As NextHome celebrates 10 years in franchising, the company is accelerating its commitment to leading the way forward through the latest industry changes, without losing sight of the humans who buy and sell houses.
At the core of the company is the Humans Over Houses® movement. This idea emphasizes that real estate should revolve around its most important element—people. For NextHome members, it’s all about the stories. Agents aren’t just selling houses, they are selling homes. This approach has fostered an unparalleled collaborative culture among the organization’s 6,000+ members.
Being client-centric has also led to the adoption of innovative technology and marketing, which the company then integrates into a single sign-on system. Together, NextHome’s technology and connected culture are designed with one goal in mind: helping the people who buy and sell real estate.
Looking toward the next 10 years and beyond, NextHome isn’t done innovating or growing. In the coming months, NextHome will unveil several tech products and lean into its steadfast commitment to empowerment through education.
Sitting down with Vice President of Sales Charis Moreno, we got an inside look at how NextHome envisions the future of real estate.
Real Estate magazine: Let’s start with the commission lawsuits. How is NextHome helping its brokers and agents navigate the outcome of the litigation?
Charis Moreno: NextHome has led on this issue for almost two years now. Our members are ready, prepared and capable of withstanding these changes, and whatever else comes our way.
Our leadership team has consistently been at the forefront of the lawsuit discussions. Back in 2023, we gathered our owners and brokers during an in-person event to retrain them—and their agents—on the best ways to navigate these changes, long before the trial ended.
Within an hour of the verdict, we were live on Zoom with our entire membership, as well as anyone in the industry who wanted to join, to break down what the verdict meant for them. By then, our members had already had months of education and access to resources on how to move forward with confidence.
We continuously update, coach and train our brokers and agents as these situations evolve. We’ve done it through email, flash webinars, podcast episodes and more. We stay constantly plugged into high-quality, primary-source information about this litigation’s impacts, so we can keep the knowledge flowing to our entire network.
This proactive strategy ensures that our members can adeptly navigate any upcoming changes. Change is constant, and there will always be some new real estate headline that raises the blood pressure.
People get scared when they lack understanding, but by providing information proactively, NextHome gives them the confidence to respond to clients and colleagues about what comes next.
When you educate people, you reduce fear and help them to be leaders in their communities. To me, empowering people in real estate is the most important thing NextHome can do.
RE: As the person leading NextHome’s growth, where is the franchise now?
CM: No matter how you look at the numbers, we’ve expanded our footprint more than any other real estate brand. The NAR® Residential Franchise Report, for example, showed that NextHome added 145 new offices over two years, compared to the next real estate brand, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, which added 67—at a time when most showed a loss or plateau in office count.
While growth is great, we focus on what makes NextHome attractive to great people. We are not the right fit for everyone, and sometimes people aren’t the right fit for us. Those who open NextHome offices embrace our vision because it’s something they feel personally connected to.
Culture is hard to quantify, but it’s real. And when you have the right culture, it’s a growth accelerant. With every new office addition, our core only becomes stronger. This is where
NextHome excels—emphasizing quality over quantity. The people you associate with will make or break a company and its culture.
Rather than recruiting, we focus on attracting people who align with NextHome’s Humans Over Houses vision. I’ve never made an outbound call asking anyone to join our company, and I don’t plan to start now.
Our focus on attracting great people, and then supporting them well, is a strategy that continues to work for us.
As we move forward, we are doubling down on empowering franchise owners to thrive in this market. We equip owners with the tools they need to attract top producers, providing unmatched training, support and technology. We offer the flexibility to help people succeed in the long term through both virtual and brick-and-mortar office options.
We also empower our franchise owners to retain top talent in an industry where the margins are getting thinner and commission pressure is increasing. Once you have the right people on board with the talent and tools to succeed, get out of the way and let them work.
This approach resonates. For the sixth year in a row, our members elevated NextHome through anonymous, third-party surveys to be the nation’s number one real estate franchise in owner satisfaction. These survey results from Franchise Business Review also named NextHome as the second-best franchise to own across all industries.
This era in real estate isn’t for the faint of heart. Interest rates, volatility, regulatory pressures and the ability to recruit strong talent are all challenges in franchising right now. However, by focusing on important core strategies, our members are more empowered than ever to face these obstacles.
RE: After 10 years, what are the most valuable lessons you’ve learned?
CM: I’ve learned that work works. As leaders in real estate, we show up every day and help people be the best versions of themselves.
This means leading from the front and getting into the trenches with people. Nobody likes to be told what to do from the back. NextHomies show up. We are there for training, coaching and events. We say the things that need to be said, even if they are hard for people to hear.
This approach to training and education has helped us fare much better than the industry average despite market volatility. In fact, comparing the number of existing homes sold over a two-year period, nationally versus our company, showed that NextHome beat the market by 14%.
We’ve learned that leadership that builds up other people is crucial. As a company, NextHome works tirelessly to empower franchise owners, brokers and agents with the tools they need to be successful.
That’s why we put a lot of energy into robust support for new additions to the franchise through their first 120 days. This initial training in business operations, marketing and technology sets them up for long-term success. When you find the right leaders to partner with, growth is easier, but still not easy.
We know that even the best tools only work when you pick them up, teach people to use them the right way, and put a little muscle behind them. Our member services department excels at empowering NextHomies. We provide the things you need, but each NextHome member is ultimately the driver of their own success.
There is a reason why we boast a 70%+ adoption rate of our included products and services. Over the years, we have built trust with our members when rolling out changes to our tech stack. We strive to be transparent about what we plan to roll out next, how new programs will integrate with existing tools, what gaps they might fill, what challenges we might face and how members can participate.
That trust means we listen to members when they vote with their time and money. If they’re not using a product, we replace it. If they’re not seeing the value in a training course, we update it. Connected leadership means asking questions and listening.
Innovative leadership requires us to pioneer new things, and that is what is leading us toward our new technology products. We are excited about the new tech coming in the future. Our leadership team has been at the forefront of developing technology that will change the game.
Last month, we rolled out a partnership with CubiCasa—an app that raises the bar for buyer agents who want a quick and easy-to-read 2D or 3D floor plan. In just five minutes, an agent can use their smartphone to build a floor plan with total area measurements, fixed furniture and more. CubiCasa allows someone looking for a home to quickly see a detailed floor plan and decide if the property is a good fit for their lifestyle.
For agents looking to grow their online influence, we will be launching an integration with industry leader Collabra Technology. NextHome members will use both AdBuilder and SphereBuilder to boost the exposure of listing online and take their social media presence to the next level.
One product we are especially excited about is Rayse. Developed in part by NextHome leaders, this is the first platform to visualize the agent-client relationship at the heart of every home-buying and-selling experience. The app depicts everything a real estate agent does in real time.
Through Rayse, the client has a crystal-clear picture of what step in the home-buying or home-selling process they are in, what is coming next, and the hours their REALTOR® spends working on all the things that clients don’t usually even see. This is a game changer as real estate professionals adapt to compensation structure changes.
These new tools will soon become part of the NextHome ecosystem, backed by the same unparalleled member support and training that our members are already used to.
At its core, every technology we introduce has to help us focus on the “who.” NextHome is centered on the people who buy and sell houses, and our technology supports that mindset.
RE: Where do you see real estate heading in the next 12-18 months?
CM: The future of real estate will be defined by professional, career-oriented agents who are there for every stage of homeownership. The headlines may claim that “the real estate industry is seeing a massive exodus” or that a large percentage of agents are leaving. Rather than scaring us, we find this exciting because we know those who stay and persevere are here for the right reasons. We’re not afraid of what lies ahead or of hard work; by putting people first, we’re confident we will overcome any difficulty.
Right now, NextHome’s back office handles everything from lead entry to contract closed. In the next 12-18 months, we aim to cover from lead entry to compensation paid, and everything in between. This keeps the agent at the center of the complete lifecycle of homeownership.
NextHome continues to provide the right tools to streamline brokerage operations. This enables our members with everything they need to remain front and center during the home-buying or home-selling journey. We recognize that commission pressure, profitability margins and keeping up with the pace of change are among the greatest threats to most agents and brokerages. This is why we focus on offsetting the costs related to marketing, technology and training—allowing our members to focus on what will make them most successful: the people.
Although volatility and the NAR lawsuits might reshape some aspects of real estate, NextHome is continuing to lead our members toward a consumer-centric model. Some things don’t change.
By centering real estate on the client, NextHome brokers and agents understand how to maneuver around the ebbs and flows of the market. Looking to the future, we are continuing to identify the right tools, unplugging ones that are no longer working and replacing them with better technology. We are built in a way that allows us to be nimble, no matter how big we are.
NextHome’s future-focused leadership ensures that real estate professionals are equipped to meet every challenge and opportunity. We are excited and look forward to what comes next in real estate, no matter what that may be.
For more information, visit www.nexthome.com.
