SALT LAKE CITY — eXp is increasing its footprint outside its core U.S. market by entering three new international spots, part of an ongoing global expansion, the company announced Friday.
The cloud-based brokerage will enter Switzerland, Abu Dhabi and expand its operations in Mauritius, Felix Bravo, eXp’s managing director of international, announced on stage at the brokerage’s conference in Salt Lake City.
The expansion will bring its “disruptive model” to new markets, some of which operate completely differently from the U.S., Bravo told Inman in an exclusive interview.
In a public statement, the company announced that Mehrdad Bonakdar would lead its operations in Switzerland. It did not publicly announce the expansions in Abu Dhabi or Mauritius, a small country northeast of South Africa.
In some ways, eXp’s international expansions represent a paradox for the brokerage, which quickly emerged as a leading player supporting the status quo of broad public sharing of listings via the multiple listing service.
CEO Leo Pareja has heralded the U.S. MLS system as the envy of the world, pointing to markets that have no centralized MLS or system of sharing data fairly among competing brokerages.
But when entering new markets, Bravo said that eXp imports its traditional brokerage revenue model and revenue-sharing incentive systems, sometimes into countries that historically haven’t had them.
“Our agents will make connections around the world. They’ll make introductions to us … but the most important thing is what group of agents have we found in that market [who] believe in the vision of eXp, who understand what our model can do and see that there’s a need for it in their country or in their market,” Bravo told Inman. “Based on that, we’ll kind of just go with it.”
Agents in Switzerland, for example, traditionally earn a salary that is far smaller than an agent would earn selling the same number of homes in the U.S., Bravo said.
“Where are agents looking for something different than what already exists?” he said. “In many countries outside North America there is no revenue share model or opportunity to own your own brand.”
While there are still limitations on data access for consumers and their agents in some international markets, Bravo said eXp would operate with a mindset of cooperation whenever possible.
eXp has over 1,000 estate agents in the United Kingdom and has made inroads changing the way agents compete with legacy companies that have been there for hundreds of years.
When asked where eXp was looking to expand next, Bravo said the brokerage was bullish on Latin America. But eXp won’t stop there, he said.
“That’s the No. 1 question I get: What country are we going to?” Bravo said. “All of them, eventually.”
Taylor Anderson is a contributor and former reporter for Inman. He’s currently editor-in-chief of Building Salt Lake.
