Harvest Realty’s 550 Agents Join Tech-Based Real Brokerage

By all accounts, Pasadena-based brokerage Harvest Realty has enjoyed a nice rally over the past decade led by its founding couple. It has now entered its Real era, joining the publicly traded digital brokerage for what it hopes will be its next growth phase.

On Tuesday Harvest confirmed joining The Real Brokerage, bringing to the digital company its 550 agents across offices in Pasadena, Irvine and Ontario. Harvest said it closed on $2.4 billion in residential sales last year, which is up from $1.6 billion in 2023. With a specialty serving Chinese and other Asian clientele in Southern California, co-founder Christine Li thinks joining Real will give the brokerage the tech-based tools it needs to compete in the future.

“I’m the kind of person who is always planning ahead,” Li told The Real Deal. “The current brokerage we have right now is very profitable and everything goes smoothly, but I’m thinking going forward we really need technology to help us increase efficiency. We have the local touch, know the community, know the residents and work as a team, but we lack technology.”

Real, she pointed out, also offers a unique compensation model that incentivizes agents to help the overall company grow.

While agents still make money through a commission split, there’s also a stock purchase plan in which a portion of commission is paid out in shares, which Li said makes for a less transactional relationship with agents.

Harvest Realty joined through what Real calls its Private Label program. That means Harvest keeps its brokerage brand, while gaining access to the company’s back-end tech, including a customer retention management system, marketing assistance and online education and training.

For Real, which had a recent market cap of $846 million, the addition of Harvest brings its total agent count to more than 24,000 in the U.S. and Canada.

Real’s revenue in the third quarter jumped 74 percent to $372.5 million, driven by an uptick in both transactions and agents. Its net loss narrowed to $2.6 million, compared to a loss of $4 million in the year-ago period.

Asian connections

Harvest also adds another dimension to Real with its specialization with an Asian clientele.

For Li and John Zhang, the other co-founder of Harvest, building a business around that niche came easy.

Both went to college in China before coming to the U.S. to attend graduate school. For Zhang, that meant a master’s degree in real estate development at the University of Southern California and then on to become a project manager for a construction company. Li received her MBA from USC’s Marshall School of Business, working in finance at commercial and investment banks.

When the couple had children, it was decided one of them needed to have the flexibility to be available for the kids. That’s when Zhang made the decision to obtain his license and operate independently. Li soon followed, with the couple launching Harvest in 2014.

“We did well in the past 10 years because of our background. We came from China, so we have a lot of connections in China,” Li said.

In fact, the brokerage has sales since inception of $6.8 billion across omore than 5,200 home sales, according to a release from Real.

“We’ve grown very fast,” Li said. “Part of this is the home price increases, because in Orange County, L.A. County the price has appreciated. Part of [the growth] is attributed to our headcount increase and more production.”

Faraway markets

Harvest focuses on Orange County, Los Angeles County, San Bernardino and Riverside as its main markets. That’s expected to expand with the help of Real.

“There’s so many other Asian, Chinese communities,” Li said. “We know the client. We know what they want. We know their mindset, so Real will give us a chance to expand into other markets.”

Potentially, they include places such as Seattle, San Francisco, New York and Atlanta to name a few.

But, even within Harvest’s main markets, Li sees the opportunity to grow the Southern California business. Wealthy families coming from overseas will continue to look for safe neighborhoods with good schools, while growing Fortune 500 companies in the medical and financial sectors will prop up local demand for residential, Li said.

“I anticipate growth this year, not only in production but headcount because of the technology and the revenue structure,” Li said.

As for just how much she sees the headcount growing, she declined to put a number on it.

“I have no idea, to be honest,” she said. “I think it’s going to attract people with the same kind of thinking. For the real estate industry, people are looking for more efficiency and great support.”