Financials: How Did the National Firms Do In the First 6 Months?

Here, we review data and statistics for the first half of 2020 for the national brands.

We just reviewed the first six months results from eXp, Keller Williams, Realogy, Redfin, RE/MAX and Zillow. Below, we share highlights of their results, and, in most cases, compare them to their results from the same six-month period a year ago. Other than Keller Williams, which is not publicly held and therefore not required to report anything, the others are publicly held, and the data is from their public filings.

They are reported here in alphabetical order. Overall, it’s clear that most, but not all of these firms, experienced a negative impact to their results in the 2nd quarter of 2020. 

eXp

Agent count was up 54% year-over-year at the end of June 2020. Transactions closed were up 22% in the 2nd quarter over the same quarter a year ago. Net income was up over $16 million in the first six months of 2020 versus the same period a year ago.

Keller Williams

Home searches were up more than 100% in the 2nd quarter from the 1st quarter 2020. KW Command hit 133,000 users at the end of the 2nd quarter. Agent count was down 2.9% from the end of the 3rd quarter of 2019 in the U.S. and Canada. Closed transactions were down 15.4% in the 2nd quarter from the same period a year ago.  

Realogy

Closed transaction sides for the combination of owned and franchised brokerages were down 12.8% in the six months ending June 20, 2020. Operating EBITDA was $172 million, down $63 million from the same six-month period in 2019. Excepting a one-time impairment charge, operating costs were down more than 10%.

Redfin

Revenue from brokerage was up 2.4% for the first six months of 2020 over the same period of 2019. Closed transactions within the owned portion of the firm were up 2.3%. Operating losses declined by 16.4% from $79.8 million to $68 million in line with reductions in operating costs of approximately $10 million. 

RE/MAX

Agent count worldwide was up 3.8% to a record level. It was down 1.4% in the U.S. and Canada. Motto Mortgage franchises increased to 127 offices, up 29.6% over the prior period. Total operating expenses were down 5.2% in the six months ended June 30, 2020, while operating income was down 41.4% for the same period.

Zillow

Total revenues were up 79.8% in the six months ended June 30, 2020, while the IMT (Internet, Media, Technology) segment was down slightly at 1.6% for the same period. Website traffic hit new record levels with over 218 million average monthly unique visitors. The operating loss before income taxes grew from $142 million to $256 million, or nearly an 80% increase. In the Homes segment, the loss per home sold in the second quarter was $6,933.