RMA Global (ASX: RMY) has announced it will spend $5.9 million to acquire real estate social media marketing platform Steps Marketing Inc (trading as Curated Social).

The parent company of online real estate review and ratings platform RateMyAgent has made an upfront payment of $3.7m, funded by a $3m institutional placement and a non-underwritten share purchase plan.

The deal also includes an earn-out of up to $2.2m, subject to achieving revenue growth targets.

More dynamic suite

RMA chief executive officer Jim Crisera said the acquisition marked a significant milestone as the company expands beyond its review platform to offer a more dynamic and comprehensive suite of marketing tools.

“By combining RateMyAgent’s extensive review and listings database with Curated Social’s comprehensive real estate content library, we are poised to offer a powerful solution that keeps agents top of mind and significantly boosts their ability to win listings,” he said.

“This acquisition allows us to provide real estate professionals with multi-dimensional support, enhancing our platform’s value and driving subscriber growth.”

Australian presence

RMA currently has the majority of active Australian real estate agents on its platform, with approximately 30% of these agents paying an average of $1,115 per year in subscription fees.

Curated Social will provide paying agents with more content to share on social media regularly to help them stay top of mind with homebuyers searching for an agent.

In the US, RMA has approximately 285,000 (or less than 1%) of a nationwide total of 865,000 agents on its platform – a small portion of whom pay for the service, generating approximately $4.7m in recurring revenue for the 2024 financial year.

Untapped market

Mr Crisera said the US represented a substantial untapped market opportunity.

“If 30% of active US agents paid RMA at the same level that we see from our Australian agents, it would present a $290m revenue opportunity and give us the potential to be a very profitable company,” he said.

In September, RMA secured its first major brokerage partnership deal with Realty One Group, which will increase its exposure to nearly 20,000 new US realtors.

“Realty One is one of the fastest-growing residential real estate brands in the US and we are excited to be more deeply integrated into their tech and to help support the growth of their business, as well as each of their agents,” Mr Crisera said.