At The Real Brokerage, newly appointed Chief Growth Officer Jason Cassity adds a new layer of structure to the company’s growth strategy — recruiting more agents, retaining the ones already there and scaling at a sustainable pace.
Cassity, a former San Diego team leader who stepped into the role just over a week ago, said his focus boils down to one core metric: net agent growth. That means not just recruiting, but keeping agents productive and engaged once they join.
“My directive, you could say, is net agent growth. It’s probably 80 percent outbound — whether that’s agent attraction or evangelizing Real on a national stage — and about 20 percent retention,” Cassity told Inman. “Because obviously net agent growth needs new agents coming in and staying.”
The move reflects how the brokerage is formalizing growth leadership as competition for agents intensifies, particularly among national, single-entity, cloud-based, revenue-share firms. It also comes as Real’s share price has fallen significantly from last August’s all-time high, putting more focus on balancing rapid agent growth with profitability.
Putting structure behind agent-led growth
Real’s model has long relied on agents to drive recruiting, using a revenue-share structure that rewards agents for bringing others into the network. What Cassity is adding is more coordination and support around that engine.
“Our agents do most of the attracting,” he said. “They become the magnets. They attract their friends and other great agents in their market — or anywhere in the country via social media — and then they tee up the conversations for the growth team.”
Rather than building a traditional internal recruiting operation, Real is leaning further into that network effect — while formalizing how deals get done once interest is generated. In practice, that often means stepping in to help close larger opportunities.
“You can imagine a solo agent in Boise talking to someone who runs a 40-person mega team — they might not know how to have that conversation. That’s where the growth team comes in,” Cassity said.
Cassity, who previously worked at Compass, said that experience reinforced his belief that peer-to-peer recruiting is the most effective way to scale — but that it works best when paired with a system to support it.
“Agents attracting other agents is probably the most organic way to grow,” he said. “We’ve just built the most attractive flytrap.”
An agent’s perspective in the C-suite
Cassity’s pitch is that Real now has someone in the C-suite who was, until recently, in the field doing sales.
“Literally 10 days ago, I was an agent — and I’m still closing out pending escrows,” he said. “I would venture to say I’m probably the closest C-suite in the industry to the actual agents.”
That proximity, he said, allows him to translate agent needs into product, marketing and operational decisions. When testing new technology, for example, Cassity said he used it with his own clients and relayed feedback directly to leadership.
“I can say, ‘Agents aren’t going to care about this — let’s do it this way,’” he explained. “And to our credit, the C-suite is listening.”
He also expects to take on a more visible, hands-on role with agents, including coaching, events and roundtables.
“It’s a lot of in-the-trenches, hand-to-hand combat with our agents,” he said.
Growth, but with a focus on productivity
Cassity said Real is targeting continued expansion but is mindful of the risks of growing too quickly.
The brokerage added roughly 7,600 agents net last year, he said, and internally he’s aiming to push that figure higher — potentially surpassing 10,000 — while maintaining operational stability. Earlier in March, Real reported ending 2025 with over 31,000 agents.
“When you grow too fast, operations can get bogged down,” he said. “We want to make sure we’re growing at a steady and healthy number.”
At the same time, the focus isn’t just on adding agents, but making them more productive once they’re in the system.
“If we can take an agent doing six deals and bring them up to 12, they’re going to stay here forever,” he said.
The current market slowdown may also create new openings. With transaction volumes down and margins tightening, Cassity said more agents, teams and independent brokerages are taking a closer look at their business economics.
“I think agents are going to evaluate their P&L a lot more,” he said. “And when they do that, they see our brokerage almost front and center.”
That shift could push Real beyond one-off recruiting into larger deals.
“I see it as an opportunity to take the battle from one-v-one — from just random one-off agents — to bringing in indie brokerages and franchises and teams that are at a larger scale,” Cassity said, adding that the continued market dynamics may push more consolidation and movement among brokerage ranks.
“Empires are built in down markets, and I think we’re at the tail end of a down market for a lot of indie brokerages and franchise owners,” Cassity elaborated. “I think we offer something that could be very enticing to them.”
