The Real Brokerage, an international, technology-powered real estate company, has launched in Canada with the venture opening in Alberta under Real Broker AB.

Dan Stante is the company’s provincial broker for Alberta and was the first Real Brokerage agent in Canada. Stante, based in Calgary, says the new initiative already has more than 20 real estate agents signed up with offices in Calgary, Edmonton and Lethbridge.

“There are a couple of components of the business model that are different. There’s a revenue share component for agents. There are stock awards for production. It’s technology focused. It was actually tech-first and real estate-second, which lends to a more agent-focused experience at the end of the day,” says Stante.

“Being a virtual brokerage, we don’t have a brick and mortar location,” he says. “And so the technology (the company) built, and they’ve just rebuilt it in the last six months from the ground up, it’s completely mobile. So agents have access to all of their deals, all of their paperwork, all of their commissions, everything, through this app.

“They’re really trying to focus on streamlining that experience for agents and making it a very efficient process when dealing with paperwork.”

Stante says joining Real is “a great opportunity to not only grow our business but leverage our established local brand. We are always keen to sharpen the edges and Real is equipped with the right technology, culture and people to provide an advantage to agents in this competitive business.

“We transitioned a small brokerage in Lethbridge. They had 10 or 12 agents there and the rest are in Calgary and we have two in Edmonton right now.”

The Sano Stante Team, which was formerly part of Re/Max Real Estate (Central) in Calgary, made the transition. It includes Sano Stante (Dan’s father),  Michael Stante and Michael Bussoli. Sano had been with Central for 35 years and Dan had been there 11 years.

“From my perspective, I was here when Re/Max grew from its infancy and this has the same feel. It’s the most innovative new business model in real estate,” says Sano. “There are a couple of companies that are adopting this new business model. Real is the most advanced of that breed and we love the culture at Real. It’s a good fit for the Stante Team. It’s a culture of respect, hard work and I guess sharing. It’s profit-sharing. All the agents own the company.

“This model recognizes who the client is of the agency, of the brokerage. And that’s the agent. They’re set up to serve us, to empower the agent to do their job.”

Real Brokerage operates in more than 30 states and the District of Columbia in the U.S. The move into Alberta is the company’s first venture outside the U.S.

“This expansion into Canada is a major milestone for us,” says Real co-founder and CEO Tamir Poleg. “The real estate market in Canada is growing, with significant areas of opportunity. We believe Real can play a key role in the Canadian market and we look forward to building strong relationships with agents and clients in the country and increasing our international footprint.”

Real also announced that Tyrel Laqua will be the company’s branch manager in Canada.

“I believe that with Real’s technology, business model and brand, we will be able to quickly grow a great team here,” says Laqua, “I can now offer my agents things that as a small company we would never have had access to. Real will provide agents the ability to build their own brand, hold stock in the company and create a future in today’s real estate market.”

Dan Stante says Real is looking for brokers across the country. Sano Stante said Real searched the Stante Team out because they wanted to launch in Canada with a respected real estate team.

He says it’s notable that over the last two years while COVID affected the industry, most brokerages that were not built as virtual brokerages were playing catchup trying to patch together a virtual model to accommodate their agents.

“And meanwhile Real is built from the ground up as a virtual office. The timing was very fortuitous,” he says.

The company says Real was started in late 2014 by a group of real estate professionals, technologists and venture capitalists who “understood the limitations of the brokerage-agent relationship and set out to build a brokerage that recognizes that agents do most of the work and are entitled to keep more of their earnings.”