eXp World Holdings Q1 2026 Earnings Call - NextHome Acquisition Expands Platform to Franchise Model

Jesse, Chief Financial Officer, eXp World Holdings: Activity drove more agents to reach their cap in Q1, resulting in a gross profit of $75.3 million. Operating loss of $8.8 million for the quarter improved 15% year-over-year from a loss of $10.4 million last year, primarily driven by improvements we made to streamline our operations in 2025. Adjusted EBITDA was $4.1 million for the first quarter and above the midpoint of our guidance range of $2 million-$5 million, an increase of 88% over Q1 2025. Operating expenses were $84.1 million at the midpoint of our guidance range in the first quarter. Finally, we increased our cash position 6% year-over-year, ending the quarter with $122 million in cash on the balance sheet.

On the next slide, I’ll walk us through our financial results by segment for the quarter. The North America Realty segment continues to be the largest revenue and profit generator for the company, with revenue of $965.1 million for the first quarter and $10 million in Adjusted EBITDA, a 29% year-over-year increase as we begin to realize the benefit of cost saving initiatives we put in place last year. International continues to be our fastest growing segment, increasing 27% in Q1 while we continue to invest in community building activities like eXpcon Cape Town, as Leo mentioned previously. We continue to reduce operating expenses in North America Realty and other affiliated services segments as we realize the benefit of initiatives we put into place to streamline operations across both segments in 2025.

On the next slide, I’ll review our updated outlook for 2026 and the second quarter. Looking ahead, we remain focused on maintaining our financial discipline to drive sustainable, profitable growth. We are providing our outlook for the second quarter and full year 2026. Starting with the second quarter, we expect revenue in the range of $1.36 billion-$1.45 billion, expenses in the range of $93 million-$97 million, and Adjusted EBITDA in the range of $16 million-$21 million. For the year, we are reiterating our outlook with revenue in the range of $4.85 billion-$5.15 billion, operating expenses in the range of $325 million-$345 million, and Adjusted EBITDA in the range of $50 million-$75 million for 2026.

We are encouraged by our strong performance as we head into Q2. We are aware of the growing uncertainty and tightening macroeconomic environment. This, coupled with less visibility into the second half, has led us to reiterate our full year guidance at this time. In light of this limited visibility, we believe it’s prudent to reiterate the full year guidance and reassess our outlook at the midpoint of the year. Along the same time, we will continue to stay financially flexible, reserve the right to invest where we see meaningful opportunities to support our agents, strengthen our technology platform and enhance long-term shareholder value. As always, our focus remains on executing with discipline, maintaining a strong balance sheet, and continuing to build a more efficient, resilient and profitable eXp. Now I’ll turn the call over to Glenn to wrap it up before we open the call to questions.

Glenn?

Glenn, Managing Director, SUCCESS, eXp World Holdings: Thanks, Jesse. You know, I’ve been spending my time really retooling SUCCESS since actually around July last year. I jumped in and I’ve been running with the same playbook that we used in international in 2024. We brought staffing down about 60%. We spent about the last 9 months re-platforming the entire business, and during this quarter, we actually welcomed Matthew Ferry and Kristen Ferry right at the end of the quarter to help us lead SUCCESS. Matthew, many of you will recognize the name in organized real estate. He’s one of the most respected sales and life coaches of the last 30 years. Kristen, his wife, has been the operational engine behind his business for years and now brings that same capability to SUCCESS itself.

That combination gives us a real team to scale, not just a marquee hire. The green shoots are already showing. SUCCESS Coaching has completed its first cohort. The second cohort started last week. On its own, SUCCESS Coaching should move SUCCESS into net income by 2027. We’ve launched SUCCESS Events, and that success.events is also generating revenue. Before we built it, there was no single place to find personal development events across the entire vertical. Think of it a bit like the Zillow of personal development. Top personal development personas are now participating with us, and that participation is already producing revenue. For our agents, this means access to coaching content and events that in any other context cost $5 or 6 figures to engage with built directly into the overall eXp ecosystem.

That’s why what I mean when I describe SUCCESS as the culture and growth layer of the eXp ecosystem. It’s an asset our agents draw on that no other brokerage can offer. In 2027, we’re leaning into what made SUCCESS the definitive voice in personal development for more than a century. The lineage runs from our founder, Orison Swett Marden, through Napoleon Hill, W. Clement Stone, Earl Nightingale, Og Mandino, and of course, Jim Rohn, whose worldwide intellectual property we hold. The principles those voices built, the new thought tradition, are being validated every day by modern neuroscience and psychology. We have a signature offering coming that marries those two worlds, the wisdom that built SUCCESS and the science now confirming it. I’m excited about what 2027 looks like for SUCCESS. Next slide, please.

I wanna close by describing what we’re actually building because I think it’s still underappreciated. This last week we changed our ticker to AGNT. That wasn’t cosmetic. It was really the clearest possible statement of what this company is and who it’s built for. eXp is a platform business built by agents, built for agents. The four connected offerings really working in harmony. eXp North America is now multi-model option through NextHome. International, our fastest growing segment and expansion frontier. FrameVR, our virtual infrastructure, and SUCCESS, our culture and growth layer. No other brokerage on earth is built this way, and the multi-model expansion through NextHome is a real proof point.

We can now welcome independents and entire offices that previously couldn’t find a home with us without compromising what makes the eXp model work. What we offer agents and what no one else can fully replicate is a complete operating system for building a scalable, sustainable real estate business. Full stack marketing suite, world-class personal development through SUCCESS, health and wellness resources, and a fully immersive global collaboration layer through Frame. Every investment we’re making right now, the eXp Hub, AI Copilots, the Listing Intelligence Platform, the App Store Marketplace, and the single thread leadership model that puts a dedicated owner on every major bet, is designed around one goal: helping agents build businesses that grow beyond themselves. This is what’s underappreciated about eXp, not the agent count, not the share gain, really the fundamental architecture.

That’s the eXp platform. That’s the moat, and every quarter the gap widens. I’ll turn it over, back over to Denise for Q&A.

Denise, Moderator/Host, eXp World Holdings: Great. Thanks, Glenn. I’ll kick it off with a question for everyone on the team before we open the call to questions from the audience and analysts. Leo, I’ll start with you. Can you speak to how adding an award-winning franchise model like Next Home complements our core cloud brokerage? Specifically, how does this multi-model approach allow us to capture a broader segment of the market that was previously out of reach? What does this mean for our competitive moat heading into the second half of the year?

Leo, Chief Executive Officer, eXp World Holdings: Thanks, Denise. Adding NextHome gives us a advantage because we can now attract independent brokers and franchises coming off of their franchise agreement. There are many folks who’ve woken up in the last 24 months completely caught off guard by new ownership structure, ranging from private equity to other publicly traded companies. Some of those companies’ views differ substantially from how they may view the world, from putting the consumer first, to transparency and thought track around how we display listings. We just realize that in the shifting landscape, having a chassis to give us the optionality to add these folks is incredible. You have to appreciate the iterativeness of platforms. When Glenn started, this was for the agent. We became the home of the team.

Now we’ve realized that as we continue to grow, there’s an opportunity for the folks that’ll probably never be at a cloud brokerage, and we just added a complete new lane and a green shoot opportunity.

Denise, Moderator/Host, eXp World Holdings: All right. Thanks, Leo. Jesse, one for you. With the integration of Next Home, the financial mix of the company is evolving. Can you discuss how Next Home’s model differs from eXp’s core cloud-based brokerage model?

Jesse, Chief Financial Officer, eXp World Holdings: Yeah. Thanks, Denise. Leo just touched on a big part of the deal thesis is that it does allow us to capture revenue from those agents, teams, independent brokerages that we historically haven’t had to pass on because they were more akin to something in the franchise model. This does by making eXp now a multi-modal platform and providing this chassis, it allows an on-ramp to some pretty large opportunities that we see here in the near term.

Specifically just speaking to the financial differences in franchise, you know, franchise offers very predictable recurring revenue over the multi-year terms and the contracts. They typically have higher gross margins as well, being, and especially Next Home, very asset light, very aligned to the eXp model, even though we are slightly different in the offering, right, between franchise and brokerage. They are asset light as a franchisor with very little corporate overhead. As you continue to scale, you see very expanded margins in that platform specifically.

Denise, Moderator/Host, eXp World Holdings: Thanks, Jesse. Glenn, one for you. How do you see personal development and success impacting eXp?

Glenn, Managing Director, SUCCESS, eXp World Holdings: Yeah, I think it really comes down to the idea that we’ve expressed literally since we started the company, which is that, you know, real estate is fundamentally powered by, you know, human beings who have developed sales skills, scripts, dialogues, lead generation. More importantly, it’s sort of their mindset and how they see themselves in the world. SUCCESS has really been, you know, doing that for, you know, 129 years.

You know, the more that we can expose agents to how to think better, how to operate better, it just raises the, for lack of a better term, the consciousness of the entire organization, in a way where we’re, again, more aligned, more connected, shared vocabulary and shared ways of doing things that just kind of reinforces itself. For me, I always think about the fact that, you know, eXp really has been historically a personal development company that just happens to sell real estate. You know, with that lens, we became the largest single customer of SUCCESS magazine even before we bought the magazine because of our belief in personal development being, you know, so fundamental. This really just continues to give us more access.

As I’ve been diving into personal development, especially since jumping in as managing director last July, it’s becoming more and more obvious the places that we’re going to be able to make meaningful sort of upgrades for all intents and purposes relative to our agents and brokers who want to get access to some of the folks over on the SUCCESS side of the house, as well as a lot of the content that they get just as being part of eXp.

Denise, Moderator/Host, eXp World Holdings: All right. Thanks, Glenn. I’ll move over to our analysts to ask questions. Before I do, just wanna remind the audience that you can ask a question via Slido by looking at the QR code there on your screen or going to slido.com and punching in AGNT, our ticker, and ask a question there or vote up a question that’s in the queue. For now, I’ll take our first question from Tom White at D.A. Davidson. Tom, you can go ahead and ask your question.

Tom White, Analyst, D.A. Davidson: Great. Thank you very much. Maybe just a follow-up for Leo on the NextHome deal, and congrats on that. I guess, you know, the last few weeks here you’ve had the two kinda national leaders in cloud-based models here make acquisitions of franchise models. Leo, can you maybe just talk a little bit about, like, why you think that is and why now? I understand, you know, maybe going after, you know, these agents or groups of agents or indies that weren’t suited, I guess, for the national model. I’m just curious if there’s kind of anything else, maybe just sort of like industry-wide dynamics or competitively that’s resulting in you guys making this deal. Maybe just comment on, I think this is the first domestic brokerage you guys have ever acquired.

Maybe the first kind of brokerage model that you acquired anywhere. Like, does this open, you know, I don’t wanna say the floodgates, but, you know, just sort of a new potential kind of vein of growth that you guys might look to consolidate more brokerages? Thanks.

Leo, Chief Executive Officer, eXp World Holdings: Tom, that’s a perfectly fair question. One is, the timing is interesting. It’s similar to the other ones, but appreciate that, you know, this conversation probably started in earnest September, right? The, the process too, ’cause unlike the other ones where deals were announced, this is closed, and we’re off to the races. The press release that drops around noon is probably really indicative of what the opportunity I see in front of us. There is a gentleman by the name of Albert Maggers in the Gold Coast of California who’s joining NextHome with 200 agents.

That is way outside of their typical office size and the opportunity that James and I saw when we started this conversation last year, where if you see the trend, most of the acquisitions of franchises have been a growth company buying a legacy company that’s contracting at very large percentages, 5%-7% per year. That’s not what we did. We specifically went for a young, growing, well-recognized, highly rated franchise system because I see this opportunity where these companies that are legacy players that are now owned by new ownership are seeing contraction, and that created a massive opportunity for us. I think part of the strategy is to always stay nimble and see opportunities even 6, 12, 18 months out. I think directionally we’re seeing a huge opportunity that wasn’t present even 24 months ago.

Secondly, on the positioning of how we see the world, I think I’ve given you my standard, Jim Bramble role play answer of, you know, as a Section 16 Officer of a public company, it’s my fiduciary responsibility to always stay in curiosity for any acquisition that’s accretive to our shareholders and market share. I do see that we have now have a chassis that keeps us available and nimble, for the optionality ahead.

Tom White, Analyst, D.A. Davidson: Okay. Thanks. Maybe just a quick follow-up for Jesse, or anyone. You know, you affirmed the full year guide. You obviously have NextHome now. Can you maybe help us get a sense of what you think the kind of contribution from NextHome might be this year?

Jesse, Chief Financial Officer, eXp World Holdings: Yeah, sure. I can take that. You know, at this point in time, it’s more of a strategic addition to our platform. Their financial contribution will, frankly be modest, when you layer it against our full consolidated results in the near term. We are more focused on the long term of this deal, the value that it brings in incremental agents, production, and margin. More to specifically to answer your question, it’s not currently included in our full year guidance at this time. I think that is something we’re gonna evaluate, when we fully incorporate this here in Q2 and look to reiterate full year guidance at that time, Tom.

Tom White, Analyst, D.A. Davidson: Okay. Thank you.

Denise, Moderator/Host, eXp World Holdings: Thanks, Tom. Now I’ll go over to Michael Brindos. Michael Brindos from Benchmark. If you’d like to ask a question, you can go ahead. I think your mic needs to be open. All right. While we’re working on those technical fixes there, I’ll move over to Stephen Sheldon from William Blair. He asked us a couple questions via email. He wanted to know, first, Leo, how much are you planning to integrate NextHome versus letting it operate a more standalone? Beyond the franchising capability, what else does NextHome bring to the table in terms of technology or other capabilities that eXp can leverage broadly?

Leo, Chief Executive Officer, eXp World Holdings: Yeah, that’s a thanks for the question. The first most important one is there will be no changes to the Next Home brand. They will be a standalone frame because it is a different offering as a complete separate chassis. Next Home was nimble and highly strategic acquisition for us. The part of the appeal is having the second chassis as well as the leadership. Going into a world where consolidation and roll-ups are happening, I think there’s no, it’d be wise to not underestimate the leadership groups that come together, ’cause we are in a very specific, independent contractor-driven business that is personality-driven, and people follow people. We have very large buying power, so there’s gonna be quite a bit of synergies on technology that we purchase across the board.

As we were doing due diligence, we were both pleasantly surprised by the similarities. They’re 42% virtual. A lot of their franchisees use Regus out of all shared spaces, with a lot of similarities from tech stack with all the other vendors we offer. There is gonna be some really interesting synergies as we go forward.

Denise, Moderator/Host, eXp World Holdings: Great. Okay. Thank you. Another one from Stephen Sheldon. He said, "Great to see continued strong agent NPS, but it did step down a touch sequentially. Is there anything to call out there?

Leo, Chief Executive Officer, eXp World Holdings: That’s a great question, and that’s one of the reasons why Glenn started with NPS and the focus on it. One is anything in the 70s is considered good. If you were to have, like, an 80-plus, someone’s almost gaming the system. We’re all students of Fred Reichheld. He’s on our board, and I’ve read the book cover to cover, and you never wanna game the system. That is a very good example of in real-time fire or smoke detector system, and we were able to identify it, and it’s one quarter versus, you know, multi-quarter sequentially, and that’s actually a perfect example of the metric being used in action.

Denise, Moderator/Host, eXp World Holdings: Great. All right. Over at Slido, we have already answered the questions that we got there. Thank you everyone for joining us on our 1st quarter earnings call. This concludes the call. As always, please stay connected by visiting eXp World Holdings for the latest updates on eXp news, results, and events. Additionally, you’ll find a recording of this call and our latest investor presentation on the investor section of our site. Thanks again for joining. This concludes our 1st quarter earnings fireside chat.