Company Interview / RMA's green shoots in US real estate

Key points:

RMA Global’s (ASX: RMY) strategic partnership with Realty One Group aims to enhance agent reputation and consumer confidenceThe collaboration highlights a strategic shift towards integrated experiences and a comprehensive acquisition pathThe CEO is optimistic about growth opportunities despite macroeconomic challenges

Jim Crisera, CEO of RMA Global (ASX: RMY) shares insights about the company's strategic partnership with US-based Realty One Group. RMA Global (ASX: RMY) assists real estate agents in obtaining listings by focusing on their reputation. By providing third-party credibility and highlighting trustworthy agents, the company aims to boost consumer confidence during agent selection.

Jim describes how the partnership with Realty One Group, encompassing around 20,000 agents, signals a strategic shift towards integrated experiences. The collaboration is anticipated to enhance how reputational data is captured and presented, providing a comprehensive consumer experience and improving RMA Global's (ASX: RMY) acquisition path for agents and teams.

Despite macroeconomic challenges, Jim remains optimistic about growth opportunities in New Zealand, Australia, and North America. He emphasises the importance of well-placed investments and ongoing partnerships with brokerages to drive future success. He aims for continuous updates to shareholders on progress and new deals

Full unedited transcript below:

0:00

Well. Property marketplace Arma global has inked a strategic partnership with US based real estate brokerage Realty One Group, to get us across the details of the deal, what it means going forward. Our May Global's CEO, Jim Cassara joins me now. Jim, welcome. I'm not overly familiar with Arma global. Nice to have you here. Can you just give us the 62nd elevator pitch of what you actually do?

0:26

Yeah, we fundamentally help real estate agents get listings. So we work very much with their reputation. And as we know, referrals and repeat business are the way that real estate agents do get listings. And and as people go to research their agents, we make sure that the reputational data is first and foremost, as consumers are searching for who the best agents are. So we really like to highlight the the best agents and make sure that consumers can move forward with confidence. Okay, so this is a platform that real estate agents can register to become part of. or is that a reverse engineer? Whereas you can white label some technology that they then use.

1:06

Well, we believe that the independent brand is really important. So rate my agent provides that third party validation that this isn't just an agent making up a great review on their behalf and putting it on a website. So we do provide that credibility, and we also provide some badging to make sure that we are really highlighting the most trustworthy and expert agents in the field and and providing some data for help, you know, that will help consumers make a very well educated decision on the best agent to represent. So realty one. So for those of us not familiar with how big, uh, you know, how big that market is, you know, how big is this announcement yesterday?

1:47

So we're really excited about it. Um, not only because it really one is a great brand. Uh, they have a great network there. Um, uh, they've got about 20,000 agents that they work with, which is a very good sized brokerage in the industry. Um, but we're excited for what it represents. And when I joined, uh, a number of months ago, the focus really needs to be on joining the ecosystem. So we want to get partnerships with brokerages and the website providers and tech providers so that we can really move forward in the process. We want to be the first ones to get the reviews as soon as transactions close. And that's on behalf of all agents, not just the ones that are our customers today. So what that will allow us to do is to gather a much wider body of review capabilities, and will change the conversation as we go to down to the agents to make sure that, um, they can get their reputation out there as much as possible, because we will already be capturing some of that reputational data

2:47

for them. Interesting. So is this, uh, this partnership an example of this strategic shift? Is it one of the green shoots in your most recent quarterly report that you were talking about. Exactly. Yeah. So historically, we've really gone after agents in the wild, as I say, where each individual agent is working for different brokerages. They have different, uh, MLS is in the US where the data flows through. And, you know, by providing a fully integrated scenario, it just allows a better consumer experience. And for us, it allows us to have a much better acquisition path to to acquire these paying agents and, and teams. Uh, because we are going to now partner with the brokerage to get an integrated experience, elevate that brokerage website and and content so that when consumers come to that property, they're able to get full reputational data. But then when we go to talk to agents, it's it's not about introducing who we are. It's talking about how can we now extend that brand awareness

3:46

beyond the brokerage website and get into their social networks and, and other important portal distribution spots? And when it comes to our Ma global, specifically, you know, you are facing macroeconomic headwinds in a high interest rate environment here and around the world. Although now that's sort of starting to shift, particularly in New Zealand and the US in a big way. Is that a tailwind?

4:12

Well, I think, you know, insurance is something that's going to help get people to buy to move again. And I do believe there's a lot of pent up demand for people that have had life event changes that have been hesitant to move because of the real estate interest rate, uh, mortgage interest rate changes. And so as we as we start to see more homes become available, that should help transaction volume. We've also had some changes, particularly in the US around the, the, the settlement that that really focused on commissions for the buyer agents. And, uh, a couple of weeks ago, we introduced a price to expert badge that, again, provides validation and credibility for those agents that consistently meet or exceed the price expectations for our customers. So again, I think we're going to really continue to highlight those best of breed agents. And um, again, with with particularly the focus on getting into brokerages, um, and partnering with them to get after their agent base, I think we're, we're pretty excited about where we're heading.

5:11

Is there any more cost that you can take out of the business as you continue this transformation?

5:18

Well, I mean, there's always costs you can take out of the business. It's the balance of is that the right thing to do to maximize your growth opportunities. And I really feel that we're in a position, um, where we can continue. Well, first return to growth in Australia, New Zealand markets. And again, that same approach will will prevail here where we believe we can get better relationships with the brokerages. But then in North America, where we've got huge opportunities in front of us. Um, you know, I think it's time to actually look to invest in that market versus retract and and try to, um, you know, take more cost out of the business. I think we've done a really good job with cash management. And, um, you know, we're we're making sure that we're investing in the right places. Okay. And so the share price, I mean, it's languishing, let's be honest. So these are the kind of catalysts like these types of partnerships. If I'm an investor I want to know what what sort of is are the next catalyst coming down the track. Yeah. And again, that's why we wanted to get this release out there because this is exactly the type of deal we want to be going and, and and

6:17

looking and reporting back to our shareholder base. Um, we want to change the focus of the business. We want to go after brokerages. We want to get integrations with all the transaction management systems and essentially move to that front position. And as we're able to go do that, we want to continue to keep, um, our investors in the community up to speed on our progress. So we're really excited about our opportunities. And, you know, I think at this point, from a share price perspective, we need to continue to deliver. So we've we've got a number of these uh, in flow. And and we want to, you know, again, we'll continue to keep people updated as we make progress and actually close the transactions and, and move them out of the out of the funnel.