Fathom Holdings Inc Aktie

Good afternoon, and welcome to Fathom Holdings Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Conference Call. Joining us today are the company's CEO, Marco Fregenal; and Senior Vice President of Finance, Daniel Weinmann. [Operator Instructions] Please note this conference is being recorded.

Before I turn it over to management, I want to remind listeners that today's call may include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements are subject to numerous conditions, many of which are beyond the company's control, including those outlined in the Risk Factors section of the company's Form 10-K year ended December 31, 2025, and other company filings made with the SEC, copies of which are available on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov.

As a result of those forward-looking statements, actual results could differ materially. Fathom undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement after today's call, except as required by law. Please note that during this call, management will be discussing adjusted EBITDA, which is non-GAAP financial measure as defined by the SEC Regulation G. A reconciliation of this non-GAAP financial measure to the most directly comparable GAAP measure is included in today's press release, which is now posted on Fathom's website.

With that, I will turn the call over to Fathom's President and CEO, Marco Fregenal. Please go ahead, sir.

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Before Daniel walks us through the financial results, I want to take a few minutes to step back and talk about the progress we made during the fourth quarter and throughout 2025. This past several years have been challenging for the housing market. Higher interest rates and affordability constraints have significantly reduced transaction activity across the industry. Despite those headwinds, we continue to execute on our long-term strategy and strengthen the foundation of the Fathom platform. That progress is reflected in our results.

For the full year 2025, we generated $420 million in revenue, representing a 25% year-over-year growth, and our total transactions increased nearly 15%, driven in part by the addition of My Home Group and the continued addition of strong agents to our network.

For the full year 2025, gross profit increased 20.8% to $34.2 million compared to $28.3 million in 2024. And adjusted EBITDA improved by $1.7 million or a loss of $4 million compared to a loss of $5.7 million in 2024.

Beyond the financials, we made meaningful strategic progress. We expanded our ancillary businesses, launch new programs and partnerships, strengthen our leadership team and sharpen our focus on the core Fathom ecosystem.

It also [ worth ] noting that in our fourth quarter, transaction volumes continue to reflect broader market trends. In December, for example, the industry saw a significant number of contract cancellations in some markets, including Atlanta, Jacksonville, and San Antonio, installation rates exceeded 20%. Even in this environment, we are encouraged by the strengthening quality of our business these conditions reinforce why we proactively restructure our economics to reduce reliance on transaction volume and build a more durable, diversified profit model across our platform, positioning us well for our long-term growth and meaningful acceleration when conditions improve.

With that context, let me shift to the 4 areas that are central to where we're going as a company, margin expansion, agent experience, customer experience and AI-driven technology. Let me start with margin expansion.

In the fourth quarter of 2025, we continue to build Elevate our concierge level offering by adding more than 100 agents and implemented START, our first-time buyer concierge program through an acquisition. So far in 2026, we have expanded START into 5 states, and we expect by operating intense pace by the end of the year. Looking ahead, our goal is for these 2 programs to represent at least 10% of our total transaction volume by year-end and increased to over 15% by the end of 2027. That's important because both Elevate and START carry significantly higher gross profit margins, typically ranging from 20% to 50%. As these programs scale, we expect them to have a meaningful positive impact on overall margins and further improve the profitability profile of the business.

In addition, we are seeing continued progress across our ancillary businesses. Our mortgage business delivered strong performance with revenues increasing 70% in the fourth quarter of 2025 compared to the fourth quarter 2024 while maintaining gross profit margins of approximately 35%. Momentum has continued into the first quarter of 2026. where we have seen file STARTs increased by over 150% compared to the first quarter of 2025.

Our title business also performed well, with revenue growing 38% in the fourth quarter compared to the fourth quarter of 2024, and it continues to be a strong contributor to gross profit margins of approximately 58%. Taken together, both our mortgage and title businesses are scaling nicely and expected to be meaningful contributors to improved margins and overall profitability in 2026.

We're also implementing several initiatives to improve profitability and strengthen unit economics across the platform. Let me take a minute to explain our new commission plan named [ Edge ] and why matters. Under [ Edge ], new agents will pay a $75 monthly fee. Previously, we charged a $700 annual fee collected on the agent's first transaction of each anniversary year. The challenge was that approximately 35% of our agents never closed the transaction, which made it more difficult to collect the annual fee.

By moving to a monthly fee of $75, the total annual amount increased from $700 million to $900, a 28.6% increase, which we should now be able to collect from the significant majority of our agents who join Fathom. Moving to our monthly structure increases consistency and predictability in our revenue align us with our industry standards and supports a more engaged agent base, which we believe will drive higher transaction activity over time. To put this in perspective, we believe this change could add to over $1 million in additional gross profit over a full year.

With Edge and we are moving away from a flat fee transaction fee introducing a 7% split while maintaining our $9,000 annual cap, which resets at the agent's anniversary. This is a strategic evolution. The [indiscernible] model works well in a static environment, but a split model allow our economics to scale with on prices. As values increase, our gross profit per transaction increases as well. In other words, we participate more directly in the upside of the market. And even with that change, we expect to remain extremely competitive. A 7% split is well below brokerages, which typically charge from 20% to 30% or even more.

While this change will increase our average gross profit per transaction by more than $200, we remain firmly positioned as a value leader. We are not repositioning as the traditional brokerage. We are strengthening our position as the highest value brokers in the industry.

In addition, we have introduced a new transaction fee of $250 applied to every transaction in Fathom Realty. On our previous Fathom One and Fathom Max plan, this fee alone will increase our per transaction gross profit by between 45% and 54% on transactions that have not yet reached the annual cap. To put that in perspective, on just 10,000 transactions, that represents an additional $2.5 million in gross profit.

On our new Edge plan, which includes both a higher commission split of 7% and the separate $250 fee, the combined effect represents on average a 116% increase in gross profit on a pre-cap transaction over our Fathom One plan, which is the plan under which the majority of our agents operate.

It is important to understand our identity has never been tied up to a specific pricing structure, whether it's flat fee or split. Those are simply tools. Our identity is and always has been delivering the greatest value to our agents. Even with these changes, including the additional commission split under Edge, and now the new $250 transaction fee, we believe we remain among the most competitively priced brokers in the country. We continue to deliver significantly more in tools, technology, training and operational support than virtually any competitor, while still pricing well below the vast majority of brokerages nationwide. This is something which we're very proud.

Taken together, these structural changes are significant as these changes could add a significant incremental gross profit before any benefit from a market recovery.

And finally, on implementation. All existing agents are being grandfathered into their current plan. Edge applies to new agents joining the platform. Over time, as natural attrition occurs and new agents join, the mix will shift towards Edge organically. We view this as a controlled low disruption transition that allows us to improve unit economics while maintaining stability across our existing agent base.

In addition, we are now applying a monthly fee to agents who have historically closed 0 transactions with Fathom. We fully expect some of these agents to leave the platform, and we are comfortable with that outcome. These agents do not generate revenue or contribute to EBITDA. To date, we have already removed approximately 1,100 of these agents, and we expect a similar number to follow as we implement the monthly fees. Removing these agents will have 0 negative impact on our net income or EBITDA. As these initiatives scale, we believe they will play a meaningful role in driving overall margin expansion.

Now to agent experience. Agent success is at the core of our platform. We recognize that agents have different goals and operate at different stages of their careers, and we are committed to delivering a seamless experience that supports them at every step. That includes enhancing training, stronger lead generation and new tools like our marketing platform, AXA across our ELEVATE and START programs, we're now generating more than 4,000 leases per month, creating over 200 active customer opportunities for our agents. We expect that number to scale to more than 20,000 leases per month by year-end as we continue expanding these programs and roll out additional initiatives, including our partnership with ByOwner.com.

We're also seeing encouraging traction with Fathom Business Services, our coaching program designed to improve collaboration between agents and ELG loan officers. While still early, more than 500 agents have completed the training and over 10 million in mortgage transactions are currently in process. Taken together, these initiatives are strengthening our value proposition, helping us attract and retain high-quality agents, increasing attachment across services and driving incremental margin improvement while reinforcing our position as a technology-first platform.

The customer experience is just as important to our platform. We focus on delivering a simple and transparent process that builds trust and confidence from search through closing and beyond. In Q2, we plan to launch an integrated consumer portal that will provide buyers and sellers with greater visibility throughout and after the transaction. We're also investing in programs like HomeStart, which helps consumers improve their credit. Although we are in the early stages of the rollout, over 600 potential buyers have enrolled, and we have seen approximately 40% of the participants graduating towards beginning the home ownership process.

In addition, partnerships such as Move Concierge help streamline decisions around Internet, cable and utilities while our START Concierge program supports first-time buyers as they navigate the complexity of home buying process. These efforts not only drive satisfaction, repeat business and referrals but also strengthen our network to contribute to greater efficiency and improved unit economics over time.

Finally, we continue to enhance intelliAgent, our proprietary technology platform as we lean further into AI-driven initiatives to modernize our offering and to improve overall efficiency. As a technology-first real estate platform, innovation is central to how we operate. We are leveraging AI and automation to streamline agent workflows, enhance the customer experience and scale the business more efficiently than traditional models. These investments are already enabling smarter automation, better insights and more efficient operations across recruiting, training, lead management and transaction support. Over time, we believe this will help us attract and retain high-quality agents, further differentiate the platform and stay ahead of our competitors that are slower to adopt to these technologies.

Ultimately, each of these initiatives is designed to improve productivity across the platform, increase revenue per transaction and drive stronger profitability. Taken together, they reflect how we are evolving the model, spending margins, increasing agent productivity, enhancing customer experience and building a more scalable technology-driven platform.

Now let me take a few minutes to discuss some of the leadership changes of the past few months. Samantha Giuggio has been with the company for more than 14 years made a decision to step down as President of Fathom Realty. I have had the privilege of working in Samantha for many years through both the challenges and opportunities our industry has faced. I am deeply grateful for her leadership and the many contributions she made to the growth and success of Fathom. We wish her nothing but the best moving forward.

At the same time, I'm excited to welcome Lori Miller, who joined us in February as the new President of Fathom Realty. Lori brings more than 30 years of industry experience, most recently serving as President of EXIT Realty, where she oversaw a network of more than 25,000 agents. She is a proven leader with deep operational expertise, and I'm confident she will play a key role in driving the next phase of growth for Fathom Realty. I have already had the opportunity to work closely with Lori and I'm excited about the energy, perspective and leadership she brings to the organization.

With that, let me turn the call over to Daniel to review the financial results for the fourth quarter and full year. Daniel?

Thank you, Marco. I'll begin by reviewing our financial results for the fourth quarter and full year 2025 and then provide a breakdown of performance across our business segments, starting with revenue. Fourth quarter revenue totaled $90.6 million, a 1.2% decrease year-over-year compared to $91.7 million in the prior year period. The modest decline was primarily driven by a 3.2% decrease in brokerage revenue, reflecting softer real estate transaction activity during the quarter. This was partially offset by strong performance in our ancillary businesses, which grew an average of 54.2% year-over-year, driven by increased attach rates and continued expansions of our mortgage and title operations.

For the full year 2025, total revenue increased 25.4% to $420.5 million compared to $335.2 million in 2024. The growth was primarily driven by the addition of My Home Group in November 2024 as well as continued momentum in our ancillary businesses, which increased an average of 27.6% year-over-year. This reflects our ongoing focus on driving higher attach rates across our integrated platform and expanding revenue per transaction.

Gross profit for the fourth quarter of 2025 increased to $7.1 million compared to $6.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2024. The increase was primarily driven by stronger contributions from higher-margin ancillary businesses, including mortgage and title. The continued expansion of our Elevate program also contributed to improved revenue per transaction and stronger unit economics.

Gross profit margin for the fourth quarter of 2025 increased to 8.1% compared to 7.2% in the fourth quarter of 2024. The improvement was primarily driven by a more favorable revenue mix with greater contribution from higher-margin ancillary services as well as improved operating efficiency. For the full year 2025, gross profit increased 20.8% to $34.2 million compared to $28.3 million in 2024. The increase was primarily driven by growth in mortgage and title and the continued expansion of the Elevate program, which helped increase revenue per transaction and overall gross profit contribution. Gross profit margin for the full year 2025 decreased moderately to 8.1% compared to 8.4% in 2024 as the benefits from growth in higher-margin [indiscernible] businesses were offset by revenue mix changes, including the addition of My Home Group and continued investments in growth initiatives.

Our technology and development expenses were approximately $1.7 million for the fourth quarter of 2025 compared to $1.8 million in the prior year period. For the full year 2025, technology and development expenses increased to $7.3 million from $6.6 million in 2024. The approximately $700,000 increase was primarily driven by continued investments in our technology platforms, including the expansion of new features within intelliAgent.

General and administrative expenses totaled $8.2 million for the fourth quarter of 2025 compared to $8.4 million in the prior year period. For the full year 2025, general and administrative expenses decreased to $33.1 million from $33.6 million in 2024, primarily reflecting the impact of cost reduction initiatives implemented throughout the year.

Our marketing expenses totaled $1.4 million for the fourth quarter of 2025 compared to $1.9 million in the prior year period. For the full year 2025 marketing expenses decreased to $5.2 million from $5.8 million in 2024. The decrease was primarily driven by continued expense discipline and increased efficiency across marketing initiatives.

Our GAAP net loss for the fourth quarter of 2025 totaled $6.7 million or $0.21 per share compared with a net loss of $6.2 million or $0.29 per share for the fourth quarter of 2024. The year-over-year increase in net loss was primarily driven by a lower income tax benefit of approximately $20,000 in 2025 compared to $1.1 million in the prior year period as well as the recognition of approximately $900,000 loss on the sale of business.

For the full year 2025, GAAP net loss was $20.3 million or $0.72 per share compared with a GAAP net loss of $21.6 million or $1.07 per share for 2024. The year-over-year improvement was primarily driven by higher revenue and expense reduction initiatives. These improvements were partially offset by the recognition of a $900,000 loss on the sale of a business and approximately $2 million in accrued legal expenses.

Our adjusted EBITDA loss, a non-GAAP measure for the fourth quarter of 2025 improved to $2.6 million compared to $2.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2024. For the full year 2025, adjusted EBITDA loss was $4 million compared to $5.7 million for 2024, representing an improvement of approximately 29.8% year-over-year. The improvement was primarily driven by higher revenue, particularly from the addition of My Home Group and growth in our ancillary businesses as well as continued expense reduction initiatives, including lower marketing and general administrative expenses. These improvements were partially offset by increased investment in technology and development to support long-term platform growth.

I will now provide a more detailed review of performance across our individual business segments. Starting with our brokerage segment. We closed approximately 8,501 real estate transactions during the fourth quarter, a decrease of 14.2% compared to 9,903 transactions in the fourth quarter of 2024. The decline was primarily driven by continued softness in the residential real estate market, including elevated mortgage interest rates, affordability constraints and limited housing inventory, which impacted overall transaction volumes. Notably, U.S. home purchase agreements canceled in December represented approximately 16.3% of homes that went under contract during the month, the highest December level recorded since tracking again in 2017, highlighting the ongoing volatility and pressure in the housing market.

For the full year, we closed approximately 42,405 real estate transactions, representing a 14.6% increase compared to the prior year, primarily driven by the addition of My Home Group in November 2024.

We ended the fourth quarter with approximately 14,135 agent licenses, a decrease of 1.2% compared to 14,300 agent licenses at the end of the prior year. The modest decline was primarily driven by continued softness in the real estate market, which impacted agent recruiting and retention as well as a continued focus on improving agent productivity and overall network quality.

Revenue for the real estate division was approximately $84.9 million in the fourth quarter compared to $87.7 million in the prior year period, representing a 3.2% decrease. The decline was primarily attributable to softer housing market conditions, including reduced transaction volumes during the quarter.

For the full year 2025, revenue increased 26.8% to $399 million compared to $314.7 million in 2024. The increase was primarily driven by the addition of My Home Group in November 2024.

Gross profit margin for our real estate division remained consistent at 5.4% for the fourth quarter of 2025 compared to the fourth quarter of 2024 as improvements from higher agent productivity and increased contribution from Elevate were largely offset by softer transaction volumes and revenue mix during the period.

For the full year 2025, gross profit margin improved to 6.1% compared to 5.8% in the prior year. The increase was primarily driven by the continued expansion of our Elevate program, which enhances revenue per transaction as well as a broader initiative focused on improving unit economics, including pricing discipline and increased contribution from higher-margin transactions.

Adjusted EBITDA loss in the brokerage division was approximately $200,000 in the fourth quarter of 2025 compared to adjusted EBITDA income of $40,000 in the fourth quarter of 2024. The year-over-year decline was primarily driven by lower transaction volumes in the softer housing market, which reduced revenue and operating leverage in the quarter, partially offset by continued expense discipline.

For the full year 2025 adjusted EBITDA income in the brokerage division increased to $5 million compared to $3.2 million in 2024. The improvement was primarily driven by higher transaction volumes from the addition of My Home Group as well as improved unit economics, including increased revenue per transaction and ongoing cost optimization initiatives.

Next, I will turn to our mortgage segment. Our mortgage business generated revenue of $3.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2025 compared to $2 million in the fourth quarter of 2024, representing an increase of approximately 70%. The growth was primarily driven by higher loan origination volumes and improved attached rates from our brokerage channel. Mortgage adjusted EBITDA loss for the fourth quarter of 2025 improved to approximately $200,000 compared to a loss of $600,000 in the prior year period, reflecting improved operating leverage on higher volume as well as continued expense discipline.

For the full year 2025, revenue increased 17.4% to $12.8 million compared to $10.9 million in 2024. Adjusted EBITDA loss improved to approximately $500,000 compared to a loss of $1.5 million in the prior year, representing an improvement of approximately 67%. The improvement was primarily driven by higher revenue, improved attach rates and continued strategic cost reduction initiatives as well as increased efficiency across the platform.

Turning now to our title segment. Our title business generated revenue of $1.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2025 compared to $1.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2024, representing an increase of approximately 38.5%. The growth was primarily driven by organic expansion and increased transaction volume from internal referrals. Those title adjusted EBITDA loss for the fourth quarter of 2025 was approximately $300,000, consistent with the prior year period as higher revenue was offset by continued investment in personnel and infrastructure to support future growth. For the full year 2025, revenue increased 37.8% to $6.2 million compared to $4.5 million in 2024. Adjusted EBITDA loss for 2025 increased to approximately $1.2 million compared to a loss of $500,000 in the prior year. The increase in loss was primarily driven by continued investment in scaling the title platform, including hiring, market expansion and infrastructure build-out, which outpaced revenue growth during the year. These investments are intended to support increased attach rates and improve profitability over time. That concludes our segment review.

Turning to our balance sheet and liquidity. We continue to maintain a disciplined focus on our balance sheet given the dynamic real estate market environment. We ended the quarter with a cash position of $5.7 million, reflecting our ongoing focus on liquidity management, expense control and operational efficiency. We did not repurchase any shares during the fourth quarter under our existing stock repurchase program.

On March 18, 2026, the company entered into a $2 million financing arrangement, which provides additional liquidity and financial flexibility as we continue to execute our strategic initiatives and navigate current market conditions.

That concludes my remarks on the financial results. I'll now hand it back to Marco to share more on our strategic initiatives and outlook.

Thank you, Daniel. Before we open the call for questions, I want to spend a few minutes talking about how we see the opportunity ahead as we move to 2026. What I want to emphasize is that the structural changes we have made to our business are designed to deliver meaningfully stronger results regardless of what the broader housing market does. We are not counting on a market recovery to drive our improvement. The pricing and fee changes I described a few minutes ago, are already going into effect, and they fundamentally improve our unit economics at any level of transaction volume.

At the same time, the long-term fundamentals for housing demand in the U.S. remain very strong. Regardless of when transaction volumes recover, Fathom is well positioned. And more importantly, we are entering the next phase of the business, which we believe will be very positive. Over the past several years, we have invested in building a scalable platform, expanding our agent network and developing our technology and building our ancillary services across markets vital and lead generation.

During 2025, we took important steps to improve the economics of the model, including changes to our commission structure, the introduction of recurring fees and the continued expansion of higher-margin services. As a result, we believe our business today is stronger, more efficient and more diversified than it has been in the past. So even without a market recovery, we expect to deliver better margins and greater operating leverage. And if the housing market does begin to normalize or improve, which we believe they will, over time, that becomes more meaningful additional upside. And that brings me back to our four priorities we outlined earlier. which will guide our execution in 2026. We are focused on pursuing margin expansion, picking to improve revenue per transaction and looking to increase the contribution from our higher-margin businesses.

We intend to continue enhancing the agent experience with the goal of helping our agents close more transactions and grow their businesses. We also expect to explore new tools, new services and partnerships aimed at improving the customer experience and simplifying the transaction process. And we anticipate continue to invest in technologies and AI, which we believe will be a key driver of efficiency and scalability across the platform. Together, these initiatives position Fathom to capture growth opportunities as the housing market recovers and to deliver stronger financial performance over time.

Before we conclude, I want to take a moment to thank our employees, our agents and our leadership teams across the organization. The past several years have been a challenging period for the real estate industry, and I'm incredibly proud of how our team has continued to execute, innovate and support our agents and clients throughout that time. Their work has positioned Fathom for what we believe is the next phase of growth.

As we move to 2026, our focus remains on executing these initiatives because we believe they'll deliver materially improved financial results with or without a market recovery. To summarize, there are three points I would highlight from today's call. First, we made meaningful progress from strengthening the foundation of the business during 2025, growing revenue and expanding the platform despite a difficult market.

Second, the structural pricing changes we have made, including the new $250 transaction fee and the shift to a monthly recurring fee and more than 100% increase in gross profit or recap Edge transaction are designed to meaningfully improve our unit economics and any transaction volume.

And third, our business is more scalable and more profitable per transaction than it has ever been. When the housing market recovers, we are positioned to capture the upside with significantly better margins.

Operator, we're now ready to open the line for questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question is from Tom Hayes with ROTH Capital Partners.

Mark, just a couple of things. And again, I appreciate all the details. Really two things. One on the Elevate program, could you just reiterate what you said as far as your target to bring on new Elevate partners in '26.

Sure. So Elevate is, I think the not as a platform, right? And there'll be different kinds of agents to use Elevate in different ways. So you have our regular starting program those Elevate, then we created the START program that leverages some of it, the functionality and the benefits, simple regeneration that Elevate offer. So Elevate, it will evolve into 2 or 3 different kinds of offerings under the Elevate platform.

Our goal by the end of the year is to have about 1,000 agents on Elevate. And I think combined right now, we're about 260, 275. We think that by the end of the year, will be at around 1,000 agents on the entire Elevate platform, which, again, is going to consist of agents on the basic Elevate program on START, Elevate and a couple of other versions of Elevate that will create over the year.

Okay. I appreciate that. And then on the new Edge program, just wondering what some of the feedback from the agents has been that went into effect Jan 1. And can you just remind me that should be a margin contributor for the story, correct?

Yes. I actually don't win it's going to go live on April 1 this week. We'll be working on it for several months. I think a lot of our agents like the program in a sense that it compares this team incredibly well against other companies that are charging 20% and 30%. Again, keep in mind that our current base is grandfathered, so they can continue to stay on our previous plans, whether it was Fathom Max or Fathom Share. They don't have to move to Fathom Edge. Having said that, we already heard from a variety of agents saying they want to move to Fathom Edge for a variety of reasons in terms of the cap and some of the benefits of Fathom Edge. So I think there'll be a percentage of our regular agents that move to Fathom Edge. but all new agents starting on April 1 to go into Fathom Edge. And again, over time, as we have regular attrition in the business, right? The percentage of Fathom Edge agents will continue to grow and be a bigger percentage of the total agent base. But the new program, Fathom Edge starts on April 1, as well as the $250 brokerage fee.

I appreciate that. And maybe just lastly, I know you and I spoke about it last time, but certainly, the agents are key to the solid story. But I was just wondering but your strategic partner with ByOwner because I think certainly the for sale ByOwner is a significant market piece as well. So just maybe any updates on that partnership as well.

Yes, absolutely. So our goal is to leverage a significant percent of individuals who want to sell their house by themselves. Actually, at some point, do hire a real estate agent and the number is over 90%, right? So our partnership with ByOwner is really focused on that, right? It's how do we introduce the agent network to those sellers who want to take advantage of really working with an agent and getting the benefits of everything an agent can do that, right? And so our partnership is really focused on that. Our partnership is not focused. They have another partner that handles when a seller wants to sell the house by themselves. Again, the focus of our partnership is that. And we already are in the beginning of the partnership already are connected with them. We're already getting leads from them. They are about to announce several partnerships that will be announced soon, which will be the real estate partner for them. And so the ByOwner platform is going to be a meaningful platform for us as we get into Q2 and beyond this year. And the positive thing about that relationship is that's focused on listings, right? And so we're going to get a lot of listing from that relationship.

I think I mentioned this before that they currently get about 500,000 visitors a month, right? And so they have a significant audience and we're certainly going to be able to help ByOwner and our agents monetize and help those clients want to get the benefit of the full service for agent.

There are no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the conference back over to Marco for closing remarks.

Well, I just want to thank everybody for joining us today. I know this is a long call, but there was a lot to update about our business. and some of the key initiatives that we are already implementing for 2026. We look forward to a great year. We're very excited about the changes that we're implementing to our business that we believe are going to have meaningful results to our profitability and our growth for 2026.

I want to thank everybody for joining us and look forward to talking to you soon. Have a great week.

Thank you. This will conclude today's conference. You may disconnect at this time, and thank you for your participation.

Good afternoon, and welcome to Fathom Holdings Third Quarter 202 Conference Call. Joining us today is the company's President and CEO, Marco Fregenal; and Senior Vice President of Finance, Daniel Weinmann. [Operator Instructions]. Please note, this conference is being recorded.

Before I turn things over to management, I want to remind listeners that today's call may include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements are subject to numerous conditions, many of which are beyond the company's control, including those outlined in the Risk Factors section of the company's Form 10-K for the year and ended December 31, 2024, and and other company filings made with the SEC. Copies of which are available on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov.

As a result of those forward-looking statements, actual results could differ materially. Fathom undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements after today's call, except as required by law. Please also note that during this call, management will be discussing adjusted EBITDA, which is a non-GAAP financial measure as defined by SEC Regulation G. A reconciliation of this non-GAAP financial measure to the most directly comparable GAAP measure is included in today's press release, which is now posted on Fathom's website.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Fathom's President and CEO, Marco Fregenal. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, operator, and good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Fathom Holdings Third Quarter 2025 Conference Call. Before we begin today is a very special day as it is better Tuesday, it is the day that we have an opportunity to thank and show gratitude to those who have served and continue to serve our great country. Let us also thank their families as we all know, that when someone serves the entire family serves. So thank you all for all you do. We are sincerely grateful.

Let us begin by highlighting some of our accomplishments this quarter then move to the broader market outlook and our plans for 2026. The third quarter marked another significant step forward for Fathom. We delivered 37.7% year-over-year revenue growth, nearly doubling the analyst expectations of an increase of 20% and achieved another quarter of adjusted EBITDA profitability. These results highlight our financial continuing ability to execute our strategy, maintain operational discipline and capture growth across both our core brokers and fast-growing ancillary businesses.

Our agent base continues to expand at a healthy pace, growing 24% year-over-year to more than 15,300 licensed agents, supported by our lowest turnover in recent years, averaging just 1% of agents per month in Q3. Far below the industry average. As we move forward, we remain focused on attracting and empowering high-performing agents who leverage our programs and technology to maximize productivity and earnings.

Our ongoing investments in tools, technology and culture helping agents convert more leads, close more transactions and build stronger, more sustainable businesses. Every initiative is designed to elevate agent success deepen engagement and improved retention. These investments not only reinforce a reputation as one of the most agent-centric brokerage in the industry, but also drive our long-term revenue growth and profitability.

Gross profit for the quarter increased by more than $2.7 million to over $9.6 million, representing a 38.5% year-over-year increase. What's more significant is that over 50% of that increase in gross profit flows directly to EBITDA. This demonstrates the power of our operating model and disciplined expense management, where NASA's growing revenue, we're converting that into real earnings.

We have reached an inflection point where each additional dollar of gross profit now contributes more to our bottom line. This is the result of years of investment in technology, efficiency and scale. And it's to prove there are models working exactly as designed. As we continue to grow, we expect this leverage to expand further, driving sustained profitability growth and creating meaningful long-term value for our shareholders.

Turning to our ancillary businesses. We continue to see strong momentum across mortgage, title and technology. Our mortgage company encompass lending increased revenues by 20.7% and achieved adjusted EBITDA of about $160,000 for the quarter, which is a clear sign that our strategic investments in process automation and loan office productivity are paying off.

Verus Title, our title business delivered 28.6% revenue growth, while our Technology segment posted an 18% increase. It is important to highlight that our ancillary business transactions generate gross profit, there are 7 to 10x higher than those of our real estate transactions. The margin advantage makes some powerful growth catalysts for future profitability.

Expanding these segments enabled us to capture greater share of the real estate transaction value chain and strengthening our overall earnings, as these businesses continue to scale, they are become increasingly meaningful drivers for both margin expansion and long-term shareholder value.

As we entered the fourth quarter, growth is accelerating with file star for both our mortgage and title businesses up more than 60% in compared to the same period last year. We anticipate these growth rates to continue. This surge reflects the strong alignment between our real estate network and our ancillary services. As agents increasingly refer clients to our mortgage and title companies for more seamless transaction experience.

Growth in these areas will reflect our ability to deliver complementary services that simplify the real estate transaction process. As transactions become increasingly complex, both agents and clients are seeking solutions that streamline closes, improve efficiency and enhance the overall experience. We're also beginning to see tangible returns from our technology investments. For example, Verus Title successful expansion into Arizona and Alabama demonstrates our ability to replicate success in new markets. These expansions are a key part of our strategy to increase growth.

At the same time, our local efforts to build strong relationships, improve attach rates further accelerating revenue per transaction and strengthening our overall value proposition for both agents and their clients. We are leveraging our proprietary technology to unlock new high-margin revenue streams.

The recent IntelliAgent licensing agreement with sovereign partners underscores the scalability of our platform and the strong demand for our technology beyond our own major network. By combining IntelliAgent platform, where our technology-enabled services, real estate companies can significantly boost profitability. A result, we have already seen at my home Group and sovereign partners.

Looking ahead, we estimate that there are more than 18,000 small to midsized brokerages that could substantially improve their financial performance by adopting IntelliAgent platform, highlighting a significant growth opportunity for fan. These kinds of opportunities validate our innovative and reinforce Fathom's position as a fourth thinking leader in the real estate industry.

Now let's talk about Elevate, which we believe will be a meaningful growth driver for both for Fathom in 2026 and beyond. For those less familiar, Elevate is our concierge level growth program designed to help agents dramatically increase productivity and earnings through done for you branded and marketing, lead generation and conversion, transaction support and culture. All offered at a competitive 20% commission split.

It's a complete business building platform that allows agents to focus on clients, while Fathom handles the back-office complexity. Think about it in this way. For the same 20% commission that [ Anesa ] might pay for another brokers simply to hand their license, the same agent and Fathom gains a full-service concierge team that is dedicated to help them grow their business. Elevate delivers tremendous value to agents was simultaneously improving Fathom's retention, productivity and profitability as the gross profit for Elevate transaction is on average 5x higher.

As more agents joined the program, we expect to see measurable increases in closed transactions overall revenue per agent. This program not only strengthens our competitive advantage, but also creates a scalable pathway to higher margin grow well into the future. We have already onboarded over 165 agents to elevate with another 45 agents in the pipeline and adoption is accelerating.

Elevate is a perfect example of how our programs help agents maximize profitability while we claim in their time. By combining best-in-class tools, culturing and technology, elevating enhances performance, deepens engagement across our network, which in turn drives higher tax rates and greater adoption of our broader platform.

Beyond LAD, we also launched several new growth initiatives in recent months. First, we recently announced the acquisition of start real estate from dedicated to serving first-time home buyers. Start headquartered in Colorado with approximately 70 agents is on track to close roughly 400 transactions this year, delivering a 50% gross margin and a mortgage attach rate of 70%.

With our size and their strategy, we have already begun expanding start into other markets, including Utah, Arizona and Nevada and with a broader plan to enter more than 15 states over next year. This expansion is expected to generate over 1,500 additional transactions next year were sustaining both strong margins and high mortgage attachment rates.

Ultimately, our goal is to launch start in every state, positioning Fathom to capture an important share of the first-time homebuyer market and drive meaningful revenue and EBITDA growth.

Second, we're expanding the real results team, our lead generation and qualification program after providing -- after proving highly effective within the Elevate program, real results is now being rolled out company-wide to help agents access very high-quality leads. This program shortens sales cycles, boost conversion rates and drives higher productivity, all while creating a more scalable growth engine for the company.

Third, we established a strategic partnership with by owner, providing Fathom access for the for sale by owner market, which currently represents approximately 6% of all U.S. homes listings, by owner tracks over 500,000 visitors per month are processed to websites, including buyers, sellers and renters. Analysts estimate that approximately 20% of first sale by owner listings eventually convert to full service representation, which creates a significant opportunity for our agents.

Through this partnership, Viona will refer motivated sellers and buyers of the fathom network of agents and lenders, expanding our reach and creating additional valuable growth channel. Collectively, these initiatives demonstrate our commitment to delivering measurable results for our agents and customers. By continually enhancing our technology platform and forming strategic partnerships, we are improving efficiency, simplifying transactions and creating sustainable, diversified growth opportunities.

As you can see, our investment of human resources and capital into strategy is translating to consistent operational execution, stronger engagement across our Asian base an accelerating contribution from our ancillary businesses.

With that momentum, let me turn it over to Daniel Weinmann, our Senior Vice President of Finance, who walk through the financial results and provide additional insight into segment performance and the profitability trends. Daniel?

Thank you, Marco. I'll begin with our financial results for the third quarter of 2025 and then provide a breakdown of performance by business segment.

For the third quarter of 2025, total revenue was $115.3 million, a 37.7% increase year-over-year compared to $83.7 million for the third quarter of 2024. The increase was driven by a 39% increase in brokerage revenue, reflecting higher agent production and continued expansion of our brokerage network. In addition, our mortgage and technology segment contributed modest year-over-year growth, including the initial contribution from new third-party licensing fees within our technology platform.

Gross profit increased 39.1% in the third quarter of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024, primarily driven by higher transaction volume and revenue growth. Gross profit margin remained consistent at 8.3% for both periods reflecting pricing stability and cost discipline as increases in agent related commissions and cost of revenue scale proportionally with whatever new growth.

Technology and development expenses were $1.8 million for the third quarter of 2025 compared to $1.7 million for the same period in 2024, the $100,000 increase reflects continued investment in our technology platforms, including new capabilities within IntelliAgents and enhancements to our ELEVATE program.

General and administrative expenses totaled $8.3 million for the third quarter of 2025 compared to $8.1 million for the same period in 2024. The $200,000 increase reflects modest increases in personnel and administrative support costs, while the company continued the disciplined spending across the organization.

Marketing expenses were $1 million for the third quarter of 2025 compared to EUR 1.4 million for the same period in primarily due to a shift towards more efficient conversion focused marketing channels and reduce broad-based advertising spend.

Our GAAP net loss for the third quarter of 2025 was $4.4 million or $0.15 per share compared to a net loss of $8.1 million or $0.40 per share for the third quarter of 2024. The improvement in net loss was primarily driven by higher revenue and operating leverage in the current period as well as the absence of approximately $3.1 million in litigation contingency expense recognized in the prior year quarter partially offset by $2 million in litigation contingency expense recognized in third quarter of 2025.

Adjusted EBITDA a non-GAAP measure was $6,000 for the third quarter of 2025 compared to a negative EUR 1.4 million for the same period in 2024. The improvement was primarily driven by higher revenue and improved operating leverage as the increase in transaction volume resulted in a proportionate increase in gross profit.

In addition, lower marketing spend and continued cost discipline contributed to the improvement in adjusted EBITDA year-over-year. I will now walk through the results of our individual business segments in more detail. We will start with brokerage.

Revenue for the Brokerage segment was $109.2 million for the third quarter of 2025, an increase of 39% compared to the prior period, primarily driven by the addition of My Home Group which was acquired in November 2024 and contributed significantly to transaction volume and commission income. The increase also reflects modest organic growth from our existing agent base supported by expanded market coverage.

We ended the quarter with 5,371 agent licenses, an increase of 24.1% compared to 12,383 in the same period of 2024, driven primarily by the addition of agents from My Home Group as well as continued success in attracting and retaining agents through competitive commission structures, enhanced support services and targeted recruitment efforts.

Gross profit margin for the Brokerage segment was 6% for the third quarter of 2025, consistent with the prior year period as higher transaction volumes from the addition of My Home Group and modest organic growth were offset by a proportional increase in commission expense and other agent related costs resulting in stable margins year-over-year.

Adjusted EBITDA for the Brokerage segment increased by 100% and to $1.6 million for the third quarter of 2025, an increase of approximately $800,000 compared to the same period in 2024, primarily driven by higher revenue and ongoing cost management initiatives. Our mortgage business, the revenue for the mortgage segment was $3.5 million for the third quarter of 2025 compared to $2.9 million in the prior year period, the increase was primarily due to higher funded loan volume supported by a more favorable interest rate environment and increased buyer activity.

Adjusted EBITDA for the mortgage segment was $161,000 for the third quarter of 2025 compared to a loss of $319,000 in the same period of 2024, the improvement was primarily driven by higher funded loan volume and improved operating leverage as increased revenue flow-through, while fixed operating costs remained relatively consistent year-over-year.

Next, our title business. Verus Title revenue was $1.8 million for the third quarter of 2025 and an increase of 28.6% compared to $1.4 million in the same period of 2024, driven by strong organic growth from increased order volumes, the expansion of relationships with existing agents and agent workovers. Additionally, contributions came from targeted marketing initiatives and process enhancement and improved closing efficiency and capacity.

Adjusted EBITDA for Verus Title was a loss of $191,000 for the third quarter of 2025 compared to a loss of $92,000 in the same period of 2024, despite a 28.6% increase in revenue year-over-year, profitability declined due to higher operating expenses associated with supporting transaction growth including increased personnel, onboarding costs and other investments to expand capacity.

Our technology business third-party revenue was $829,000 for the third quarter of 2025 compared to $785,000 for the same period in 2024. The increase primarily reflect the initial recognition of licensing fees from external users of our data and technology platform, representing the first quarter in which the third-party arrangements contributed to revenue.

Adjusted EBITDA was $488,000 for the third quarter of 2025 compared to $152,000 in the same period of 2024, the improvement was primarily driven by the addition of a new third-party licensing revenue stream as well as improved operating leverage relative to total revenue.

Focusing on our balance sheet and capital allocation, we continue to actively manage our balance sheet in light of current real estate market conditions. We ended the quarter with $9.8 million in cash, which includes $6.5 million in proceeds received in September 2025 from our public stock offering.

No share repurchases were made during the first 9 months of 2025 under the company's authorized stock repurchase program. That concludes my remarks on the financial results.

I will now hand it back to Marco to share more on our strategic initiatives and outlook.

Thank you, Daniel. As Daniel highlighted, our financial performance this quarter reflects volatile strength of our core business and the early benefits of our strategic initiatives. I would like to take a few minutes to discuss the broader housing market and our outlook for 2026. The residential real estate market is beginning to show early signs of recovery.

One encouraging indicator is the narrowing spread between the 10-year treasury yield and the 30-year mortgage rate, which is currently around 205 basis points. Combined with the growing expectations of lower federal reserve rate and modest declines in home prices in some states, these factors point towards an improved affordability and a gradual reopening of the housing market.

We're also encouraged by the potential agreement in reopening of the government. Although thus far, we have not seen a significant negative effect on the real estate industry, we believe that a prolonged government shall would have a negative effect in Q4.

As affordability improves, we expect programs like start real estate and led to gain significant momentum. Elevate in particular, is a differentiator, helping agents boost productivity, through integrated marketing regeneration and support services that tie directly into our mortgage title and technology ecosystems. This program is already driving higher tax rates and incremental revenue across multiple lines of businesses.

Recent larger acquisitions in the market have created some uncertainty within the brokers landscape and highlight the ongoing trend towards consolidation. The environment reinforces the need for brokerages to deliver exceptional value and elite service, areas where Fathom continues to lead to our agent-centric model and integrate a platform.

We anticipate that small brokers as we explore opportunities to merge with or partner with larger firms.

Now looking ahead in 2026. Fathom is well positioned to capitalize on these trends. Our priorities remain clear. First, to continue diversifying revenue streams with higher margin products and services, to expand flagship programs like Elevate and STAR, to strengthen attach rates across mortgage and title and finally, to license our technology platform to small brokerages and teams to scale efficiently and profitably.

These initiatives, combined with our commitment to disciplined execution are expected to drive further margin expansion and position us to achieve operational cash flow breakeven by second quarter of 2026.

In short, Momentum is building across our platform, and we are entering 2026 with confidence and focus. We see tremendous opportunity to build on our foundation, deepen age and engagement and create long-term value for our shareholders.

Before we open the line for questions, I want to express my sincere gratitude to our team and partners for their relentless focus to our agents for their trust and commitment and to our shareholders for their continued support and their continued confidence in our vision.

With that, operator, we're ready to take questions.

[Operator Instructions]. And our first question will come from Dillon Heslin with ROTH Capital Partners.

To start on IntelliAgent licensing, you talked about 1,000 brokerages you identified, I think, could you sort of go into a bit more detail on your go-to-market strategy on that? How many are you potentially in talks with or have approached you?

Yes, sure. Thank you, Dill, for your question. Yes, there approximately about 18,000 brokers between 250 and 500 agents. And we already -- our go-to-market strategy is really so far, we already built several different relationships across the industry over the last 4 or 5 years. We probably have relations with a few hundred small brokers already. Also through our partnership with Live buy, Live buy has approximately another 200 brokerages as customers. So when you combine all of this, you're looking at $300 million to $400 million small brokers that we have our relationship with.

So we'll begin with those, and then we'll continue marketing to all 18,000 and demonstrating our value proposition to them, as we have done for my home Group and sovereign partners as well. So -- and we'll begin that -- we already have begun that in terms of discussions, but that will accelerate in Q1 of next year.

And just as a follow-up, could you comment on attach rates this quarter? And then with start real estate, -- they seem to have quite high attach rates. What do you think is the possibility of -- obviously, you're trying to expand that, but keep the attach rates where they are on that business as you take it into the newer states and just scale.

Yes. So Stark is really a very interesting business, branded the owner really created a process in which really holds the hand of a first-time buyer. For people who never bought a home, buy your first home, is a rather complex process. My elder son just bought his first home and even told me that I can measure how complex this is. So it is a complex process.

And Randy has created a really hands-on operational process that does that. His attach rate is over 70%. It currently is in Colorado, we already are expanding into 3 other states, and we believe that we'll be able to expand to every state in the country. We do anticipate a tax rate to continue to be that high. And we've seen that because you already started in Utah and is already seeing that attach rate because it really is a byproduct of the process that he created. And so he's going to -- we're going to basically going to repeat that across the country, and that's really his special sauce to run this program.

So to answer your question, we do anticipate significantly growing the program, and we do anticipate to have attach rates over 70%.

Having said that, we continue to improve the rate attachment rate for ELG across the country as well and about 50% of the ELG business coming from Fathom. And as EOG continues to grow, we continue to see that. And same thing with Verus Title. So I think the combination of what we have done with ELG and Verus, combined with Start Realty, I think overall, we see attachment rates continue to grow next year and beyond.

And at this time, this concludes the question-and-answer session. Thank you for joining Fathom's third quarter earnings call. You may now disconnect.