A strong housing market helped RE/MAX grow both its revenue and agent count in the second quarter of 2021, though the franchisor‘s gains were somewhat more modest than those of other major rivals.
The company’s latest numbers come from an earnings report out Wednesday. In the report, RE/MAX revealed that between April and June of 2021, its total, global agent count rose 6.3 percent to 140,201. That’s up 6.3 percent compared to the same period one year ago. In just the U.S. and Canada, the company grew its agent count by 3 percent to 85,494.
The report also showed that RE/MAX brought in $77.2 million in revenue during the quarter. That’s up 48 percent year over year, and slightly beyond analysts’ forecasts of $76.05 million in revenue. RE/MAX reported $5.2 million in profit.
Adam Contos
In the report, RE/MAX CEO Adam Contos said that “record financial results in the second quarter were driven by a historically strong housing market, improved performance from our core operations, and contributions from recent acquisitions.”
The report goes on to attribute revenue growth to “increased broker fees stemming from higher total transactions per agent and rising home prices, fewer agent recruiting initiatives versus the prior year, incremental revenue from acquisitions” and growth of the brand’s lender Motto Mortgage.
The report covers the period almost exactly one year after the coronavirus pandemic began ravaging North America. As a result, year-over-year comparisons are looking back at a unique, if brief, slow period in the housing market — meaning most observers expect real estate companies to report significant gains this quarter.
RE/MAX did see significant gains, though in some cases they were smaller than rivals such as eXp World Holdings, which grew revenue by 183 percent and agent ranks by 87 percent, and Keller Williams, which saw its agent count tick up by 9.6 percent.
The company’s stock price initially dipped in after hours trading when the report came out, but shortly thereafter recovered. By Wednesday evening, shares were trading for around $34.50 after hours, up about $0.12 compared to the price when the market closed.
The company had a market cap of $1.08 billion when markets closed Wednesday.
Ultimately, Wednesday’s numbers represent a pattern of steady improvement for RE/MAX. The company’s previous earnings report, published in May, revealed RE/MAX brought in $72.3 million between January and March, and saw a net profit of $1.1 million.
Wednesday’s numbers bested those figures.
Among the other details included in Wednesday’s report is the news that the company increased its number of Motto Mortgage franchises by 29.1 percent in the second quarter, giving it a total of 164 offices at the end of June. Contos added in the report that “we continued to sell Motto franchises at a brisk pace.”
RE/MAX also plans to pay investors a dividend of $0.23 per share on Aug. 31, the report revealed.
Beyond second quarter data, the report also includes stats through July 31. Those numbers show that RE/MAX agent count continued to inch upward, hitting 140,594 by the end of last month. That’s a 6 percent increase compared to the end of July 2020.
Contos ultimately concluded in the report that RE/MAX is on the right track.
“The performance trends we see in our business remain positive,” he said, “and we believe our strategy and investments position us well to continue to capture the opportunities we see ahead of us to drive profitable growth.”
Update: This post was updated after publication to reflect RE/MAX’s latest share price and market cap.
