Top agents on how they built successful revenue share downlines

Katie Day, MoveMeToTexas

In Houston, Katie Day runs a team of 10 agents, known as The MOVEMETOTX Team, that’s brokered by Real. The medium-sized team closed 182 transaction sides in 2024 for a total sales volume of $60.86 million, good enough to be ranked No. 11 in the state in the 2025 RealTrends Verified Rankings. 

Day began building her team at a traditional brick-and-mortar brokerage before moving to Real. A key source of motivation for the move, she said, was economics. 

“Being at a traditional brokerage with franchise fees and transaction fees, as we scaled the team and did more volume, it became more costly. And after comparing different options, Real made the most sense,” Day said.

This is also where Real’s revenue share model comes in. Since making the switch, Day has successfully built a downline network of 3,200-plus agents. The agents on her team are naturally part of her downline network, but she said that scouting for her team is different than recruiting agents for her network.

“Some people try to use their team to grow their downline network or vice versa, but that doesn’t always work because, generally speaking, the motivations and expectations of joining a team are different from those of joining a network,” Day said. 

The way Day sees it, agents joining teams are typically looking for leads, structure and accountability, whereas people joining a network want to be more autonomous while still having support when they need it. 

“With my team, we have daily huddles, do one-on-ones and have weekly coaching calls. But with the network, I feel like I am more of a support system that is there to help those agents grow their own businesses,” Day said. 

Day’s network is comprised of agents in various stages of their careers, from new agents starting out to experienced agents looking for advice on starting their own teams. With the diversity of Day’s network, it’s no surprise that the majority of agents who join her network do so because of a relationship they’ve built with Day. 

“We don’t put out content saying, ‘Come join Real,’ but we’ll put things out where we wear a Real T-shirt and we show that we are collaborating with others. And I think that is a lot of where I feel my network growth comes from — it is relationship-based,” she said. 

Alex Derenne and Alexis Hirsig, The PowerHouse Partners

Alex Derenne and Alexis Hirsig, who are also brokered with Real, run a network of agents known as The Powerhouse Partners. Based in Wisconsin, Hirsig and Derenne are looking to grow their network nationwide — and they are quick to point out that they run a network, not a team. 

“Powerhouse Parnters is not structured like a team at all,” Hirsig said on a recent episode of HousingWire’s RealTrending Podcast. “We are a community of agents that have come together to collaborate, build each other up and help each other’s businesses.” 

Hirsig and Derenne say their network is focused on providing agents with education and support to help them grow their own businesses.

“We aren’t viewed as team leaders, but we are there steering the ship for agents and providing them with value, teaching courses and enabling our agents to teach courses as well,” Hirsig said.

After a stint as a solo agent, Derenne said she found real value in running a business alongside someone else with similar goals and ambitions. But she doesn’t have to tie herself to them financially through a team commission split model. 

“There is more than enough business to go around, so why don’t we grow alongside of each other and push each other to be better? Because, ultimately, the better we are as agents, the better we are for our consumers,” Derenne said. 

The coaching and support that Derenne and Hirsig provide have allowed them to grow their network, attracting agents seeking hands-on support as they work to grow personal brands and businesses.

Parker Pemberton, Pemberton Homes Team

Like Day, Parker Pemberton has a business that consists of both his team and his revenue-share downline. Brokered by eXp Realty, agents on Pemberton’s Minnesota-based team are part of his downline, but the opposite is not true. 

“The way I look at it is, I run two organizations. I have Pemberton Homes, which is my real estate company, and then I have my eXp downline,” Pemberton said. “Both of those groups are fully fledged communities that I lead.” 

Pemberton stopped selling real estate in 2022 and is solely focused on leading the two organizations. Within his team, which has nearly 200 agents and operates more like a brokerage, Pemberton says his main goal is to ensure that the company’s financial situation is positive. That way, he’s able to ensure his agents and leaders have everything they need.

Outside of that, Pemberton says he also focuses on recruiting.

“I recruit every single day,” he said. “My job is to bring the best agents in my market to this company.”

But not all of these agents join Pemberton Homes. Instead, they can opt to join eXp Realty and be part of Pemberton’s downline. 

“I’m a growth-minded person — I like building things and being around people,” Pemberton said. “My eXp downline is filled with other teams and people that run their own business entities that have chosen to come to eXp and partner with me.”

In exchange for partnering with him, Pemberton said he “opens up his entire playbook to them.” 

“I’m going to help them grow. I’m going to help them get through problems that I’ve been through before, and I get financial compensation for that through the revenue share program,” he said. “The people with the biggest downlines are the ones contributing the most to the agents they recruit.” 

Pemberton feels that the traditional brokerage model is not supportive of helping top teams and agents build their own brands and companies. 

“An office manager who sits in an office for eight hours a day and hasn’t actively sold in 20 years isn’t really in a position to help a team go from $10 million in production to $100 million because they’ve never done it — I have,” Pemberton said.

“A lot of people want to work with someone like me to grow their business because I’ve made it around the corners they want to navigate. And I’ve failed and seen all of the things so I can help them avoid those pitfalls.” 

Spring Bengtzen, Utah Life Real Estate Group

Spring Bengtzen and her team may be new to eXp Realty — moving over in January 2025 — but she’s no stranger to the revenue share model. She first began building her team in 2010 at Keller Williams before moving to Real in 2021, where she said she built a large downline. 

“I believe that who you surround yourself with matters. And I wanted to get into some of those rooms with some of the bigger players,” Bengtzen said of her reasons for moving to eXp.

“I also really like eXp’s model. With the downlines. they allow you to have your own value proposition and create your own community, which is something I wanted to do.”

As the leader of a downline at Real, any products or services offered to the agents in the downline have to be made available to all Real agents, but that’s not the case at eXp. 

Like the other team and downline leaders, the agents on Bengtzen’s team are part of her downline, but not all of the agents in her downline are part of her team.

“Our team runs under a pretty traditional team model — we provide leads, office support and training, and we are all in Utah,” Bengtzen said. “The revenue share is all across the United States, and we collaborate, grow together, and provide some coaching, training and events.” 

She also noted that agents on her team are charged a 50-50 split, but she is compensated for the services she provides to agents in her downline through eXp’s revenue share model.

With her team, Bengtzen sees her role as the leader who supplies the business and support her agents need to successfully close transactions. Conversely, she views her revenue-share downline as an organization that collaborates to help each other grow.

Due to this looser role, Bengtzen said she does not actively recruit agents to her downline. Instead, she focuses on attraction-based recruiting to pique agents’ interest in eXp through publicly available webinars and events. 

“Some people are really aggressive with recruiting and do a lot of cold calling. And I have no problem with that, but I see my downline as a coaching and training organization that you don’t have to swipe your credit card to gain access to,” she said.

“You have to hang your real estate license somewhere. You might as well hang it someplace where you get these added benefits of coaching and community at no additional cost.”