When RLTY Co launched in 2021, just a year after the COVID lockdown froze showings and pushed brokers to the brink, co-founder and CEO Briggs Elwell pitched a simple but powerful proposition: give agents up to 80% of their commission within 24 hours of an approved offer, no credit checks, no brokerage sign-off, no waiting months to get paid.
The idea caught on fast.
Early backer Ryan Serhant lent both his name and playbook to the startup, helping shape a platform designed to buffer agents from the kind of cash-flow whiplash that defined the pandemic slowdown. Five years later, RLTY is no longer just a commission-advance shop. Elwell and his team have rolled out a suite of tools aimed squarely at the country’s 1099 real estate workforce—arguably the industry’s largest, most underserved segment.
“The broker community is entrepreneurial by nature. They just need the infrastructure to keep up” – Briggs Elwell, Co-founder and CEO, RLTY Co Today, the company operates four main verticals:
● Commission Advances to get paid faster.
● Financial Tools & Tax Help to set up LLCs, maximize deductions, and keep more income.
● Healthcare Solutions through partnerships with United Healthcare and others, offering access to 250+ plans with transparent, broker-free matching.
● RLTY Legal Assist to help agents incorporate and protect themselves legally.
Coming this fall is RLTY Blue, a benefits platform offering gym, travel, and hotel discounts for agents; moving and insurance perks for clients; and new revenue streams for agents willing to share the platform. Future add-ons include car insurance discounts for work vehicles and even open house “lifestyle” perks—think floral arrangements and charcuterie boards at a discount.
For many NYC agents, the stakes are high. The average home price in the city is around $900,000, translating to roughly $27,000 in commission for the agent. In Manhattan, the average is closer to $1.4 million, yielding around $42,000 in commission, a figure that’s up roughly 6.7% year-over-year for July. Losing access to that payout for months can be a serious strain, and RLTY’s model aims to bridge the gap.
As for commission disputes? Elwell says they’re virtually unheard of. “You can’t close on a sale without everything being buttoned up well in advance,” he notes. “All paperwork is agreed upon from the onset. If a seller somehow tried to withhold payment, the agent would stop the deal before it got that far.” Elwell, who recently joined the board of the American Realty Association, says the mission is simple: give 1099 agents the same financial stability and perks that W-2 employees take for granted. “The broker community is entrepreneurial by nature,” he says. “They just need the infrastructure to keep up.”
The New York–based firm is watching legislative shifts like the state’s FARE Act closely, particularly around rental advances, but so far hasn’t seen a material hit to business. Expansion beyond real estate, and into the broader 1099 economy, is on the horizon. “The market’s competitive and volumes are down,” Elwell says. “That’s when tools like ours matter most. We’re giving agents ways to stay in the game and grow.”
https://www.cityrealty.com/nyc/market-insight/features/get-to-know/five-years-in-rlty-capital-bets-
