Real REMAX Stops Selling New Motto Mortgage Franchises After Merger

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Real REMAX Group is already making a significant change to its mortgage strategy, just days after completing the combination of The Real Brokerage and REMAX.

The newly combined company will stop selling new Motto Mortgage franchises and no longer invest in expanding the mortgage brokerage franchise network, according to comments provided by a Real REMAX spokesperson.

Existing Motto Mortgage businesses are not being closed. Franchise owners who remain in the system will continue to be supported under their existing agreements, while owners will also have the option to explore mutually terminating those agreements with the company.

The decision represents an early shift in how Real REMAX intends to approach mortgage following the merger.

Rather than continuing to invest in growing Motto as a national mortgage brokerage franchise system, the company says future investment will be directed toward creating a single, scalable mortgage platform serving the broader real estate agent community.

The change also comes with new leadership. Vic Lombardo, who had served as president of REMAX’s mortgage services operation, has stepped down. Kate Gurevich, CEO of One Real Mortgage, has assumed responsibility for mortgage services.

For mortgage professionals watching the integration of two very different real estate organizations, the developments offer one of the first concrete indications of how Real REMAX intends to reshape businesses inherited through the transaction.

A different direction for Motto

Motto Mortgage was launched by REMAX in 2016 with an unusual proposition.

Instead of operating a traditional centralized mortgage lender, REMAX created a franchise system that allowed real estate brokerage owners, mortgage professionals and other entrepreneurs to establish independently owned mortgage brokerages using the Motto brand, technology, compliance resources and operational infrastructure.

The model eventually grew into a national network.

At the end of 2025, REMAX reported 171 open Motto offices. That was down 24% from the previous year after the company made what it described as a strategic decision during the fourth quarter to terminate approximately 80 franchisees that were receiving substantial financial relief or otherwise failing to meet operational expectations.

REMAX had also begun changing the economics of the franchise system before the Real transaction.

In early 2026, it introduced a new financial model for incoming Motto franchisees that included a $2,500 fixed monthly fee plus a variable fee equal to 25 basis points for each closed loan.

Those changes suggested REMAX was already working to reposition the business.

Real REMAX is now going substantially further by ending new franchise sales altogether.

What franchisees were told before the transaction

The timing deserves attention because the future of Motto was addressed directly when the Real-REMAX transaction was announced.

Information provided to Motto franchise owners in connection with the deal said the Motto Mortgage brand would be maintained following the transaction and would continue operating as a dedicated franchise model.

Franchisees were also told their agreements would remain in place and that they should continue operating their businesses as usual.

Those existing contractual commitments remain important. Real REMAX says it will continue supporting owners who stay in the system and honor its obligations under existing franchise agreements.

What has changed is the growth strategy surrounding those agreements.

Real REMAX no longer plans to sell additional Motto franchises or put future investment behind expanding the franchise network.

That distinction is important. Motto Mortgage has not been abruptly eliminated, and current franchise owners have not simply lost their agreements. Instead, Real REMAX appears to be moving the business from an expansion strategy toward managing the existing network while building its future mortgage operation elsewhere.

One mortgage platform instead of two strategies

The more consequential question is where that future investment goes.

Real entered the REMAX transaction with its own mortgage operation, One Real Mortgage, and a model designed to connect mortgage origination more closely with its network of real estate agents.

The combined company now says it wants a single scalable mortgage platform centered around the broader agent community rather than continued investment in growing Motto and mortgage-processing operation wemlo.

That strategy potentially gives Real REMAX something neither organization possessed independently at the same scale: an enormous real estate distribution network coupled with a mortgage operation that can be built around that network.

REMAX brought a global real estate franchise system and an established mortgage franchise business into the combination. Real brought a technology-driven brokerage platform and its own developing mortgage operation.

How those pieces are integrated will matter considerably more than the names attached to them.

One Real Mortgage reported $1.9 million in second-quarter 2026 revenue, up 10% from a year earlier. As of early August, Real also reported 169 mortgage loan officers, including 137 affiliated with its Real Originate program.

Motto, meanwhile, entered the combination with an established network of independently owned mortgage brokerage franchises.

Running both models indefinitely would require the combined organization to invest in two substantially different approaches to connecting real estate and mortgage.

Real REMAX has now provided its first answer to that problem.

It intends to concentrate future investment around one.

An early indication of how the merger will work

Large mergers are usually announced with language about complementary businesses, technology, efficiencies and growth opportunities. The more revealing decisions tend to arrive afterward, when management determines which products receive investment, which executives remain in charge and which overlapping operations become part of the combined company’s long-term strategy.

That process is beginning at Real REMAX.

The company is retaining the REMAX real estate franchise brand while simultaneously putting leaders from Real into several important positions across the combined organization. Gurevich’s assumption of the mortgage-services role following Lombardo’s departure is part of that transition.

For current Motto owners, the immediate question is more practical.

They now operate businesses inside a franchise network that Real REMAX says it will continue supporting contractually but no longer intends to expand through new franchise sales.

Some may choose to remain. Others may explore the company’s offer to mutually terminate their franchise agreements.

For the wider mortgage industry, however, the larger story is becoming clearer.

Real did not acquire REMAX simply to operate every inherited business exactly as it existed before the transaction.

Only days after the combination closed, the new company has begun deciding where its capital and attention will go.

Motto Mortgage is the first major example.