As a young child in Chicago, Eddie Garcia lived in a one-bedroom apartment with his brother, parents and seven other people. Meanwhile, his mother and father, who had emigrated from Mexico, saved up to buy a home.
They achieved their goal when Garcia was six or seven years old. But owning their own house didn’t prevent Garcia from being teased for being poor. “Before high school, I loved my life,” he says. “It was fun, I hung out with kids in the neighborhood and played until it was dark. Once I started high school, the bullying was bad.”
His family never had anything new, whether cars or furniture, he says. “When I graduated high school, my mom got me a $7 suit from the Salvation Army. I had the old gym shoes, the hand-me-downs … I never had the name brand. That was a way to know who had money and who didn’t, who had the 12-pack of Crayola [crayons] versus the 36- or 64-pack.”
Garcia resolved to succeed in business. “I was tired of being poor,” he says. “I thought, ‘I have to make something of myself.’ I didn’t know what I would do but I thought, ‘I will become somebody and I will chase my version of the American dream.’”
Chasing His Version of the American Dream
But before he could focus on himself, he needed to make money to help his family. When Garcia was 13, his father instructed him to get a job. From then on, Garcia worked all weekend during the school year, and full-time during summers and school breaks, first at the zoo and later in retail.
“I was a 13-year-old, building relationships and figuring out solutions with 35- to 40-year-olds,” he says.
When Garcia was 18, he started college at Northern Illinois University. But after several months, he dropped out, realizing he wanted to start a career in real estate.
“Real estate is one of the only careers in the country where you don’t have to spend $100,000 to go to school,” he says. “You can literally get your license in days … for $1,000 and become who you want to be.”
At 21, Garcia earned his real estate license. Then he visited 16 brokerages to find a job. The owner of a local RE/MAX offered Garcia a desk, but Garcia turned down the opportunity because he couldn’t afford the desk fee, which was $1,500 per month at the time, he says. Fortunately, he found an opportunity at a father-and-son brokerage.
Garcia distributed flyers and postcards, meeting people on the street and at churches and malls. He made his first sale in six months in the business. But when he brought the franchise owner his $16,000 commission check, his boss refused to pay him.
Garcia felt he had no recourse. “I was an immigrant and my parents were immigrants,” he says. “We had no family accountant or lawyer.” The brokerage owner was 70 years old and wealthy. Garcia was 21 and had been taught to respect his elders. He didn’t tell his parents what had occurred since he worried they’d question his decision to leave college. Instead of arguing, Garcia left the brokerage. He found work at Omega Realty, where he grew his career.
“From a 21-year-old who was stuttering and looking down, I took my battle scars, went to another brokerage and became a top producer,” he says. “I probably got [the equivalent of] an MBA on the streets of Chicago.”
From New Agent to Broker-Owner
At Omega Realty, Garcia’s confidence grew. He built on what he’d learned at his previous brokerage, earning his first check after about two months, he says. At one point, he sold 104 houses in one year without a team, he recalls. By 26, Garcia had become a millionaire, partially by investing his earnings in real estate.
Over the years, people from backgrounds like Garcia’s had expressed interest in working with him. “They said, ‘We are tired of working at factories and as busboys.’” They also asked if they could work for him. “I told them, ‘But I don’t have a brokerage.’ And they said, ‘So start one.’”
In May 2012, Garcia founded Realty of Chicago. In 13 years, the brokerage grew to 330 agents and had closed $4 billion in sales. In 2018, Garcia started Real Estate School of Chicago; in 2021, he started an Allstate franchise.
“I was able to learn the power of leverage,” he says. “I found individuals who did their jobs well and brought them to partner with me.”
A Bigger Vision Takes Shape
When he turned 38, Garcia decided to scale back on work to focus more on his personal life, but a dream he had a few months later inspired him to put his goal of starting a family on the back burner. Garcia envisioned a national, cloud-based brokerage called “Realty of America.”
“I went on GoDaddy at 2 a.m. and saw that www.realtyofamerica.com was available and bought it. I was so excited I could not sleep.”
The next morning, Garcia called Texas-based Mark Dimas, who’d recently been named a top-producing agent by RealTrends, to ask if they could meet. During a quick in-person chat, Garcia proposed they co-found the new brokerage. Dimas asked whether the company would offer revenue sharing and equity and go public. When Garcia said “yes,” Dimas agreed.
Garcia, CEO, and Dimas, president, then brought on founding anchor partners, Victor Niño, Andres Serafini, Claudia Zacker, Mo Perez, Max Zacker, David Dominguez, Andre Vargas and Alex Mosquera.
Collectively, the group had 170 years of experience and had closed $17 billion in sales. They also had about 1,000 agents to bring on to the new brokerage.
“We got the best of the best, producers and humans,” says Garcia. “We created a startup, but it’s not a start-up because we were bringing massive brainpower together.”
The team hired a law firm, as well as revenue-sharing and brand consultants, and spent the next several months building the company. In September 2024, the team launched Realty of America (ROA).
Since then, ROA has become one of the fastest-growing real estate brokerages in the country. Fully owned by its leaders and agents, the private company has been profitable since its first quarter and has closed $7.1 billion in sales. Currently, ROA has 3,529 agents in 25 markets; Garcia projects that number will rise to 4,500–5,000 by the end of this year.
Building Ownership Into the Model
ROA’s rapid growth and revenue-sharing model help with recruitment, Garcia says. ROA allocates up to 60% of its revenue toward it, with agents earning a percentage of revenue generated by other agents they attract to the brokerage. Garcia said that in July 2026, they paid their agents $743,000 through the model.
Garcia also wants his agents to have equity in the company. When an agent closes their first transaction, they receive 30 restricted stock units, and they are eligible for additional awards at other milestones, he explains. “If I was starting in real estate now, the first question I would ask people would be, ‘Will they give some ownership in the company?’” Garcia says. “If they said no, I would be out the door.”
Success in business is important, he adds. But so is taking care of agents and staff. Garcia also values family. He has started building his own, marrying in July 2025 and becoming a father this past April.
