eXp focused on global growth, tech as domestic revenue flattens 

The U.S. housing market may have stalled, but that isn't stopping eXp from investing in other areas — particularly international markets and artificial intelligence.

Much of the discussion during the company's May 6 earnings call revolved around those two topics, giving investors something to be optimistic about while waiting to see how tariffs impact home sales domestically.

Revenue was relatively flat, rising 1% year-over-year, and losses improved. While transaction sides declined 2%, higher sale prices pushed sales volume up by 4%.

What eXp had to say

On global expansion: eXp International reported one of its strongest quarters ever, with revenue up 103% year-over-year, said Felix Bravo, who was named managing director of eXp International last week. That success, which includes recent launches in Peru and Turkey, has led to a longer-term objective: To have 50,000 agents in 50 countries outside the U.S. by 2030.

"How are we going to get there? Through strategic launches into high-income and emerging markets using self-managed, regionalized teams," Bravo said.

On scaling and AI: Founder Glenn Sanford said the international market has been a personal focus for the past nine months. During that time, he said the company has built a scalable country-by-country playbook, and "we've also made heavier and international investment in technology and AI, particularly in the last few quarters, and these are not short-term bets," Sanford noted. 

"We believe the real returns on AI-driven productivity, automation and platform leverage will show up meaningfully in future periods."

On falling agent counts: eXp lost agents throughout 2024, and agent count was down 5% year-over-year to just under 82,000 in the first quarter of 2025. 

Jesse Hill, interim chief financial officer at eXp, noted that less productive agents — those with fewer than three transactions a year — accounted for 77% of the attrition, resulting in an increase in average transactions per agent.

"That indicates that we do continue to attract and retain the highest productive agents in the industry," Hill said.

Even so, Hill said the slowdown in the market and broader economic headwinds have the company actively reviewing expenses. "We as a leadership team are building a plan to have more efficient operations in the back half of 2025," Hill said.

eXp Realty CEO Leo Pareja noted that the company will also be paying close attention to consumer confidence, which has been rocked by uncertainty around tariffs.

"We're going to be watching this extremely carefully," Pareja said, adding that eXp's business model is scalable up and down, allowing the company to adjust quickly if needed.

Key numbers

Revenue: $954.9 million, up 1% compared to a year ago.

Cash and cash equivalents: $115.7 million at the end of March, up from $113.6 million at the end of December.

Net income/loss: A loss of $11 million for Q1, more than the net loss of $9.5 million in the fourth quarter, but an improvement over the loss of $15.6 million a year ago.

Adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization): $2.2 million in Q1, down from $11 million in the first quarter of 2024.

Transactions: 89,643 in Q1, down 2% compared to a year ago.

Agent count: 81,904 at the end of March, down from 82,980 at the end of 2024, and down 5% year-over-year. 

Notable moves

Just ahead of earnings, eXp announced a major recruiting win. The San Antonio-based Neal & Neal Team, previously the top Keller Williams team in Texas, moved to eXp, bringing 80 agents and $338 million in sales volume in 2024.

The company launched its new Co-Sponsor Program on May 1, which allows new eXp agents to designate a co-sponsor along with the primary sponsor. The intent is to give less experienced agents more support so they can get up to speed faster.

eXp also was the first brokerage to endorse Zillow's new listing standards, the portal's take on Clear Cooperation and a response to the rise in private listings. The standards were announced in April and take effect this month.