Teams ‘work harder’ — which is why LPT is betting on them 

ORLANDO — Robert Palmer has built one of the fastest-growing brokerages in the industry by doing things differently — owing in large part to the experiences that shaped him. 

The LPT Realty CEO briefly retired in 2017 (the same year he became the owner of the Jacksonville Armada Football Club), but returned to the industry and launched LPT Realty, an agent-centric brokerage with a national platform model, in 2022. 

The young firm now has more than 20,000 agents — a 50% increase from 2024 — and ranks as the No. 11 brokerage in the country by sales volume. It also launched a luxury offshoot, Aperture Global, in May 2025, and plans to go public in the near future. 

While LPT shares some DNA with other cloud-based brokerages like eXp and The Real Brokerage, Palmer is more focused on what sets LPT apart: its emphasis on teams, commitment to staying out of the mortgage business and hybrid compensation model — topics he expanded on at the T3 Leadership Summit on April 24.

Betting on teams 'any day of the week'

Palmer believes that real estate teams, rather than brokerages, are the model of the future — and he wants to make sure they are getting the services they need. That includes leaning into physical offices and giving them the freedom to operate and grow as they see fit.

While legacy brokerages tend to be territory-based operations, teams and agents have to earn every listing through grit, passion and creativity, Palmer noted — which is why he's banking on them.

"Teams have no geographic protections and no franchise ownership," Palmer said in an interview with Real Estate News after his T3 Leadership Summit presentation. "And so teams are having to work harder. If a team stops providing value, if a team stops helping struggling agents — like what my mom was 35 years ago — they lose because they don't have those baked-in inherent protections."

LPT wants to do what it can to support teams so they don't go elsewhere. "When you have a hungry entrepreneur who is winning while playing from behind, that's who I'm going to bet on any day of the week," Palmer said.

Palmer said flexibility is the key to attracting and retaining teams — "the beauty is whatever the entrepreneur can dream up," Palmer said. "We are letting these teams drive their vision of the future."

Adding mortgage services 'doesn't work in reality'

Even though Palmer has a background in finance and built his own mortgage company, he is adamant about keeping LPT out of the mortgage business.

"There's a graveyard of failed attempts," Palmer said. "I tell everybody that it looks great in a spreadsheet but it doesn't work in reality."

The reason, he said, is because a real estate brokerage doesn't have that type of financial relationship with its clients. "Unless you have that consumer relationship, you don't have the right to try, but I also think you don't have a chance at success," Palmer said.

Rather than funneling buyers to a brokerage-affiliated mortgage company, Palmer believes agents and teams should serve as a resource to help their clients choose the best loan officer for their needs.

Compensation models that work for all agents

Palmer grew up with a single mother who was a real estate agent but only worked a few deals a year — an experience that influenced his hybrid approach to compensation at LPT.

The brokerage has two different commission models: a fee-based plan tailored for part-time agents — who, he noted, make up the majority of agents nationwide — and a revenue sharing plan for more active agents.

Having seen his mom struggle through the dry seasons of real estate, Palmer believes "it's really important as an industry" to take care of the part-time agent. 

"If we leave that person behind," he said, "we're going to find ourselves without the capacity we need to perform in a boom, and we're not going to have enough folks to help consumers realize the dream of homeownership."

Editor's note: Real Estate News is an editorially independent division of T3 Sixty.