- 6/27/2025
On today’s bonus episode of RealTrending, Tracey Velt chats with Ben Bacal, the founder of Revel Real Estate.
Tracey and Ben talk about the future of real estate, from AI-enhanced client experiences to the rise of real estate auctions. Ben also shares the secrets behind modern brokerage leadership and how Revel is equipping agents with marketing tools, studio pods for content creation, and data-driven insights to compete in today’s market.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
A la carte brokerage services could redefine commission structures.
AI agents may become the industry’s next competitive edge.
Branding, video marketing, and social media are non-negotiables.
Real estate auctions are gaining traction, especially in luxury.
Leadership means understanding, supporting, and connecting.
Tomorrow’s agents will rely on tech-enabled, emotionally smart platforms.
Related to this episode:
Revel Real Estate
https://benbacal.com/
Ben Bacal | LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/benbacal/
HousingWire | YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXDD_3y3LvU60vac7eki-6Q
More info about HousingWire
https://lnk.bio/housingwire
The RealTrending podcast features conversations with the brightest minds in real estate. Every Monday, brokerage leaders, top agents, team leaders, and industry experts join us to share their secrets to success, trends, and the lessons they’ve learned. Hosted by Tracey Velt and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio.
Tracey and Ben talk about the future of real estate, from AI-enhanced client experiences to the rise of real estate auctions. Ben also shares the secrets behind modern brokerage leadership and how Revel is equipping agents with marketing tools, studio pods for content creation, and data-driven insights to compete in today’s market.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
A la carte brokerage services could redefine commission structures.
AI agents may become the industry’s next competitive edge.
Branding, video marketing, and social media are non-negotiables.
Real estate auctions are gaining traction, especially in luxury.
Leadership means understanding, supporting, and connecting.
Tomorrow’s agents will rely on tech-enabled, emotionally smart platforms.
Related to this episode:
Revel Real Estate
https://benbacal.com/
Ben Bacal | LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/benbacal/
HousingWire | YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXDD_3y3LvU60vac7eki-6Q
More info about HousingWire
https://lnk.bio/housingwire
The RealTrending podcast features conversations with the brightest minds in real estate. Every Monday, brokerage leaders, top agents, team leaders, and industry experts join us to share their secrets to success, trends, and the lessons they’ve learned. Hosted by Tracey Velt and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00As a broker, are you offering the marketing that your agents really need?
00:04I spoke with Ben Bacall. He is the founder of Revel Real Estate, and he's built his brokerage on offering agents autonomy in their branding and their marketing through tech.
00:16And he had some really interesting insights into how AI is going to transform the industry and some of the interesting ways that he's offered to agents and collaborators to help them build their business.
00:32So enjoy the podcast.
00:34So, Ben, welcome to the Real Trending Podcast.
00:38Well, thank you so much for having me.
00:40Yeah, absolutely. We're going to just jump right into it.
00:44So, Ben, tell me a little bit about your business and what you're involved in right now, about your brokerage.
00:52Okay.
00:53Tell me agents, where your offices are.
00:56Yes, of course.
00:58Currently, Revel Real Estate is on Elm and Wilshire.
01:02It's in prime Beverly Hills, where Rodeo and Wilshire Boulevard meet.
01:07We're on the ground floor.
01:09We have about 5,000 square feet.
01:11We have 65 agents, and we're currently meeting with high-producing top agents to bring them in as actual partners into the real estate office,
01:26where we're offering them a direct relationship with me, where they can decide to work with me on a 50-50 basis,
01:35or just use our office and our tech platforms and all of our marketing channels to elevate their business so they can do what they do best.
01:50And so you've always been kind of a video marketing whiz and social media.
01:56So how is that incorporated into your brokerage?
01:59How does that set your brokerage apart?
02:00Yeah, I've always believed in being authentic and real on video, whether that's doing selfie videos and walking around properties and promoting the nuanced details about homes.
02:15And I started a company called Roof Shoot that morphed into Rilla, which is short-form video.
02:22And then, obviously, everyone is now using social and video to really promote themselves.
02:30So I've been a big proponent of getting yourself out there and branding yourself and using responsive ads on Google and video ads on YouTube.
02:50It's been incredibly important for my business.
02:55People see my brand and they're like, oh, how do I know your name?
02:59And it's because they've unconsciously seen something on my digital retargeting.
03:04So, you know, it's very important to have a presence on, have a website,
03:12but you also need to track those leads and see where they're actually going.
03:18So that's what I'd like to do for my agents in making sure when they put a number or contact in their phone that it goes directly into their follow-up boss
03:28and they're able to then put them into different funnels of like, you know, I'm going to retarget.
03:34These are for my listings.
03:35These are for my, my, these are, this is information for buyers, newsletters, and how to like do all that automatically.
03:45At the same time, just get down to brass tacks and talk about, you know, what you need to do to just meet people every single day.
03:54So, Ben, you were early to challenge the traditional brokerage model with Revel Real Estate.
04:01So where do you see brokerage models going in the next five years?
04:06And what gap were you, were you trying to fill in the industry?
04:11I think like traditional commission models, they may break down and instead there might be more a la carte services
04:20like marketing and paying for negotiation or like showing coordination that will be priced out perhaps individually.
04:32Again, where a client may pay for things like an a la carte service instead of like a bundled, a bundled percentage.
04:40So I see like tech platforms and other independent agents and perhaps AI type agents that are helping in real life, actual people offer flat fees that are tiered pricing based on like a certain service level.
05:03Like, for example, like seller pays for $1,000 for photography, they pay for a certain amount of money for staging, and then like a flat fee percentage for negotiation rather than just giving up a traditional percentage to a listing agent on a larger scale.
05:23Talk about Revel's, you know, business model in when you started the firm.
05:28Um, buyers are shifting towards looking at like Instagram feeds and YouTube channels and TikTok, um, more than I could say for more than actual, um, referral agents.
05:45So I think it's important that our agents have a presence, uh, a brand presence on their social media and their YouTube channels.
05:57So people can, and they're actually paying for that, those advertisements.
06:02So they're relevant in, in the, uh, in, in search and Google.
06:07So, you know, it's important for, for my agents, um, to provide transparency, um, and data for like a convenience sake.
06:17So, you know, they're able to use ChatGTP and Gemini to give relevant data at like, you know, uh, uh, basically exact, exactly when people need it.
06:30And, um, I'm trying to make my agents feel relevant, um, by, you know, creating a brand for themselves.
06:39Um, I mean, emotional, emotions like still sell in this real estate business, but buyers, I think that they're expecting more data, data backed, um, information that makes sense.
06:53Yeah, I absolutely, I definitely agree with that.
06:57And, um, one of the things that you talked about was kind of learning AI programs and that.
07:04So tell me a little bit about how you're exploring that, um, in your business and, you know, where do you think that's going?
07:12Interesting. Um, yeah, uh, I mean, I'd say, hmm, it, it, there's some disruption that's happening in the near future.
07:25Well, where AI agents could, um, work with traditional real estate agents, um, not because or take over, not just because they're faster, but because, um, they're all, they will simply be more, more smarter.
07:41They'll be more adaptive and, uh, maybe even more emotionally intelligent to some levels in, in their reasoning.
07:49Right. Um, so I think there'll be personalized selling at a scale, uh, AI agents will have like unique personalities like you and me.
08:02Um, their, their styles will be tailored to match like a specific buyer's personal, uh, buyer needs, whether it's someone that wants,
08:11um, again, hard data or an emotional reassurance, if they're buying or selling or making the right decision about selling their home, um, or simple like design inspiration and AI will instantly adapt to that.
08:26Uh, I also think, um, unlike, you know, uh, uh, real people, real agents, uh, real time market intelligence, um, is important, right?
08:39So there'll be like, there'll be no more waiting for an agent to get back to you.
08:43Someone will immediately provide you with the answer that you want instant access to like real time trends, um, inventory, uh, comps and neighborhood data all brought to you like in seconds.
08:57So I think it's, um, you know, uh, and people say, well, you're never going to replace the agent because, you know, they don't have the, uh, the, the emotional nuance capacity to do so.
09:09But I think, um, AI will have, will, will, uh, emulate and stimulate and simulate empathy and negotiation strategies.
09:19Um, they'll, they'll, they'll understand social cues, you know, offering like a level of patience and kind of like emotional bandwidth to like interact with humans.
09:28So I think the outcome for it will be simple, simply like efficiency, right?
09:32So these agents, they won't waste any time.
09:34They'll learn from what each other buyer wants in seconds and refine their path and their pitch and, and so forth.
09:42Um, if that's showings and messages and, and so forth, but I, it's not like they're going to replace the brokerage.
09:49I mean, that's the, I believe that's the power center.
09:52That's where the deals get done.
09:54Um, but the value, the value of what every agent is offering, I think that's, what's going to change.
10:00Right.
10:00So the brokerage, they will own the, the, the artificial intelligence infrastructure, um, and all the traffic, all the data, um, that will be the ones that, that, that, that, that will become the deal maker.
10:17Right.
10:17That will, that will offer, um, you know, um, the, the, the deal flow to, to, to convert, uh, like that data, but you'll get like all the deal flow.
10:29You'll be able to like figure out who you want to work with and then the AI will, um, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll make it more structured.
10:39Right.
10:40Yeah.
10:41If you want like X or Y, um, the platform doesn't just like, uh, help agents, but it replaces them with something like faster and smarter and like, it will like infinitely scale quicker.
10:52So, um, and that, and, and, and, and still the brokerage will, and what the brokerage becomes the platform and the product and, and, and ultimately that's still the profit center.
11:03Yeah.
11:04Yeah.
11:05I mean, I, I don't think you're going to replace the agent cause you're still going to need that human element, but I think it could make agents more efficient and, and, um, help them do a lot more transactions with fewer possible, like administrative people as well.
11:19Um, where they can create efficiencies and, um, keep more of their dollar, their DCI.
11:26So, um, that's what, it does seem like it could definitely do that.
11:31Yeah.
11:32Yeah.
11:33Like more like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
11:37And so you've built and led top producing teams in some very competitive markets.
11:42Um, so what leadership lessons have you learned through the process, um, of attracting talent and maintaining a high performing culture?
11:52Um, it's really been about collaboration and being connected to the agents that are actually out there prospecting.
12:06Um, and then being able to, um, spend enough time with those high functioning, high performance agents and connecting the dots.
12:19So I'm very much a broker that is, uh, I'm doing deals.
12:25I'm, I'm, I'm trying to uncover opportunities all the time.
12:29So it's all about, um, being accessible.
12:33And if my, if our agents are asking questions about us, uh, any multitude of reasons, I'm, I'm there to assist and pivot and, and give them advice and tools to, uh, to, to convince a seller to price a house in one direction or another, or to find a channel, a marketing channel.
12:59That's going to, um, get them, uh, put them in a position to get more opportunities and then what it means to actually act on, uh, a potential buyer or seller lead.
13:14And, and, and, and, and how to, um, create, uh, a rapport, just simple, simple human connection, um, and not go in for like a hard sell and just be like a, a human being.
13:28And, um, you know, service is, is, is, is, is, is really important in the sense of like caring about what the per what the person actually, what the, what your client actually, um, is looking for in their life.
13:42And cause you know, you're selling them, it's very important asset that, that they're going to be in for a long time.
13:47And that's, that's like, you know, it could be, you know, 40, 50, 60% of their net worth.
13:54So it's super important to, uh, um, under to give them the tools to understand basic, uh, valuations, um, and, uh, and then project a sense of confidence while you're doing it.
14:11So I think I've been leading my leadership role, um, you know, I've been selling, you know, I sold a house recently for, it was a great sale in Homeby Hills and people are like, oh, wow.
14:26They look up to me and they're like, how did you do that?
14:28How did you execute on this big sale?
14:31It's, it's, it was, you know, it's almost, you know, the personalities that we had, we had to contend with and all the elements and keeping everything in line in your head.
14:40Um, and I, I, I, I explain to people that it's more, it's not just about like the deal and the negotiations.
14:48It's about just being, uh, being a, being, having empathy and connecting with the people that you're working with.
14:57So what do you think the next generation of top producing agents looks like and what kind of support structure do they need from brokerages?
15:04Um, I think they are leveraging other top producing agents within their agency, um, or they are self-starters and they are out there pounding the pavement, so to speak.
15:23I think in trying to, um, connect with as many potential buyers as possible, I think that the support that they need is, um, the CRMs that are going to be more, uh, visual CRMs that are going to be integrated into their contextual CRMs.
15:43Um, and, and I think a lot of digital retargeting, uh, re-advertising, like, uh, you know, Google responsive ads, YouTube, um, YouTube video ads, that kind of, um, that, that kind of, uh, uh, autumn.
16:01Um, they can really point and click and be like, I will, I have, this is my listing and I want to launch it to, um, to get like a hundred thousand views on my YouTube channel.
16:13And I don't, and I think that's what I, that's what I, that's what I offer right now, the ability to, uh, getting, you know, hundreds of thousands of impressions to be, to show the competition and to show the seller, um, or just to simply get more buyer leads, um, into the, into the sales funnel.
16:33So I offer, I, I always offer those services to, to my, to my agents.
16:39Um, and then of course, um, uh, that, that marketing, that marketing, uh, company that says, Hey, if you have a listing, we can put it into our, our system and boom, you can, you'll have your, your, your home will be exposed everywhere.
17:00Um, whether that's, uh, obviously just traditional print media postcards that get automatically sent out.
17:08So the agent is actually just doing what they do best, which is creating that human connection that we're, that we, that we, that we've been talking about today.
17:16That's so important.
17:18Um, so you've, uh, you've explored real estate auctions in the luxury space.
17:22Where do you see auctions as a model fitting into mainstream residential real estate?
17:28Um, yeah, so for auctions, there's definitely been a speed, um, kind of reset, especially in like the ultra high, the ultra luxury, um, market.
17:42We've seen a lot of auction companies, um, getting to the market.
17:47Every time I have a listing, if it's languishes on the market, I get a sales phone call from an auction company.
17:53And we're noticing that, um, luxury listings, they're lingering, they're, they're like 180 days on the market traditionally, um, where a auction will sell for about, it will sell at about 42, 40, whatever, 42 to 60 days on the market.
18:15Um, so those auction platforms, they do move, uh, properties a lot faster, um, and essentially it cuts that time to like two months.
18:27Um, and I, I, I think that it creates more, uh, transparent bidding and it forces, uh, a realistic reserve, um, you know, trophy homes that usually start like 20 or 30% more than what is on the market.
18:45The market, there's like a come to, uh, realization moment and you're like, okay, I'm, I'm over, I'm, I'm over, I'm, I'm asking too much money, um, for the property.
18:58It sits in the market.
18:59Now I'm really ready to sell.
19:00So the, so finally the market finally, um, meets the buyer's expectation and it, and it without having like serial price reductions all the time.
19:11So, um, I think it's important.
19:13I think that, um, I guess there's a stat here that says, uh, forecast is today's 1%, uh, penetration, uh, with auctions.
19:24So the, those institutional auction houses, they've handed out 9,000 U S resi deals in 2024, and then it's supposed to increase by 35%.
19:34Um, so that's 5% of all the closings by 2030, um, will be auctions.
19:43That's, that's basically $150 billion.
19:45That's quite a bit.
19:46So you've invested in an auction company or founded one.
19:51Talk to me a little bit about that.
19:52Uh, my partner, uh, started it, um, in my, in my company called, uh, Rila.
20:00So he's the broker in it.
20:01And, um, I invested in it.
20:03That's, that's correct.
20:04I'm, I'm not actively, I'm not actually the broker, but I invest in that company.
20:09So, yeah.
20:10Does it focus on luxury properties right now?
20:13It actually focuses on, uh, we just, we, we listed a property for, um, it was a $4.6 million, uh, property.
20:21And, and we just did it in Bel Air and we actually, the auction, we got 3.7 million and it remarkably, it was like $1,800 a square foot for the finished value of the property.
20:36And then for the unfinished value, because half the house was like, uh, circa 19, 1985 and the rest was like all brand new.
20:44It was kind of an interesting, interesting, uh, home to sell in like prime Bel Air and, um, uh, the unfinished version got $1,100 a square foot in the auction.
20:55They didn't end up taking the price, uh, taking the offer with, but, um, it really proved that it actually like works.
21:03It's, it was so interesting that, that it inherently came to its market value.
21:08So, yeah, we do that.
21:09That was, I guess in most of the world, 4.6 million is luxury, but yeah, we do that.
21:15And now obviously the, the super luxury, but you often need a seller that, um, has been on the market for a while and is trending downward.
21:27And is, is actually frustrated with just waiting for the phone to ring and, and the auction buzzword gets people, uh, to the table, but there is a bit of a, um, learning curve explaining to buyers the process, like what it means to be in an auction and the paperwork that they have to fill out.
21:46It's not difficult at all.
21:47It's quite easy.
21:48Um, and, and, and sellers can opt out to, to not continue the auction, go, go back to the traditional selling if they want, um, during the auction after a certain time period.
21:59But it's been, it's, it's, uh, it's successful.
22:03Great.
22:04So my last question is just what's next for you?
22:08Um, you know, more real estate, more tech innovation.
22:11Um, you know, what's, what's next for you?
22:13Um, what's next for me, um, I want to do what's next for me.
22:21I want to bring on partners to my agency, um, that I believe will, uh, increase the collaboration and deal flow, um, in the agency.
22:36So, um, I'm looking for strategic partners on a, uh, revenue, um, sharing model with my brokerage.
22:46Um, and that's something that I've recently decided to do.
22:49So I'm taking meetings with, uh, with some, uh, some, some very high producing agents or like the last 30 years.
22:59Uh, and that's exciting.
23:01Um, I'm also, um, looking to, uh, build up my, my, my tech platform.
23:09It's a, um, uh, it's a visual CRM for my agents inside of, uh, inside of my, my own agency.
23:17It kind of matches buyers to listings using like, uh, all the micros micro style tagging that I'm doing using, uh, using artificial intelligence, using ML models and generative AI to connect, um, the nuanced needs of what buyers are looking for.
23:33And the properties that are listed on the platform and all those, and all that content goes on your own feed that you can share with whoever you want to share it with.
23:43So I want to provide that, that, that kind of cutting edge tech tech, that kind of cutting edge technology that seems simple, but it's actually not really readily available today, unless you're using like Instagram and Tik TOK, but it's unfortunately, there's a lot of noise there.
23:59Um, yeah.
24:01And then I'd like to, um, also create, uh, drop in studio style, uh, pods, uh, in my office, uh, where people can come in and we can help edit content and shoot content for them and do the graphics and, um, use our AI tools to, uh, give them, give them, um, sound bites and short videos.
24:24So they can, they can, they can put onto their, uh, uh, YouTube channels and their social channels and then, um, that's the, that kind of solves the studio gap for agents.
24:34Uh, and then it also feeds our, um, our technology platform, um, to, to, uh, to, for like premium short form scaling content.
24:46And I, and I would like to look at like other, other ways to bring in, uh, revenue and, and generate, um, leads through people outside of, uh, the real estate business that, um, that just love sharing content around real estate.
25:03And, and, and, and seeing how, you know, that next gen AI instant media copying and pasting and how that, all the, all that predictive data is going to, um, create, you know, um, opportunities for my agents.
25:18So Ben, thanks so much for joining real trending today.
25:21We really appreciate you coming on.
25:23Thank you so much for having me.
25:24You guys are great.
25:25I appreciate it.
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