eXp ‘off to the races’ after NextHome acquisition
Days after announcing its acquisition of the franchise brand, eXp reported a 5% year-over-year bump in revenue as net losses improved.
NextHome was the main topic of conversation during eXp's quarterly investor update, with the cloud-based brokerage referring to its acquisition of the franchise brand as adding a "separate chassis" to its structure.
"We specifically went for a young, growing, well-recognized, highly rated franchise system," eXp Realty CEO Leo Pareja said during the May 11 call. The industry's consolidation trend, which has seen some legacy brands transition to new ownership, has "created a massive opportunity for us," he added.
In Q1, revenue increased 5% year-over-year to $1 billion, and net losses improved compared to this time last year. But while agent count rose 1% year-over-year, eXp shed nearly 400 agents at the end of 2025 — and its quarterly measure of agent satisfaction fell significantly.
What eXp had to say
On agent contentment: The brokerage reported an agent Net Promoter Score (aNPS) in the mid- to high-70s throughout 2025, but that number plummeted from 78 a year ago to 67 in Q1.
According to Pareja, "anything in the 70s is considered good." But he acknowledged that the aNPS is "a very good example of a real-time fire or smoke detector system — and we were able to identify it."
The drop occurred "despite ongoing efforts to enhance the agent value proposition," noted Stephen Sheldon, an equity research analyst at William Blair. "In an increasingly competitive market, getting the value proposition right will be critical to sustaining retention and restarting agent growth."
On NextHome: In light of its recent acquisition, eXp World Holdings Founder and CEO Glenn Sanford said the company "can now welcome independents and entire offices that previously couldn't find a home with us without compromising what makes the eXp model work."
Pareja added that the move could attract real estate professionals who have "woken up in the last 24 months completely caught off guard by a new ownership structure" and the discovery that the new culture may "differ substantially from how they may view the world, from putting the consumer first to transparency."
Talks to acquire NextHome "started in earnest" last September, Pareja noted, and unlike other M&A announcements over the past few months, "this is closed — and we're off to the races."
For now, the deal is "more of a strategic addition to our platform," Chief Financial Officer Jesse Hill said. "Their financial contribution will, frankly, be modest when you layer it against our full consolidated results in the near term."
But eXp is "more focused on the long term of this deal — the value that it brings in incremental agents, production and margin," Hill noted.
On eXp's new ticker symbol: In addition to last week's M&A move, eXp announced that its ticker symbol on Nasdaq was changing from EXPI to AGNT.
The change "wasn't cosmetic," Sanford said. "It was really the clearest possible statement of what this company is and who it's built for."
Key numbers
Revenue: $1 billion in Q1, up 5% compared to a year ago.
Cash and cash equivalents: $122.1 million at the end of March, up slightly from $115.7 million at the end of March 2025.
Net income/loss: A loss of $5.1 million for Q1, better than its $11 million net loss for the same period a year ago.
Adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization): $4.1 million in Q1, an 88% increase from $2.2 million a year ago.
Transactions: 91,598 in Q1, up 2% year-over-year.
Agent count: 82,332 at the end of March, up 1% compared to a year ago but down from 83,060 at the end of December.
Q2 outlook: Revenue between $1.36 billion and $1.45 billion for Q2. The company's full-year forecast was unchanged from its Q4 earnings report, with full-year revenue expected to be between $4.85 billion and $5.15 billion.
Notable moves
The NextHome acquisition came less than two months after eXp struck a deal allowing its agents to syndicate "Coming Soon" listings to Realtor.com, Homes.com and ComeHome.com. The capability, which was announced days after Zillow shifted its approach to pre-market listings, kicked off on April 15.
Like many other firms, eXp has been facing litigation on multiple fronts over the past few years. One case — a commissions lawsuit initiated by homesellers in 2023 — reached a conclusion for eXp in late March, with a judge granting final approval of the brokerage's $34 million settlement. But a sexual assault lawsuit involving eXp continues, with the brokerage losing its bid to get fraud claims removed from the case in April.
Meanwhile, eXp World Holdings has requested shareholder approval to move its incorporation to Texas from Delaware. A decision had not been announced at the time of the company's Q1 earnings report.