RealTrending
The RealTrending podcast features conversations with the brightest minds in real estate. Every Monday, brokerage leaders, top agents, team leaders, and industry experts join us to share their secrets to success, trends, and the lessons they’ve learned. Hosted by Tracey Velt and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio.
Episodes
August 31, 2026 • 22 mins
On this episode of RealTrending, Tracey sits down with veteran executive recruiter Stephen Kowalchuk to unpack why succession planning for brokerage owners can’t wait. With so many independent owners now in their late 50s and 60s, Stephen explains that the industry is heading into one of the largest generational ownership transfers we’ve ever seen. Add recent market volatility and aggressive consolidation from regionals...
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August 24, 2026 • 23 mins
In this episode of RealTrending, Tracey Velt talks with Jack Gaughan, president of Greater Nashville Realtors and managing broker at REMAX Choice Properties, about what’s really happening in the Greater Nashville housing market. Jack explains how the market has shifted from a post-COVID boom to a more balanced, hyper-local environment, where conditions can look completely different just a few miles apart. With buyers enjoying...
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August 17, 2026 • 24 mins
On this episode of RealTrending, Jason Aleem, Redfin’s chief of real estate services, pulls back the curtain on what life looks like at Redfin one year after the Rocket Mortgage acquisition.
At the center of the strategy is Redfin Early Access, a premarket and coming-soon listings program designed to unlock reluctant sellers and put more homes in front of motivated buyers. Backed by survey data — 76% of sellers s...
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August 10, 2026 • 26 mins
On this episode of RealTrending, host Tracey sits down with Neda Navab, president of Compass, at what she calls a major inflection point for the company and the industry.
They dig into how Compass is navigating consolidation, AI and a choppy housing market while trying to stay relentlessly agent-first. Neda unpacks why she spent her first 100 days on the road doing 125 in‑person agent events, what she learned from those rooms, and...
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August 3, 2026 • 17 mins
In this RealTrending episode, Tracey Velt sits down with Anthony Djon, founder and CEO of Anthony Djon Luxury Real Estate in Michigan, to unpack how his team consistently converts internet leads at a staggering 7–9%, more than double the industry’s 2–3% average. Anthony walks us through how he started small with just a few Realtor.com zip codes, never intending to build a team, and how demand ultimately forced him...
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In this episode, RealTrending host Tracey Velt sits down with two powerhouse independent brokerage leaders on opposite coasts: Michele Harrington, CEO of FirstTeam Real Estate in Southern California, and Bess Freedman, CEO of Brown Harris Stevens in New York. Together, they unpack what it really means to be independent in an era of consolidation, margin pressure, and nonstop industry disruption. From culture and control to capital ...
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In this RealTrending episode, host Tracey sits down with James Wong, CEO and founder of MAXA Designs, to talk about what it really means to become an AI‑enhanced real estate business. While most of the industry is still stuck on basic use cases—asking ChatGPT to write an email or a social post—James pulls back the curtain on how top teams and brokerages are using AI to reengineer workflows, elevate their brand, and free...
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July 13, 2026 • 29 mins
On this episode of RealTrending, Tracey Velt sit down with Thad Wong, founder and co-CEO of @properties Christie's International Real Estate, but under the Compass International Holdings umbrella, for a candid, wide-ranging conversation on the portal wars, national MLS, AI, brokerage scale and the future of data in real estate.
Thad lays out why he believes a broker-agnostic national MLS is the industry's biggest missed opportunit...
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On this episode of the RealTrending podcast, Tracey Velt sits down with Craig McClelland, a partner in McClelland & Hahn Consulting, for a wide-ranging conversation about the forces reshaping residential real estate. Beyond the latest merger and acquisition headlines, Craig explains why the industry's biggest shift is happening behind the scenes, as brokerages become part of larger ecosystems driven by mortgage, technolog...
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On this episode of the RealTrending podcast, Tracey Velt sits down with Rainy Hake Austin, president of The Agency, to talk about scaling a luxury brokerage without losing the culture that made it successful in the first place. Austin explains how The Agency has expanded from roughly 30 offices to more than 160 across 15 countries while staying intentional about hiring leaders who align with the company’s collaborative, creat...
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June 22, 2026 • 21 mins
On this episode of the RealTrending Podcast, host Tracey Velt sits down with Felix Bravo,managing director, international for eXp Realty, to talk about growing up in real estate, building resilience through hard work, and helping scale one of the industry’s fastest-growing international brokerages. Bravo shares how watching his immigrant mother transition from lawyer to Realtor in Miami shaped his work ethic and perspec...
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June 15, 2026 • 28 mins
On this episode of the RealTrending podcast, Tracey Velt sits down with Chris Watters for a conversation that challenges one of real estate’s biggest assumptions: most teams don’t actually have a lead problem — they have a conversion and accountability problem.
Watters argues that brokerages spend too much time focused on training and buying more leads, while ignoring the ongoing coaching and accountability syste...
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HousingWire’s acquisition of Keeping Current Matters (KCM) takes center stage in this episode as Tracey Velt sits down with KCM President David Childers to discuss what the deal means for agents, brokers and the future of real estate market intelligence. Childers shares the story behind KCM’s nearly 20-year mission of helping agents understand and communicate market trends, transforming complex housing data into practic...
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June 8, 2026 • 22 mins
On this episode of the RealTrending podcast, Tracey Velt sits down with Dan Rochon, head coach of the Greetings Virginia Sales Network, to break down his “Teach to Sell” philosophy and why relationship-driven sales matter more than ever in today’s unpredictable housing market. Rochon argues that agents win by proactively educating clients, building trust before problems arise, and consistently showing up thr...
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On this episode of the RealTrending podcast, Tamir Poleg, CEO of The Real Brokerage, sits down with Tracey Velt to unpack why Real’s acquisition of REMAX is less about market share and more about combining scale, brand power and technology under one umbrella. Poleg explains that Real saw an opportunity to bring its AI-driven platform and growth mindset to a legacy franchise brand that still carries enormous recognition with c...
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May 28, 2026 • 32 mins
On this episode of RealTrending, host Tracey Velt sits down with Leo Pareja, CEO of eXp Realty and James Dwiggins, co-CEO of NextHome, to unpack the growing wave of consolidation across the real estate industry and what it means for agents, consumers and the future of listing data.
Pareja compares today’s real estate landscape to the airline industry’s consolidation era, arguing that fragmented industries e...
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May 26, 2026 • 26 mins
On this episode of the Real Trending podcast, Tracey Velt sits down with Paul Boomsma, CEO of Leading Real Estate Companies of the World (LeadingRE) to unpack the biggest forces reshaping the real estate industry — from consolidation and private listings to AI and the changing expectations of agents.
Boomsma describes today’s market as a moment of “hectic opportunity,” where mergers, acquisitions, AI ...
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In this episode of the Real Trending podcast, Tracey Velt sits down with Blake O’Shaughnessy, founder of Ownli, a platform aiming to rethink the traditional real estate transaction by removing agents entirely. Built around the idea that “search got modern, but pricing didn’t,” Ownli offers sellers a DIY platform where they can list homes, manage showings, negotiate offers and complete contracts without payin...
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May 11, 2026 • 22 mins
On this episode of the RealTrending podcast, Ashley Thomas III, president of the National Association of Real Estate Brokers (NAREB), joined Tracey Velt to discuss the policies, barriers and opportunities shaping homeownership access across the country — especially within Black communities.
Thomas framed the Black homeownership gap as more than a market issue, arguing that it was created through decades of intentional policy...
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May 4, 2026 • 23 mins
LIVE from HousingWire’s Gathering, Tracey Velt sits down with Jim D’Amico, CEO of Brands by Integra, to talk about brokerage growth, industry consolidation and why he’s optimistic about the Compass acquisition of Anywhere.
D’Amico built his company from two agents in Massachusetts into a multi-brand operation with roughly 2,000 agents across 18 states. Today, Brands by Integra includes multiple real estate ...
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