{"id":49464,"date":"2026-04-29T00:19:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T21:19:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mk.gen.tr\/lpt-realtys-robert-palmer-we-run-the-brokerage-like-a-business-instead-of-as-a-loss-leader\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T00:19:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T21:19:27","slug":"lpt-realtys-robert-palmer-we-run-the-brokerage-like-a-business-instead-of-as-a-loss-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mk.gen.tr\/en\/lpt-realtys-robert-palmer-we-run-the-brokerage-like-a-business-instead-of-as-a-loss-leader\/","title":{"rendered":"LPT Realty\u2019s Robert Palmer: \u2018We run the brokerage like a business instead of as a loss leader\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

LPT Realty<\/strong> founder and CEO Robert Palmer took the stage Tuesday at HousingWire\u2019s<\/strong> The Gathering in Austin, Texas \u2014 outlining growth strategy built on team empowerment, agent retention and a deliberate separation from mortgage origination. <\/p>\n

Palmer<\/a>, who spent roughly 20 years in the mortgage business, has made a pointed decision not to attach a mortgage company, RP Funding, to LPT Realty. The firm offers only servicing and refis, not origination.<\/p>\n

Palmer\u2019s remarks came as LPT Realty continues to build momentum<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The firm<\/a> climbed from No. 10 to No. 7 in transaction sides on this year\u2019s RealTrends Verified<\/strong> brokerage rankings, increasing its total to 61,041 sides.<\/p>\n

He said LPT made a strategic choice not to compete with its own agents<\/a> and teams on mortgage, instead letting them pick the best local mortgage provider, loan officer or joint venture (JV) partner.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s become an excuse for large brokerages that are losing money to say, \u2018Oh, we need the ancillaries,\u2019\u201d Palmer said. \u201cI love to say it looks great in the spreadsheet. Every big lender and big real estate brokerage who do a JV \u2014 you know, spreadsheet together \u2014 they\u2019re going to make all this money because they\u2019re going to underpay the loan officers and expect the Realtors to fall in line and use them. And in reality, that doesn\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

He pointed to recent pivots from major players, including Compass<\/strong> and Anywhere<\/strong>, away from large-scale joint ventures<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem is if you actually pay loan officers what they\u2019re worth \u2014 which I think they should be paid \u2014 it doesn\u2019t look as good on the spreadsheet anymore,\u201d Palmer said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s not all of a sudden this super margin creative play for real estate brokerages.\u201d<\/p>\n

LPT has remained profitable for two consecutive years while growing 50% to 70% annually, according to Palmer. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe run the brokerage like a business instead of running the brokerage as a loss leader,\u201d he said. \u201cI think that irresponsibility is what brought me into the industry and why I was confident to leave mortgage behind.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhoever has that consumer relationship is really appreciated influence \u2014 you know, [over] who they\u2019re going to do business with,\u201d Palmer said. \u201cAnd we don\u2019t have that as a cloud brokerage. But the teams here [do], the agents do.\u201d<\/p>\n

A \u2018team-first\u2019 model for agents at every level<\/h2>\n

Palmer rejected the industry\u2019s historical tendency to prune lower-producing agents, noting that a large percentage of the industry falls into that bucket. <\/p>\n

He recalled watching his mother struggle as an agent, moving between real estate and mortgage work.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the market is down and we\u2019re in a 4 million-home sales market like we\u2019ve been in, that marginal agent or lower-producing agent is going to lose the most,\u201d Palmer said. \u201cThey\u2019re very dependent on that activity in the industry. But on the flip side, when we get to the boom \u2014 we call it boomsday at LPT \u2014 the market turns around and we get back to 4.8 million or 5 million home sales.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s going to feel like a bonanza, even though it\u2019s not a great number by historical standards, and we\u2019re going to need those agents to step up and help serve consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The firm now counts nine of the top 20 teams in the United States and more thousand-unit-plus teams than any other brokerage, Palmer said.<\/p>\n

Unlike many models that impose maximum caps on what teams can pay agents, LPT allows team leaders to set compensation as high as they want. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf they want to put an agent on a 95\/5 [split] because they\u2019ve been with them for five years and they don\u2019t need their leads anymore, we support that as a brokerage without changing their economics, where most brokerages don\u2019t,\u201d Palmer said. \u201cThat allows our teams to look more like traditional brokers, traditional franchises \u2014 and offer that team-for-life construct so the agents don\u2019t have to look at the team as a stepping stone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Organic growth and two strategic acquisitions<\/h2>\n

Rather than acquiring legacy franchise brokerages, Palmer said LPT has focused on organic growth and two technology purchases<\/a>; Humaniz<\/strong>, a team recruiting platform; and Reside<\/strong>, a coaching and team efficiency platform that also provides outsourced CFO services for teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea of buying a larger legacy franchise brokerage, I worry, do they become a cloud brokerage because we bought them, or do we end up becoming a legacy franchise brokerage?\u201d Palmer said. <\/p>\n

He said with more than 500 teams inside LPT, growth feeds itself. <\/p>\n

\u201cEven if we didn\u2019t attract any new teams \u2014 which we do continue to do \u2014 we would still grow as a brokerage as we help those teams grow inside of our network,\u201d said Palmer. <\/p>\n

He added that both Humaniz and Reside remain brokerage-agnostic. \u201cIt\u2019s not about making teams move to LPT,\u201d Palmer said. \u201cIt\u2019s about helping teams grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

On private listings and the one thing he\u2019d change<\/h2>\n

Palmer said LPT\u2019s guiding principle on private listings is agent choice, though he called the concept largely irrelevant for most of the firm\u2019s markets where the average sales price is roughly $390,000 to $400,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand the idea of private listing if you\u2019re in Manhattan,\u201d Palmer said. \u201cI\u2019ve got a home out in Montana in a neighborhood where everything was a private listing. Nothing has ever hit the MLS. I understand there are certain areas and neighborhoods and properties where that\u2019s necessary. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut where I live in Central Florida, it\u2019s irrelevant. With a half-million dollar home that was built by a builder in the last couple years, we would be doing a disservice [to add it to] a private listing network.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked what he would change about the industry with a magic wand, Palmer pointed to the lag between effort and reward in real estate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe efforts an agent is putting out today \u2014 the open houses they\u2019re holding, the neighbors they\u2019re talking to \u2014 is not going to turn into any type of revenue for them for [about] four, five, six months down the road,\u201d he said. \u201cWe see too many great entrepreneurs who have the potential and the talent, and they just don\u2019t have the ability to last through that lag.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s the absolute hardest part of this industry.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LPT Realty founder and CEO Robert Palmer took the stage Tuesday at HousingWire\u2019s The Gathering in Austin, Texas \u2014 outlining growth strategy built on team empowerment, agent retention and a deliberate separation from mortgage origination. Palmer, who spent roughly 20 years in the mortgage business, has made a pointed decision not to attach a mortgage…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mk.gen.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49464"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mk.gen.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mk.gen.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mk.gen.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mk.gen.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49464\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mk.gen.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mk.gen.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mk.gen.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}