Headcount at the world’s largest real estate brokerage is shrinking, and two lawsuits claiming sexual assaults inside the company may offer clues as to why 

• eXp Realty was a real-estate juggernaut that swelled to more than 80,000 agents based on a revenue-share plan that paid each staffer for bringing in new agents. But a short-seller tells Fortune he believes the company is a multi-level marketing operation—and three academics told Fortune they agree. eXp denies this and says its structure is an innovative way to reward successful brokers. Founder Glenn Sanford has stepped back from the spotlight after a pair of sexual misconduct lawsuits, reviewed by Fortune, alleged he knew women were being drugged and assaulted inside the company and did little to prevent it. eXp denies the allegations against its leadership and claims the alleged assaults by independent real estate agents were handled with seriousness once the accusers brought it to its attention.

eXp Realty founder Glenn Sanford built the largest independent real estate brokerage in the world, with about 83,000 agents, by promising to share the company’s revenue with his staff. But a decline in agents on his watch for the first time ever suggests the revenue-sharing model that put eXp Realty on the map might now be slowly eroding it from within, Fortune has learned after interviews with a former employee and a short seller, and after reviewing two lawsuits filed against the company.

To complicate matters, the two ongoing lawsuits claim Sanford knew some of his agents were sexually assaulting their peers but did little about it in order to protect the revenues those agents were earning. Those suits, which allege sexual battery, claim eXp is essentially two parallel businesses. One is a traditional real estate brokerage that earns commissions from selling property. The other is a pyramid-style scheme, whose fortunes are dependent on agents recruiting other agents, both suits claim. The company and the accused men deny the claims.

The two lawsuits describe eXp’s compensation structure—where agents get paid for bringing in more agents, and get a cut of their earnings—as a “multi-level marketing real estate company” and a “multi-level marketing revenue share plan pyramid.”

The number of agents and brokers at eXp declined by 5% in 2024, following a 1.8% quarter-over-quarter decrease reported in the fourth quarter of 2023. eXp’s revenue is closely tied to the number of agents it has because its sales are generated by commissions on real estate transactions conducted by its agents. The company’s growth tends to correlate to the growth of its agent and broker base. 

That raises an obvious question: Can eXp sustain itself if its agent headcount is in decline? 

Some people are betting it won’t. 

Bradley Safalow, founder and chief executive of investment services firm PAA Research, placed a short bet against the stock in September 2020; he would not disclose the size of his position. “There is one universal truth about a multi-level marketing company, which eXp is,” Safalow told Fortune, “if you don’t bring people in at the bottom of the pyramid, the whole thing kind of unravels.” 

Three academics—Harvard Business School professor Lauren Cohen, Johns Hopkins Carey Business School professor Shubhranshu Singh, and Hamline University economics professor Stacie Bosley—told Fortune they believed eXp is a multi-level marketing operation. They pointed to its revenue-sharing compensation structure, which they said aligns with the definition of multi-level marketing because it incentivizes agents to recruit more agents and it enables top-tier agents to earn revenue share on transactions made by those below them, one professor explained.

The company denies it is a multi-level marketing operation. “eXp Realty is not a traditional multi-level marketing company; it operates as a real estate brokerage where agents earn direct commissions on property sales,” the company told Fortune in a statement. “Since Glenn Sanford introduced this innovative model, it has proven its viability and sustainability in the market, leading to its adoption by new entrants in the industry.” 

A changing of the guard 

Sanford, a 58-year-old who ran a successful real estate team at Keller Williams for three years before leaving and founding eXp Realty under a holding company in 2009, named it after the prefixes for “excellence” and “experienced.” He called it “the agent-owned cloud brokerage” because it was all-virtual and supposed to be better for agents.

The brokerage gained traction. It had 25 agents in 2009, but 10 years later, it had 23,000. At the end of 2022, the number was a staggering 86,203.

Shares of eXp have been on a wild ride. After trading at $77 in 2021, they are currently just under $9.50, giving eXp a market capitalization of $1.44 billion. 

Sanford and his ex-wife previously controlled around 45% of the company between them. From 2017 to 2025, Sanford and his ex-wife agreed to vote as one, but after Fortune asked eXp for comment about their combined 45% stake, the two severed their agreement. The end of the agreement “had been an ongoing discussion and consideration prior to receiving your request for comment,” the company told Fortune.

Sanford sold some 1.6 million shares from the start of 2024 through late February 2025, for a value of $21 million, according to an examination of the company’s disclosures by Michael Taylor, a research associate for Washington Service, a data provider, and a calculation by Fortune. Sanford still personally controls approximately 26% of the outstanding stock.

A year ago, Sanford appointed a new chief executive for the brokerage, Leo Pareja, and stepped back from the day-to-day business. Sanford remains chairman and CEO of the parent company, eXp World Holdings. Pareja, notably, has no ties to the accusations of misconduct of years past. “Sanford’s decision to step down as CEO of eXp Realty was not related to any misconduct claims,” the company said. 

The company declined to make Sanford available for an interview, but in a statement to Fortune said: “eXp Realty has a strong leadership team, with Glenn Sanford providing vision and innovation as founder and CEO of eXp World Holdings, while Leo Pareja drives operational excellence and agent-centric growth as CEO of eXp Realty. Their complementary roles strengthen eXp’s commitment to delivering value to agents, brokers, and staff.” 

In an email to Fortune, Pareja, on behalf of eXp, shared the same response.

‘Growth over everything’

eXp officially describes Sanford as a forward-thinking, innovative entrepreneur, focused on the big picture. He once tried to launch an Uber Eats-like food delivery service years before the market was ready for it, according to the company website. eXp under Sanford purchased Success Enterprises, and its magazine, because real estate and personal development go hand in hand, the acquisition announcement suggested. Billionaires and celebrities, such as Elon Musk and Mark Cuban, have graced its glossy covers. Sanford himself was on the cover once. “The best way to predict the future is to invent it,” the site claims is a phrase he lives by.

There is one aspect of the business that Sanford has always focused on: agent count, according to Safalow, the short bettor. As agent headcount grew into the tens of thousands over the years, eXp’s revenue ballooned along with it. Now, agent count is in decline. That might threaten topline sales, if the company really is a multi-level marketing scheme—as the sexual misconduct lawsuits claim and Safalow claims.

eXp claims its revenue share plan is a “competitive differentiator” that has disrupted the residential real estate brokerage model, and allows agents to make more money by bringing other agents into the fold at eXp. That self-perpetuating recruitment mechanism helped fuel eXp’s rapid rise. But the company claims improved productivity per agent offsets the decline in agent count.

A high-level employee who worked at eXp for six years before leaving to become a competitor said Sanford was keen on besting his rivals and climbing to the top. “It was growth over everything,” said Erinn Nobel, a 25-year real estate veteran and founder and president of ENRG.realty. “He wanted to be the biggest and the best.”

The revenue share plan

At the heart of eXp is the revenue-share program. The brokerage states, “eXp Realty is committed to sharing 50 percent of the company dollar with the agents who help the company grow.”

The plan functions as a recruitment and retention tool: agents benefit from bringing in other agents and becoming their sponsor. Every time a sponsee agent closes a sale, the person who brought them into the company receives a cut of their commission. There are seven tiers that dictate what percentage is shared to whom. Agents sponsoring other agents can earn 17.5% of a revenue share pool from sales in tier-one transactions, for example. More tiers and earnings are unlocked the more agents you sponsor, and the more agents your sponsee sponsors.

In 2024, eXp claimed it paid its agents $220 million through revenue share and equity benefits; that year, it made $4.6 billion in revenues. In 2023, it was $230 million through revenue share and equity benefits, and the company reported $4.3 billion in revenues.

When Safalow first delved into eXp more than four years ago, he recognized a “stunning achievement”—its growth. No one had ever seen agent-count soar as high. Still, he saw red flags. Nothing about its technology, advertising strategies, or commission structure was proprietary to the company—so Safalow shorted the stock, betting its price would go down. 

“I just think he’s really focused on growing this business with agent count,” said Safalow, referring to Sanford. Agent count seemed to be more important to the company than the cyclical nature of real estate, or the way interest rates, or supply and demand affect the market, Safalow said.

In a statement to Fortune, eXp said its revenue-sharing model helped incentivize growth. As for the reduction in headcount, the company states it occurred to “off-board less productive agents.” 

“eXp operates a real estate brokerage model that is healthy, successful, and remains one of the top-performing companies in our industry. eXp real estate agents are independent professionals who use the eXp brand and services. Our entrepreneurial agents seek to attract other serious and productive professionals, committing to provide support and assistance to those professionals throughout the course of their career with eXp Realty. Similar to other revenue/profit sharing companies, eXp offers a generous revenue sharing program, which incentivizes company growth and also helps agents build for their retirement,” the company said.

A ‘sunset cruise’—and an alleged assault 

In two separate lawsuits, filed in the U.S. District Court in California, in February 2023 and December 2023, five women allege they were drugged and sexually assaulted. Two male former real estate agents who were sponsors to some of the women are named in the lawsuits, but the accusations include others. The women claim the company ignored the incidents.

One woman claimed that during a conference in Puerto Vallarta in 2020, which included a booze-soaked “sunset cruise” from Banderas Bay to Las Caletas, she met a couple: David Golden, an agent, and his girlfriend Emily Keenan. Keenan gave her a pill and told her it was Adderall, the suit claims. She blacked out and has no memory of the rest of the evening. The next day, her lawsuit claims, she met Keenan and Golden and again became intoxicated after the two offered her a drink. She claims she was sexually assaulted by both of them while incapacitated.

Another woman, according to the complaint that cites a police report, alleged she discovered other women were drugged and sexually assaulted after attending recruiting events. 

A third woman claims that, at an industry event at the Pelican Hill Hotel in California in 2018, she had a single cocktail with Michael Bjorkman, an agent, at the hotel bar. She remembers nothing until the next morning when she awoke naked in Bjorkman’s hotel room, her lawsuit claims, where he and another woman were in the other bed naked. Another man was on the floor; he was clothed.

Bjorkman was arrested on charges of two counts of sexual assault in Miami-Dade County in 2021. Bjorkman denied the charges and the case was later dismissed. Golden was Bjorkman’s sponsor agent, according to the two complaints. Both Golden and Bjorkman are named as defendants in both suits.

During an earnings call in November 2023, before the New York Times published an investigation uncovering the lawsuits, Sanford referred to the two men as “bad actors.” Speaking through an avatar of himself on a video, Sanford announced the accused men had been fired and defended the company’s handling of the situation.

“Mr. Bjorkman previously successfully defended himself, and we are litigating in court against these pending allegations. Mr. Bjorkman continues to fight for full vindication,” attorneys David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld said in a statement to Fortune.

Golden’s attorney, Peter Levine, said in a statement: “Mr. Golden respects the legal process and looks forward to clearing his name in court. He unequivocally condemns sexual assault and exploitation and remains confident that when all the evidence emerges, he will prevail at trial.”

Sanford Passman, an attorney for Keenan, told Fortune, “the plaintiff does not have a case against my client.” Passman filed a motion to dismiss, but the judge has not ruled on it. 

The company said: “We take our responsibility to foster a safe and inclusive environment very seriously. eXp Realty has zero tolerance for abuse, harassment, or misconduct of any kind—including by the independent real estate agents who use our services. The claims in this case stem from alleged assaults by independent real estate agents who were never eXp employees—which we handled with speed, seriousness, and deep respect as soon as the accusers brought it to our attention, in line with our values and with the law. eXp hopes and trusts the court will give a full and fair hearing to the plaintiffs as they pursue claims against the individuals who allegedly assaulted them. However, the claims against eXp and its leadership have no basis in fact or law, and to which eXp vehemently denies.”

‘Turned a blind eye’

Before she left and became a competitor, Nobel worked at eXp Realty from February 2014 to March 2020. She began as an agent and became a managing broker and regional growth leader reporting directly to Sanford, with whom she also cofounded an eXp nonprofit. She called Sanford a visionary and a brilliant man who had a habit of avoiding hard conversations, she said. 

“He would avoid it at all costs,” said Nobel. He’d pass them along to someone else. “It just was not part of Glenn’s repertoire to be able to have those conversations,” Nobel said. 

Early into her tenure at eXp, Nobel said she was sexually harassed by a colleague. She did not share specifics, but said she reported the harassment to her superiors. “Glenn never wanted to talk about it,” she said. The person she accused was never fired, so she had to continue to work with the person. “Glenn said he would handle it, and nothing ever happened,” she said. 

“He absolutely knew what was going on and just turned a blind eye to it,” she said.

The company said it could not comment on matters to do with litigation, but provided a statement: “eXp takes its responsibility to foster a safe and inclusive environment very seriously. eXp has zero tolerance for abuse, harassment, or misconduct of any kind—including by the independent real estate agents who use our services.”

It continued: “When any claim is made, we investigate the matter and decide on appropriate action as part of due process. When we learn of any behavior to the contrary, we take action to address it. We firmly reject the claims made in these lawsuits and stand by the integrity of our reports, investigations, and the decisive actions we have taken to uphold a professional, ethical, and inclusive work environment.”

One of the sexual misconduct lawsuits names Sanford as a defendant because it alleges he “stood to benefit financially” by having Golden serve as a “sponsor” to one of the women accusing Golden of sexual assault.

In the other, an exhibit to the suit shows text messages between Bjorkman and Sanford, after the alleged sexual assaults. On Oct. 13, 2020, Bjorkman texted Sanford and said: “I’m so heart broken man…I’m so grateful for whatever you can do. I really do rely on rev share…If you would like to hear the stories etc I’m willing to share. It’s such bs.” 

Sanford replied: “I have your back on the Rev Share. I haven’t been involved in the conversations and I can only imagine what you are going through. I’ve dealt with a few things in my day so I know that this a huge emotional roller-”. The rest of the message is cut off. 

The two lawsuits call Sanford “agent #1” and claim he is at the top of the revenue share pyramid. But Sanford is no longer licensed to sell real estate, according to Washington state records, and no longer receives revenue share. Instead, the board awarded him a quarterly cash bonus equal to what his revenue share would have been, according to a proxy statement. Per the board’s calculation, Sanford is eligible for the maximum revenue share credit at each level. In 2023, Sanford’s cash bonus was around $81,000, according to a recent proxy statement. Even if Sanford leaves the company he will continue to receive that cash every year, so long as the company grows 30% annually. 

‘Zero-tolerance policy’

About four months after sexual misconduct allegations were described in December 2023 by the New York Times, the company announced that Sanford was stepping down as chief executive of the brokerage. He was replaced by Pareja, whom he brought in two years prior. 

Pareja was unable to tell Fortune in an interview in late Aug. 2024 whether the eXp board conducted an internal review following the sexual misconduct allegations. “That’s a very specific question that I would have to get back to you,” he said. “I just took over as CEO.”

When asked what steps he’s taken to repair the company’s culture and reputation, and ensure his female agents are safe, he said, “we have a zero-tolerance policy.”

The company later provided a statement that said: “While we cannot comment on ongoing litigation, we absolutely investigate all allegations of violation of the code of ethics including the matter in question. In addition, we want to clarify that the board also conducted its own independent review. The claims against eXp and its leadership have no basis in fact or law, and eXp vehemently denies them.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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