG’s model...

On this week’s episode of RealTrending, we welcome two industry figureheads: Thad Wong and Mike Golden, the co-CEOs of Christie's International Real Estate and founders of @properties. Thad and Mike have been in business together for 27 years and are an extraordinary duo. During the conversation, the two talk about their business arrangements and how they’ve managed to get along after almost three...

In today’s episode of RealTrending, we welcome Jason Waugh, the President and CEO of Coldwell Banker Affiliates, who, despite just recently starting in this position some eight months ago, brings to the table many years of brokerage experience at another brand. Waugh talks a lot about the importance of empathy and understanding, specifically when it comes to the challenges of making tough decision...

On this week’s episode of the RealTrending podcast, we welcome Michael Repka, the CEO and managing broker of DeLeon Realty, a Palo Alto-based brokerage with a unique business model of salaried agents.  In this conversation, Mike and Tracey talk about DeLeon’s brokerage model and its place in the market post-NAR commission lawsuit settlement, as well as scalability and sustainability of the salarie...

On this week’s episode of the RealTrending podcast, Tracey Velt sat down with Alex Vidal, the president of ERA Real Estate. Today’s conversation is all about mindset, leadership, and challenging yourself with both personal and career goals. They discuss the power of positive thinking, and he shares his coaching strategies for helping agents develop a positive mindset and master their goals. He als...