Culture is the reason agents stay, and it is the reason agents leave. Commission splits get you in the door, but who answers your questions, shares their playbooks, and celebrates your wins is what keeps you building. This post is about REAL Brokerage's culture from the inside: the One Real community, the RISE 2026 conference that brought nearly 2,000 agents to Las Vegas, and the North Group Method, the team system Tory Akene uses to keep that culture personal inside a 180,000-agent platform.
Searching "best brokerage for agents" or "real estate team building"? The numbers matter, but culture is what the numbers do not show you.
"We Are Greater Than Me": The One Real Idea
REAL positions itself as a technology-enabled real estate platform built on innovation and agent culture. Its founding belief is simple: "we are bigger than me." The community that lives that belief is called One Real, a culture of collaboration where agents openly share expertise, gain insights, and grow together, per the joinreal.com community page. It is not marketing fluff: an agent in Hamilton can post a question and get answers from top producers across the country, and the company's long-term success is tied to your success.
RISE 2026: The Culture, On Stage
The clearest proof of REAL's culture is RISE, the annual in-person conference. RISE 2026 ran October 19 to 21 at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas with nearly 2,000 agents under the theme "The Future is Real, The Future is You," per REAL's RISE 2026 FAQ. The fifth annual event launched Real Young Professionals, added a RISE Remote virtual option, and wove peer learning through the whole agenda. In a virtual-first brokerage, RISE is the annual proof that virtual does not mean isolated.
The Rhythms That Keep a Virtual Brokerage Connected
Between conferences, REAL runs a weekly and monthly rhythm built to keep every agent connected:
- Real Connect is the company-wide monthly meeting, hosted by REAL leadership with company updates and special guests, open to every agent (per the REAL help centre).
- Real Academy delivers more than 30 live training sessions a week, taught by top-producing agents (real.academy).
- Agent BreakThru, a free 8-week virtual coaching experience REAL opened to agents of any brokerage, was launched as a reflection of the company's collaborative culture (official announcement).
- Mentor programs at the state and provincial level pair newer agents with experienced producers, formalizing the "we are bigger than me" belief.
Weekly training, a monthly all-agent meeting, an annual conference, and formal mentorship: the infrastructure exists so that no agent, wherever they are, works in a silo.
The North Group Method: Culture With a System
Company culture gives you the platform. Team culture gives you the edge. North Group is the Toronto-area team Tory is part of, founded in 2017 and one of the teams that helped prove REAL's model works. When North Group joined REAL in March 2022, the announcement noted more than $200 million in sales in 2021 and nearly $1 billion in cumulative sales since 2017, per the official joining announcement. The team ranks in the top 1% of the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board and serves roughly 300 clients a year.
The North Group Method is the operating system underneath that success: a seven-step framework that moves from client discovery and market education to integrated marketing and systems-driven execution, ending in client-for-life relationships. The culture code is one line: "Always Choose Generosity." Knowledge is shared openly, leads flow through a fair funnel, support staff handle the busywork, and wins are celebrated collectively. Generosity plus systems is exactly what agents miss when they switch brokerages and land somewhere with a good split but no team behind it.
Why Culture Is the Retention Engine, Post-Merger
Here is the part that changed in 2026. When the Real Brokerage and RE/MAX combination closed on August 24, 2026, the combined Real REMAX Group became a platform of more than 180,000 real estate professionals across 120+ countries, trading on NASDAQ as REAX, per the official completion announcement. That scale is incredible for referrals and brand recognition. It also makes belonging harder to come by: the agents who thrive in a company this big are the ones with a team, a method, and a culture that treats them like a person, not a number.
The takeaway: REAL runs a genuine company culture, and the North Group Method gives you a team culture inside it. You get the platform's scale and the team's attention at the same time, on top of the math agents already love: the 85/15 commission split, $0 monthly fees, company-paid revenue share five levels deep, and REAX stock awards.
Join REAL Through Tory and Feel the Difference
When you join REAL through Tory's referral link, you get the full stack: the 85/15 split, the cap, revenue share, stock awards, and Leo AI, plus a FREE AI Training Session. Tory, one of the world's first AI-certified REALTORS®, will teach you to run Leo, HeyLeo, and the platform's AI tools for lead generation, marketing, and client management. The training alone is worth thousands, and it is yours free when you join through her.
- Book a free strategy call on Tory's calendar, or call or text 289-814-TORY (8679). She answers her own phone.
- Bring your team and move together, with revenue share and stock awards compounding from day one.
- Experience the difference for yourself. Join REAL through Tory Akene and plug into One Real, RISE, Real Academy, and the North Group Method.
Culture is the reason agents stay. Join a brokerage that built both.
180,000+ agents. 85/15 commission split. $0 monthly fees. Revenue share five levels deep. REAX stock awards. One Real culture with the North Group Method behind you. Your move.
Prefer to talk it through? Call 289-814-TORY (8679) or email ToryInRealty@gmail.com.