RE/MAX Holdings, Inc. Class A

Remax Holdings First Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. My name is Chris, and I'll be facilitating the audio portion of today's call. At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Andy Scholz, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Mr. Scholz?

Thank you, Operator. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Remax Holdings First Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. Please visit the investor relations section of www.remaxholdings.com for all earnings-related materials and to access the live webcast and the replay of the call today. If you are participating through the webcast, please note that you will need to advance the slides as we move through the presentation. Turning to slide two, our prepared remarks and answers to your questions on today's call may contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include those related to agent count, franchise sales, financial measures and outlook, brand expansion, competition, technology, housing and mortgage market conditions, capital allocation, dividends, share repurchases, strategic and operational plans, and business models. Forward-looking statements represent management's current estimates. REMAX Holdings assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements in the future. Forward-looking statements address matters that are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in forward-looking statements. These are discussed in our first quarter 2022 financial results press release and other SEC filings. Also, we will refer to certain non-GAAP measures on today's call. Please see the definitions and reconciliations of non-GAAP measures contained in our most recent quarterly financial results press release, which is available on our website. Joining me on our call today are Steve Joyce, our Chief Executive Officer, Terry Callahan, our Chief Financial Officer, and the presidents and CEOs of our brands, Ward Morrison and Nick Bailey. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to REMAX Holdings CEO, Steve Joyce. Steve? Thank you, Andy, and thanks to everyone for joining our call today. Looking at slide three, we had a nice start to the year. Our solid Q1 performance was driven by strong ongoing contributions from our acquisition of REMAX and Tegra's North America regions, as well as continued healthy organic growth. Some of our notable quarterly metrics include overall REMAX holdings revenue was $91 million, up 26% driven by our July acquisition of Integra, which comprised 15% of the growth, as well as organic revenue growth. Excluding the marketing funds, we had over 10% organic growth, aided by increased attendance at our annual RE-MAX convention. We generated adjusted EBITDA of $27.9 million, up 20.5%, and our adjusted EBITDA margin was a robust 30.7%. Adjusted EPS increased 11% to 51%. Overall, REMAX agent count grew by more than 2,000 agents to over 142,000 agents in total, a new record. And model franchise sales accelerated with the number of open model offices growing by over 27%. Before Ward and Nick provide additional details on their respective business lines, I'd like to spend a moment discussing our strategic operational plans. On our last call, I mentioned one of my two focus areas as CEO is to work with the board and management team to implement a limited number of initiatives designed to increase our near and long-term growth. During the past quarter, we have made good progress evaluating the opportunities we believe will yield the best results, and we are confident about our ability to shape our growth trajectory. Although we're not yet ready to divulge specific details, you can expect to hear more from us soon about these initiatives, their related investments, as well as the anticipated results. The ideas under consideration are closely aligned with our current strategy. We believe in the path we're on. We have two terrific industry-leading franchise brands, each with their own compelling growth opportunity. We think we can make a measurable difference through smart strategic moves, essentially accelerating our growth through institutional focus, accountability, and the proper allocation of resources. Our focus remains on increasing Rematch USAge account and continue to fuel the growth of our expanding mortgage business. Our mortgage business has significant upside. As we've said previously, we think it's a $100 million annual revenue opportunity with marginate cashflow potential that rivals our Remax business. We believe Motto and Wemo are each capable of generating 50 million or more in annual revenue. With respect to Motto, we've sold over 300 franchises to date and have nearly 200 open Motto offices. We believe we can eventually grow that number to more than 1,000 franchises. Motto's unique value proposition is fantastic and we would like to get to 1,000 open offices much sooner than our current growth trajectory forecasts. We think we are up to the challenge. With that, I'll turn it over to Ward. Thanks, Steve. Looking at slide four, our mortgage business is off to a great start this year, as both Motto and Wemo experienced accelerated growth in this first quarter. We sold 17 Motto franchises in Q1, and March was our best non-December month ever for franchise sales. On a trailing 12-month basis, Q1 sales reaccelerated to over 70 franchises sold. For the full year 2022, we still anticipate selling between 60 and 80 franchises and are trending towards the top half of that range. Encouragingly, franchise sales remain solid into April, and we continue to see strong demand across many customer types. We think our franchise sales success is driven by a combination of reasons, including positive word of mouth, increasing market presence, and fine-tuning our sales and marketing incentives, as well as our sales structure, to name just a few. Combine that with our counter-cyclical aspect of our business model, the increasing importance of ancillary business, and our unique position in the purchase market, and we are piquing the interest of many real estate professionals. In short, the secret is getting out. Motto is an incredible opportunity for many real estate entrepreneurs. A big part of Motto's appeal is that many of its franchisees and loan originators, or LOs, work closely with productive real estate agents who have an ongoing purchase transaction pipeline. As a result, Motto has a higher percentage of purchase volume than the industry average, which is increasingly important during a rising interest rate environment. For example, during Q1, the purchase versus refi split across the motto network was almost 80-20. That's up from approximately 65-35 in fiscal 2021, and in contrast to the roughly 40-60 split the mortgage industry did as a whole last year. Given our heavy focus on the purchase market, we believe motto is a very attractive opportunity, especially for productive LOs focused on successfully navigating a shifting market with reduced refi activity. We are actively evaluating how we can accelerate model franchise sales growth. Given the current momentum, we believe that additional investment in sales and marketing resources is likely a prudent allocation of capital. Each sales professional on our team currently covers a large territory, and we think additional sales resources will increase our ability to capitalize on incremental opportunities. Our mortgage business is also focused on the continued development and growth of WeMo, the first third-party mortgage processing solution with an all-in-one digital platform, created specifically for the broker channel. We acquired WeMo in the second half of 2020 to solve one of our motto franchisees' primary pain points, finding steady, dependable, and economic loan processing services. The WeLo loan processing platform is complemented by a highly qualified team of loan processors who focus on the details and streamline the loan processing experience, thereby helping mortgage loan originators close loans faster and freeing up more time for them to bring in new business. During the first quarter, we saw an increasing number of loans processed by WeLo, particularly for the modern network. Last month, we held our annual Motto Mortgage Innovation and Loan Excellence Summit, or the Motto Mile, as we call it, at which Motto franchisees got to learn, network, and celebrate their achievements. Our Wienlo colleagues attended Motto Mile and educated our franchisees about Wienlo's one-of-a-kind offering. The interactions and overall Wienlo presence were well received by our franchisees, and we think the connections made at our convention will only add to Wienlo's momentum. Last quarter, WEMO also announced the addition of a new product offerings to our platform. WEMO is consistently adding processing services for new product and lender options to provide the flexibility needed to deliver the highest level of customer support for mortgage brokers and loan originators. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Nick. Thanks, Ward. Good morning, everyone. Moving to slide five, the busy spring housing market got up to another strong start, according to the most recently next national housing report. Many of the themes which have defined the housing market for the past several months remained front and center in March. High demand, strong sales figures, rising prices, and tight inventory. March home sales jumped 32.2% over February, while posting a report record median sales price of $360,000. As buyers continue to far outnumber sellers, month supply of inventory reached a record low of one month across the report's 51 metro areas. More than half of the surveyed markets reported a supply of less than one month. Overall, the housing market remains very active right now, especially on the demand-heavy buy side. Buyers are rushing to beat anticipated mortgage rate hikes, as well as buyers ready to roll as soon as the right listing appears. Those factors which drive a solid start to the season. Stays on market remains the biggest concern for hopeful buyers. But with sellers watching homes get snapped up in record time, the idea of cashing in on their equity gain continues to have great appeal. As we move deeper into the spring selling season, we expect to see more houses come on the market. Buyers should have even more choice and purchasing power as additional sellers choose to join the action. One other important dynamic is that in many parts of the country, rental rates are increasing faster than mortgage rates, which could push even more people toward buying a home. The higher mortgage rates should also partly cool the historically high price gains we've seen. That, along with an expected increase in new for sale homes coming to the market, should help move the housing market toward more equilibrium, a positive for all. Moving to slide six, the recently published 2022 Real Trends 500 survey revealed that REMAX agents at participating large U.S. brokerages on average outsold competing agents by more than two to one last year. The widely respected report showed REMAX agents averaged 16.5 transaction size, more than doubling the average of other agents from the more than 1,700 participating large brokerages. REMAX agents have held this 2-to-1 advantage for 12 years in a row. The RealTrends 500 ranks participating large brokerages by total residential transaction sides, with 500 sides needed to qualify for participation. Among the qualifying brokerages, 28% were REMAX brokerages, more than any other real estate brand. We are thrilled by the performance of the REMAX brokerages on this prestigious RealTrends 500 list. And for entrepreneurs, productivity is the metric that matters the most, and REMAX delivers year after year. In addition to leading the field in per-agent transaction size, RENAX agents also averaged $5.9 million in sales volume, 61% higher than the $3.7 million average of all other agents in the survey. What's more, when the qualifying brokerages are re-ranked by average transaction size per agent, 86 of the top 100 are affiliated with RENAX. REMAX offices attract productive, driven agents and those aspiring to be. Time and time again, REMAX agents continue to perform well regardless of movements in the market. Looking at slide seven, overall agent count increased more than 2,000 agents year over year and reached a new high of more than 142,000 agents, highlighted by nearly 10% growth in Canada. In the U.S., we're seeing traditional seasonal undulation so far this year. Our agent count dropped in January, a month of high turnover throughout the industry, before stabilizing over the next two months. We've had a positive net gain in agent count across all major geographies so far in April, and we expect that trend to continue. Increasing our U.S. agent count remains our top company priority, and we think we have several compelling opportunities to spur that growth, as Steve noted earlier. In particular, we see opportunities to attract and retain larger agent teams as well as to convert independent brokerages to the REMAX brand, which has the direct benefit of adding agents in larger numbers. We'll have more to say about teams at a later date. Regarding conversions, as you would expect, many independent offices have interest in joining the worldwide leader, in part because REMAX has such a compelling and attractive collection of competitive advantages. We have global scale, agent productivity, brand name awareness, marketing power, and a host of other business building elements that most local or regional operations simply can't match. Our data shows that agents who join REBAC and stick with the brand tend to increase their sales over time. And that's an important message for us to send out into the independent broker community. It addresses a chief concern about agent productivity that holds many of these potential mergers or conversions back. We've empowered and equipped our franchise sales team to generate more activity on this front. As we get deeper into the year, we hope to see more independent brokers working through their perceptions of bringing their agents into our network. Frankly, we believe it's a win-win proposition for all parties involved. We're already well underway with a targeted effort to prove out the concept, and the initial results are encouraging. We look forward to expanding the effort and sharing more successes in the future. With that, I will turn it over to Kerry.

Thank you, Nick. Good morning, everyone. Moving to slide eight, first quarter revenue grew 26% to $91 million. Excluding the marketing funds, revenue was just over $68 million, also an increase of 26%. The increase was comprised of slightly over 15% acquisitive growth and 10.5% organic growth. FX impacts this quarter were negligible. All acquisitive growth came from last July's acquisition of Remax Integra's North American operations, which continues to perform well. About half of our double-digit organic growth was due to increased attendance at our annual agent convention, which we call R4. Last year's convention results were muted due to COVID. Nevertheless, excluding R4, we generated mid-single-digit organic revenue growth, X the marketing funds, for the fourth quarter in a row. Outside of our eight conventions, many drivers contributed to our top-line performance during Q1, including rising home prices, more targeted use of agent recruiting incentives, pricing, and motto expansion, to name the most notable ones. If you exclude the Booge legacy runoff, our organic growth improved by another 50 basis points. Looking at slide nine, our Q1 SONA expenses increased 9.5% to $47.8 million. First quarter 2022 selling, operating, and administrative expenses increased primarily due to higher travel and events expenses, largely from our annual agent convention, higher personnel costs from headcount increases, an increase in acquisition-related expenses, and the reinstatement of the 401k match to pre-pandemic levels, partially offset by lower equity-based compensation expense. Recall that during last year's first quarter, we incurred $5.5 million of stock-based compensation expense due to the one-time acceleration of certain equity awards. Before I get to our outlook, there are two items I want to briefly mention. First, a quick update on our share repurchase program, which we announced in January. For compliance reasons, we did not begin purchasing shares until the back half of the quarter. we continue to believe that buying back our stock at its current valuation is an excellent allocation of capital. Second, regarding rising interest rates and its impact on our earnings, it's important to note that every 25 basis point increase in interest rates reduces our full year adjusted EPS by approximately 3 cents per share. Moving to slide 10, the company's second quarter and full year 2022 outlook assumes no further currency movements acquisitions, or divestitures. For the second quarter of 2022, we expect agent count to increase 2% to 3% over second quarter 2021, revenue in a range of $91 million to $94 million, including revenue from the marketing funds in a range of $22 million to $24 million, and adjusted EBITDA in a range of $32.5 million to $35 million. For the full year 2022, We expect agent count to increase 2% to 4% over full year 2021, revenue in a range of $366 million to $376 million, including revenue from the marketing funds in a range of $91.5 million to $95.5 million, and adjusted EBITDA in a range of $130 million to $135 million. Now, I'll turn up the call back over to Steve for closing comments.

Thanks, Gary. Looking at slide 11, in summary, we are prioritizing our capital to invest in our best growth opportunities, and those efforts will be focused on increasing our U.S. agent count and accelerating the growth of our expanding mortgage business. We believe we are well-positioned to grow, even in a shifting market, and we look forward to sharing more in the near future. With that, Operator, let's open it up for questions.

At this time, I'd just like to remind everyone, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star then 1 on your telephone keypad. Our first question today is from Rich Hill with Morgan Stanley. Your line is open.

Hey, good morning, guys. Thanks for taking the question. I did want to focus on the model mortgage business, given that you led with it.

I think it's sort of an interesting strategy, diversifying your business away from the traditional brokerage and moving into mortgages. But I also note that some of the maybe mortgage broker peers have been under a little bit of pressure, reducing headcount. So maybe you can just walk us through that. why you think you're in a competitive advantage to take share from maybe some of the traditional mortgage finance companies. I was just going to say, we're in, I think, a somewhat unique position, given the rest of our business, that puts us at a competitive advantage in the market that's evolving. Ward, do you want to give the details? Sure. I think one of our biggest advantages is that we're tied to purchase transactions with a large majority of our model franchisees. Seventy percent of our sales are to real estate companies or real estate teams who have the purchase transaction. We call them sort of diamonds in their backyard. And because of that, I don't believe we'll see as much of a downturn as traditional brokers who have been concentrating more on refinances. Ours is really purchase-driven. Even in the first quarter, we were 80% purchase, 20% revise. And last year, we were 65-35 when the industry was 40-60. So we are always ahead on purchase because of the sales that we do to those real estate companies and real estate teams. So I think that's a positive Ramada move forward. Got it. That's very helpful. Thank you. Two more questions from me. I did note that the agent count looks like it's supposed to accelerate over the remainder of the year versus 1Q. Maybe talk through, if you can break this down, between U.S.

agent count, Canada, international. It looks like Canada is doing really well. So where is that acceleration coming from?

And as you think about that, I do note that there was some commentary about – other strategies to turn around USAGE accounts. So maybe put that all together and help us unpack that a little bit. Yeah, so we're in, I think, a good position. Clearly, the Integra acquisition is creating a lot of momentum in Canada, and we expect that to continue. On the U.S. side, we're looking at several different approaches to increase that count as well. Nick, do you want to give more detail? Sure. Sure. As I mentioned in the scripted remarks, we're looking at a couple of initiatives, one of them conversions of independent companies. There is a lot of demand out there currently for independents looking for scale tool systems to be more competitive in the market. And so that pipeline has increased. We've already seen some successes thus far. So I believe that that's going to be a continued trend that helps drive that count. The other thing we announced recently at our R4 conference is a focus on expanding teams. And that has been a component of the industry. We have led a number of teams and team initiatives within the industry, but we're double downing on that. Additionally, we have not closed out the end of the month, so we didn't publish April. But we can say that in terms of the momentum, it looks really good. And even looking so far this month, We are up over 100, and so we're going to drive that and continue to ride that momentum and push those couple of initiatives moving forward. Thank you. And just maybe one more question from me. The stock's been under pressure. Obviously, the broader market's been under pressure. Your prepared remarks paint a very optimistic outlook for the company. Can you maybe just talk through the share buyback program and why not target the stock at this point? Yeah, so I don't want to security give a little more detail. So we are obviously working now buying stock because we believe it's a great investment on our part. And so you're going to see us apply our capital basically in three areas. One to one to grow agents primarily into the U.S., one to dramatically expand mono, and the last will be stock repurchase. And we think that's the best use of our capital. Kerry, you want to talk a little bit about the program?

Sure. So when we look at just return of capital in general from a capital allocation perspective, it's been a consistent capital allocation priority for many years. Obviously, the dividend continues to help support the stock from a valuation perspective, but introducing the buyback has been helpful as well. And when we look at overall return of capital, we really benchmark that as a percentage of free cash flow and really looking to differentiate ourselves as franchises in the States. So kind of looking at that 35% to 45%, they're being a little bit more aggressive within that range right now because, as Steve said, we believe that buying back our shares right now is an excellent allocation of capital given the current valuation.

Thank you, guys. That's it for me.

Our next question is from Anthony Pallone with J.P. Morgan. Your line is open. Thank you and good morning.

The first question relates to the strategic initiatives that seem to be forthcoming. Can you give a sense as to whether this is all stuff that you want to build and organically invest in, or are there acquisitions that you see teed up here that could add immediately to either revenue or profits? Yeah, the primary focus is going to be organic, and we believe that we've got the opportunity and are well-positioned to do that on both the U.S. agent count side and the motto side. However, we are also a company that has shown that we can be acquisitive and be successful at it. The Integra was just a great acquisition for us, and everything has turned out to be better than we had even hoped. And so we will be looking at inorganic products. within those priorities. Okay.

And then just with regards to U.S.

agent count, and if I look at the NAR membership in the last year or so, it's up mid-high single digits, it seems. And you guys have been pretty flattish. What is the greatest competition? Is it a concept? Is it a group of specific competitors? I mean, what do you think is driving this? Well, I'll start, but then I'll ask Nick to give the real details. So, you know, a lot of folks who moved into the market as agents because it's an attractive market, usually those folks don't stay. And we tend to focus on highly professional agents. Our agents sell twice as much real estate as the average broker. And that's where we're going to continue to focus. But there's also some nuances to the market that, Nick, you can give more detail to, I'm sure. Sure. Yeah, I think history is proving itself once again that in a strong real estate market, we do see license count increase. But to C's point, every license is not right for us when we focus on productivity. And, in fact, even what we're seeing right now is a great opportunity, and we've seen this historically as well, that when there's pressure on agents with changes in the market, we become a great solution for agents that have maybe been successful or semi-successful but want to continue even with a changing market. And so we really focus on the productivity and those that want to be productive or more productive. And that's a sweet spot for us moving into where we see some of the shifts in the market this year. Yeah, and I think also if you look at where the growth is occurring, a lot of it is occurring in teams, which is why you're seeing a new energized focus for us on team. Okay. All right, and last one, I guess then for Kerry, can you maybe put any brackets or help us with expenses rolling into 2Q and maybe how to think about it for the rest of the year as well, if there's anything specific there, especially considering you commented about some of these initiatives to build things, add some motto, franchise sales folks, and stuff like that?

Sure. So as you look at the Q1 expense structure, one of the things to keep in mind is we did have a very successful annual agent conference again this year, about 7,000 attendees from across 45 countries. And so that has increased the expense structure as you look at the kind of SONA run rate skew for the rest of the year. So as you look at Q2 and then the rest of the year, you know, expecting that to be down in the kind of $4 million to $5 million range in terms of total expenses going forward for the rest of the year.

Okay. And is non-cash comp in the fives? I think in prior quarters you've talked about maybe something could be in the sevens, but just wondering what that might look like.

sure so specific to the equity-based compensation expense it was a little bit lower this quarter uh just due to the transition uh associated with the ceo role i'm expecting it to be up kind of in the six million dollar range in q2 three and four this year okay got it thank you the next question is from ryan mckeveney with solomon and associates your line is open hey good morning and thank you um

So to also hit on the kind of strategic initiatives, I'm curious, is there anything we should be thinking about from a macro perspective, you know, converting independence, focusing on teams and seemingly more to come don't really seem, you know, dependent on the market? But just curious if we do enter a period of slower housing market growth, Is there any contemplation on how that would or would not kind of alter strategic plans in terms of how you're kind of looking to reignite the U.S. business?

Yeah. We don't see anything, barring a flan event that we don't expect, that would slow down our plans in terms of where we think we should prioritize. And I think the thing to keep in mind, our model is not bulletproof, but it's as bulletproof as you can get. Our compensation from our franchisees is only roughly 20 percent variable so we don't vary that much in this in the scheme of things if if the market slows somewhat which we're not seeing yet uh and if interest rates go places where it does begin to affect the market we're not immune but we are much more uh protected from the standpoint of this, you know, REMAX is a cash flow machine. It will clash flow in great markets and in good markets. And so our expectation is we're going to continue operating sort of in this fashion. You know, we're not looking at changing forecasts at this point. And while we're reading a lot about the markets and where they may go, Right now we're looking at what we think is still going to be a pretty good year, and we're in a position because of our model to last out significantly better than some of the other competitors.

That's helpful. Thanks, Steve. And, Kerry, one modeling, one just to follow up on the operating expenses, in particular the personnel costs. So I guess I noticed in the press release it mentioned higher personnel costs from headcount increases, but – Within the slides, it looks like the kind of total personnel expense was down sequentially in year over year. So is that delta just related to that slightly lower stock comp that you mentioned in the quarter? And, you know, I know it's volatile on a quarterly basis with the personnel expenses, at least over the last year it has been. So I guess, you know, any swings within that that we should be thinking about going forward or, you know, should we think that we're at a pretty decent run rate?

Yeah, Ryan, great question. So when you look at the year-over-year variance, one thing to keep in mind is in Q1 of 2021, we did have a one-time $5.5 million equity compensation charge associated with some one-time vesting of some equity that we issued in conjunction with an acquisition and then the recipients left. And so Q1 2021 was overstated, kind of, if you will, on a run rate basis because of that one-time event. So when you look at Q1 2022 from a personnel perspective, that's probably a more normalized run rate and is kind of included in that total SONA run rate for the rest of the year that I was talking about earlier.

Perfect. Okay. Thanks, Carrie.

The next question is from Tommy McJoynt with KBW.

Good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my questions here. Modo open count actually declined from January to March 31st. Are you running into any issues that is causing an increase in the backlog of sold but not open Modo franchises? And are there any steps you can take to kind of speed up the process a little bit quicker?

Yeah, the biggest thing is...

The biggest thing with us is it tends to be lumpy because we basically sell franchises to fill out an application, apply with the state. We are beholden to the state, so sometimes we are slowed down by the state.

But right now, one way or another, I know we have currently like but not yet open, so we're pushing them to get open. So it's a combination of what our job is to try and get these people open as quick beholden sometimes not only to our franchisee maybe not doing their homework, but the state not doing theirs.

And so, you know, progress and do it in chunks this year as we get people through that licensing process. So I still think we can hit a good number this year of opens. It's just going to be in a very inconsistent fashion.

Thanks. And, Kerry, can you talk about what the latest expectation is for the mortgage segment specifically to reach break-even? Is there a certain amount of kind of revenue that would get time for that?

So, Kerry, I don't know if you can give the detail, but the real answer is we want

the growth of Motto, and we are less concerned about breakeven. But the answer is they can both be achieved in the near to midterm. Carrie?

Sure. Thanks, Steve. Agreed.

You know, as Warren said in the scripted remarks, we're building momentum on the Motto side. You know, more than 70 franchises sold on a trailing 12-month basis.

And because of the counter-cyclical nature and the proximity to the purchase transaction that Ward was talking about, we think that now is the optimal time to continue to invest in it to really accelerate that growth. And if that means that we push out profitability, you know, maybe to buy a quarter or something by investing in some additional resources to drive those franchise sales opportunities and then, as Ward said, get those offices open faster so that we can get people contributing, we think that that's a great use of capital.

Thanks. And you said that kind of over the long term, both Motto and Wemlow can get to a $50 million annualized run rate.

Can you talk about the difference in margin and return on profiles of those two businesses?

I think from the model side, you know, organically we're going to continue to sell to four different types of customers, whether it's LOs, REMAXs, real estate companies, independent teams, things like that. So from an organic standpoint, we believe we have legs for there to grow that and increase our royalty fees to our people at different times as we see that the value is there. On the WEMO side, we think the sky's the limit. We think still finding quality economic loan processing services is is very difficult in the broker channel, and the broker channels are cost-effective than some of the other channels. So we believe that our adoption within the model network is getting stronger, and we believe as we grow WEMO, we can scale that as well on a per-unit basis. So there we get a per-transaction fee, and we believe that will scale up as well. And so it's a combination of those two things that adds up to that $50 million potential opportunity.

Okay. Thanks, Doug.

Our next question is from John Campbell with Stevens. Your line is open.

Hey, guys. Good morning. Good morning. Hey, on the agent growth, I mean, that's always been kind of the core driver of the revenue model for you guys. Of late, you know, last couple quarters, I feel like you've grown organically at a really good rate despite, you know, a little bit slower agent growth. So I'm hoping first if you can just maybe unpack that. or maybe just talk about some of the key areas of strength that you guys saw outside of the core, and also maybe how you're feeling about organic growth trends from here?

Nick, why don't you take that?

Yeah, so when we look at growth across all the geographies, we've had a strength. Canada has been just a great leader for us over this last year, driven a lot by Integra, but the Canada market as a whole, and we look at seeing that as a continued strength this year. Also, I think the areas of focus that we put in place at the end of last year moving into this year to focus on the U.S., we're starting to see that momentum. And we're doubling down on that to continue to drive that for the rest of the year to really focus on that U.S. agent count primarily as the number one priority. But Canada and still globally, we continue to see some good progress there. We've opened some new countries recently. which will add to that growth in 22 and 23. So lots of positives across all the geos that we have right now.

Yeah, and I agree with everything Nick said, especially from an operational perspective. John, you're right with respect to kind of U.S. agent count trends. As Nick mentioned, the strength in Canada is really helping to offset that. You know, Canadian agents are still contributing kind of 75 to 80 cents on the dollar in terms of what we get from a U.S. agent as it relates to top-line contributions. And then also the global is starting to have a little bit of an impact as well. And then as we look at overall top line organic revenue growth performance, we really have diversified the company. So we're getting stronger contributions from Motto, not only in terms of the number of open offices, but the fixed monthly fee is increasing just because we've got more cohorts that have been with us for a longer period of time. uh... we love starting to contribute to have a period starting to contribute we're realizing the benefits from price increases on and then obviously the strength of the of the housing market from a pricing perspective on the very little bit of the business is helpful as well and so we look ahead i'm going forward you know we've got pretty consistently that we would be kind of a mid single-digit organic revenue growth company kind of three four five percent assuming the housing market hangs in there and at the macro is strong, doesn't have to be on fire like it was in 21, but assuming that there's not anything catastrophic. And we still think that that is achievable, just given the different levers we can pull and the diversification we've been able to achieve.

Okay, that's helpful. And then sticking on diversification, Carrie, I don't know if you have this on hand, but if you look at all the revenue outside of the REMAX franchise or just the core revenue, what percent of revenue is that today, and how much of that mix do you think that could be over time?

Yeah, we don't disclose that in total with the exception of kind of looking at what it is from the mortgage business, just in terms of what that looks like. So for the mortgage business in general, and that's what we kind of break out, this quarter was about $3 million. There's obviously other opportunities as we think about just the product monetization and things. So we haven't gotten to a point that we've disclosed those yet publicly.

Okay. That's helpful. Thank you. Yes.

Our next question is from Jason Surut with Jones Trading. Your line is open.

Thanks. A quick follow-up on Motto. It sounds like we should be thinking about the break-even crossover in 2023 rather than the second half, fourth quarter of this year. I just want to be clear on a takeaway. Is that due to the conversion rate or lower gross demand or fallout? I just want to make sure I'm clear on the takeaway there.

No, it's because we're looking at investing more because we've had so much success. And so, you know, we want to get to break even. As Kerry said, it may shift a quarter or two. But it's all about investment in what is an incredibly successful new franchise for us. And so, you know, we've reached stability with the number of units we've got open. We have great word of mouth from everybody that's involved. There's upside because of the way the market's shifting. A lot of LOs are going to be looking for work. We can help shift those into our units because we've got more, as Ward mentioned, on the buy side. And so it's just a really attractive alternative for us. It's not because of anything. It's because it's doing so well that we want to invest more.

Okay, got it. And then in terms of independent region acquisitions, I'm trying to think about the right cadence, just taking a step back. I mean, it's been about a year now. Since Integra, should we be thinking about chunkier acquisitions with more time in between, or should we be thinking about these where we're going to see a little bit more activity on a smaller scale?

I guess it's everybody's definition of chunky. We are going to look at primarily growing organically, as I mentioned. On the inorganic side, we're not we don't believe we're in the position that we need to swing for the fence and so the likelihood is you'll see acquisitions that are more tuck in for us you know we like the acquisition of independent franchises obviously work really well with the tiger that would be something you can expect us to continue to try to do but then on the other side looking at opportunities that are adjacent particularly in the mortgage segment we'll look at whether or not there's any organic transactions that make sense for us, but I would view them more as sort of tuck-in type acquisitions versus swing for the fence.

Okay. Great. Thanks for taking the questions.

Again, that's star one to ask a question. Our next question is from Justin Ages with Berenberg Capital Markets. Your line is open.

Hi, good morning, and thanks for taking the questions. Good morning. I was just hoping you could provide us with an update on some of the other, you know, tech initiatives outside GreenLow, so GadBerry or FIRST? Yeah, let me give an overview, and then Kerry wanted to jump in and add a few more. So, in general, we are continuing to work with those technology systems. They are providing rich sources of data. for our agents and franchisees, and we continue to believe that we're in a good position with connectivity that a lot of folks don't have as complete as we do, and we're going to continue to work on initiatives that make our agents more productive, that give them a better lead. We've already got probably the strongest networking team system in the business from the standpoint of agents referring new business from internationally as well as domestically. We just had an R4 where we had over 6,000 folks there, a lot of international players as well, and a lot of that's around networking. So the technology piece will continue to evolve to make sure that we've got sort of best-in-class regeneration as well as tools that allow the agents to be more productive and effective and for the brokerages and the franchisees to be more profitable.

Yeah, I agree with everything.

Go ahead, Carrie.

Yeah, no, I agree with everything that Steve said. And from a financial perspective, we're continuing to see strength in Gadbury. It performed well last year, and we're seeing that continue this year as well. And then from a first perspective, we're seeing adoption increase kind of steadily. Still work to do in terms of driving increased adoption, but we're very happy with the product. Given the feedback we're getting from our network, as Steve mentioned, the feedback on FIRST from the network continues to be very positive.

And I'll add one thing on FIRST. That's been a winner for us with low inventory and it being primarily driven to find listing inventory. The agents that are utilizing it now that we've had it under our belt for a while, we can confidently say that those agents that are using it are increasing their business by 12%. They're more productive, and they average eight new listings in the first 90 days they use the product. So we're able to quantify the first product now. and it's showing that it's actually driving listings to our network, which is a huge win. So we expect that as the market will continue to be competitive with inventory this year, that that product will gain additional adoption.

That's very helpful. Thanks.

And then one more, if I could, just maybe it's along the same lines. Is the third-party report that says, you know, that VMAX agents are more than double productive as the next closest one, is the technology initiatives driving that? Is it the name brand recognition that is tracking those agents? Is it, you know, it's tough to kind of tell what comes first, the chicken or the egg here. So I'm just hoping you could maybe talk about what, you know, drives you to achieve such high productivity numbers. Nick, why don't you take that? Sure. I think it's a combination of things. It's not one single lever. But I will say that it starts with our economic model that is based on reoccurring. And that comes from our foundation. And it was the idea of reward top producers. And they're in business for themselves, not by themselves. And the economics really drive it, number one. Number two is because of that, it drives culture. And what we know and what we see in our network is top producers like to be around top producers. And so the combination of that combined with what we have invested in in tools and education kind of wrap it into one of what the value of REMAX is. But I believe as you ask about how do you think about chicken and the egg, I think it started 49 years ago with purely the economics, and 50 years later it has developed into a combination of the economics the culture, and the tools, training, and education. I appreciate the answer.

Thanks for taking the question. We have no further questions at this time. We'll turn it over to Andy Schultz for any closing remarks.

Yeah, thank you, Operator. This concludes the call for today. Thank you for joining us. Have a great weekend.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call and webcast. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect.