What if Zillow, MLS portals, and lead-gen giants weren’t the gatekeepers of real estate anymore?

Ryan Poole, a West Palm Beach based real estate veteran and founder of RealTrade, thinks it’s time to flip the script. His company, a social powered real estate marketplace, emerged as a standout at 1909’s recent Founder Showcase, pitching a platform that connects agents, buyers, sellers, and service providers directly, without the pay-to-play lead model that dominates the $2.8 trillion U.S. real estate industry.

We’re not selling leads, we’re empowering relationships. Agents own their listings. Buyers talk to the actual listing agent. Everyone sees everything clearly.

told Ryan Poole, CEO and founder of RealTrade.

RealTrade combines features of social media with core real estate tools. Think: agent profiles that act like mini LinkedIns, transparent listings, and direct messaging with service providers like lenders or appraisers. Built in-house by Poole’s team, including CTO Daniel Vaughn and Head of Product Ryan Beckett (both with tech and real estate chops) and the product already has traction: 3,200+ active agents, thousands of buyers and sellers, and hundreds of service providers use the platform today.

Local Roots, National Ambition

Founded and bootstrapped in Palm Beach County, RealTrade was conceived in 2020 during the height of the pandemic as part of the 1909 Accelerator. The platform launched its first version to Palm Beach County agents in 2021 and has since seen significant momentum. From an initial 600 agents and nearly 1,000 buyers, sellers, and vendors in 2022, the startup scaled to thousands of users in 2023 and rolled out premium features.

By 2024, RealTrade introduced AI-powered tools designed to help agents optimize their work and grow more efficiently, underscoring the startup’s blend of tech innovation and human-centric design.

Why It Matters

The pain points RealTrade targets aren’t abstract. Under the current model, many buyers are quietly auctioned off to the highest bidding agent, often without knowing. Agents pay hefty fees to third-party platforms just to be found. And local lenders, title companies, and appraisers struggle to break into a fragmented digital landscape.

RealTrade’s bet: A community first platform that fosters trust, not transactions as commodities.

Poole’s motivation runs deeper than market share. In a personal letter posted on RealTrade’s website, he writes:

Buying and selling a home is one of the most important decisions you can make in your life. We need people at the heart of this process… Less algorithms, more humans.

The Bottom Line

RealTrade isn’t just pitching a better real estate search engine. It’s selling a philosophy: ownership, transparency, and local empowerment. If it can maintain its growth curve and fend off the bigger players, this South Florida born startup could become a serious contender in the real estate tech race.