RE/MAX Holdings, Inc. Class A

Ladies and gentlemen, good morning and welcome to the REMAX Holdings First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. My name is Abby, and I will be facilitating the audio portion of today's call. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Andy Schultz, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Mr. Schultz?

Thank you, Operator. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to REMAX Holdings First Quarter 2023 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 and open offices, 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. RE-MAX 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 2023 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, Kerry 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 RE-MAX Holdings CEO, Steve Joyce. Steve?

Thank you, Andy, and thanks to everyone for joining our call today. Looking at slide three, we performed largely as expected during the first quarter as the housing market continued to adjust to higher interest rates and existing macroeconomic conditions. Given these factors, we anticipated pressure on our U.S. agent count growth to start the year. However, we saw some encouraging trends begin to emerge toward the end of the quarter as the all-important spring selling season gets underway. The first quarter had several operational highlights, including agent count growth in Canada and the global regions, regained momentum in model franchise sales, and a continued ramp in WEMO's business. We remain squarely focused on growth, and we believe we're positioned for improved U.S. agent count performance in the near term. We're executing on the strategic growth initiatives we put in place last year, and we remain confident in the upside that they can deliver in the long run. We are also continuing to invest in critical growth-related activities, such as our annual REMAX and model conventions. both of which had robust attendance demonstrating the value our affiliates continue to derive from coming together to share ideas. We are directing our capital opportunistically so that we are best positioned to grow profitably as market conditions improve. Some of our notable quarterly financial highlights included Remax Holdings' total revenue was $85.4 million, down only 6.2% compared to last year. We generated adjusted EBITDA of $19.9 million, and our adjusted EBITDA margin was 23.3%. Kerry will address what impacted margins during the quarter later on. Adjusted EPS was $0.26, and we continue to execute on our stock buyback program. Regarding the CEO transition, our board has hired Egon Zender, a global leadership advisory firm, to aid in the selection of the company's next leaders. Egon Zender's robust and comprehensive process will include an evaluation of both internal and external candidates and is expected to be completed this summer. With that, I'll turn it over to Ward.