Real REMAX Group CEO Tamir Poleg urged agents to prepare for several more years of sluggish home sales — while arguing that The Real Brokerage’s merger with REMAX and rapid investment in artificial intelligence (AI) could give agents a competitive edge.
Speaking Tuesday at the company’s RISE conference in Las Vegas, Poleg delivered a candid assessment of housing affordability, consumer finances and the industry’s long-term outlook.
Poleg said the recovery Real had anticipated for 2026 has not materialized and cautioned agents against expecting a quick turnaround.
“I think that all of us should be prepared for a few more years of very slow existing home sales, both in the U.S. and in Canada,” he told attendees. “It will be better if we don’t paint a rosy picture here. At the same time, there are opportunities in every market. I’m talking to agents and teams that are having their best year ever, so kudos to you.
“It shows that the market does not dictate our performance, and we can do great, and we can capture market share and we can do better than others.”
He also predicted that U.S. home prices could decline over the coming months and years as the market continues to adjust to high borrowing costs and affordability pressures. In Canada, he said, prices have already fallen from their peak, in part because many borrowers must refinance mortgages more frequently than U.S. homeowners.
With U.S. homeownership costs consuming a historically high share of household income, Poleg said prices or interest rates must ease, wages must rise or some combination of those changes must occur to solve affordability problems.
He was skeptical that mortgage rates would return to 4.5% soon — pointing to geopolitical uncertainty, oil prices and U.S. national debt.
Poleg also warned that high consumer debt and weak sentiment could weigh on spending, while saying current foreclosure trends do not resemble the conditions that preceded the 2008 housing crisis.
“[In 2008] there was a correlation between foreclosures and bankruptcies, so there was a spike in bankruptcies, then a spike in foreclosures and they went hand in hand,” he said. “What we are seeing right now in the market is that yes, there are a little bit more foreclosures — still way below the historic average. But at the same time, we are seeing bankruptcies slowly declining. So again, the consumer is strong.
“I don’t think that we will see a lot of foreclosures coming. We have to remember that 40% of homeowners in the U.S. don’t have any mortgage, free and clear, they own their homes. The other 60%, many of them, just accumulated so much equity in their home that there is just no risk that their homes will go into foreclosure. So, this is not 2008.” Poleg’s statistics come from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Real-REMAX combination aims to widen agents’ reach
Poleg described the Real-REMAX combination as a move with benefits that will continue to emerge over the long-term.
Real and REMAX agents may increasingly have opportunities to share office space, attend training and participate in local events across both organizations, he added.
“This combination is very strategic, and when you’re evaluating strategic moves, you don’t have to think about today or tomorrow or a month from now,” Poleg said. “You have to think in 2-, 3-, 5-, 10-year increments, and the ‘what’s in it for me’ is going to show itself, reveal itself over the next weeks and months and years.”
Poleg also pointed to the potential for more education and training opportunities, while saying Real’s RISE conference would remain in place alongside REMAX’s R4 annual conference.
Another opportunity, he said, lies in data.
“Your listings are data, and you’re not monetizing right now,” said Poleg. “You’re the data that you generate, but I think the fact that Real and REMAX came together, and we’re the second largest brokerage in the world means that we can now dictate what’s happening with our data.”
According to 2026 RealTrends Verified data (based on 2025 production), The Real Brokerage was No. 5 by both transaction sides and sales volume, with 131,047 transaction sides. REMAX was the sixth brand by sides with 378,961 transaction sides, according to RealTrends Verified data.
“Right now, you’re uploading the data to the MLS. The MLS gives it to Zillow. Zillow monetizes it, makes a lot of money. You’re getting nothing — and I believe that that will change,” he added.
AI reshaping real estate systems
Poleg said the merger could also improve Real’s AI capabilities by giving its technology access to a larger pool of transaction information and conversations.
He argued that AI is particularly suited to systems involving paperwork, rules and complex records — tasks that are difficult for people to process at scale. In real estate, that could mean smarter tools for transactions, lending and other services connected to homeownership.
Poleg used an analogy involving cows to explain how AI’s future capabilities could exceed people’s ability to understand them.
Just as cows can observe humans without understanding money or financial markets, he said, people may eventually struggle to comprehend how AI-driven systems make decisions.
“What will happen in the near future is that AI will take over financial systems, legal systems and housing systems,” said Poleg. “It will take over all bureaucracies. Every place where there’s vast data, a lot of red tape, a lot of bureaucracy, AI will take over that because AI has a bureaucratic nature. Human beings, our brains, were born millions of years ago. We evolved a little bit, but not much. We were born in forests. That’s what we’re used to. AI was born in an office.
“For AI, bureaucracy and data is native. It’s not native for us. You cannot expect a human being to process all the transactions that are happening in a bank. AI can do that in milliseconds. AI can remember all the details in an MLS — all the past transactions for the past whatever years. You cannot expect a human to do that. AI will take over systems and create a much better system.”
He said the pace of development has already exceeded what Real anticipated a year ago, when the company’s ambitions for Leo, its AI assistant, focused on communicating with clients.
Advances since then, Poleg said, point to even greater changes in the next several years.
Keeping people at the center
Despite his expansive vision for AI, Poleg emphasized that technology is intended to help agents rather than eliminate the human role in real estate.
Buying and selling homes remain deeply personal decisions, and he said people will continue to need guidance and support through those transactions.
“Just try and imagine what AI will be able to do in a year from now, in two years, in five years,” Poleg said. “But while all those changes are coming, there will be one thing that is not going to change, and that is the human in the center of that transaction. And that’s never going to change. No matter how smart AI is, we are humans.
“Humans are buying homes. Humans will be assisted by humans, by you, by us. I can guarantee you that we are here to make sure that you come out of this as the winners.”
The market may remain difficult in the near term, but agents who set realistic expectations, build relationships and make effective use of a broader network and new technology can still find opportunities, the CEO said.
