eXp Realty Ditches $2M+ in SaaS Waste: How One Internal Tool Overhaul Saved Millions and Crushed Support Tickets

The Scale of the Problem: Uncontrolled SaaS Sprawl at eXp Realty

eXp Realty does not operate in the realm of local brokerages; it stands as one of the world's largest, most rapidly scaling, and entirely cloud-based real estate firms. This global footprint necessitates robust technological infrastructure, but as the company ballooned, so too did its appetite for external software solutions. What began as targeted purchasing to solve immediate operational gaps quickly devolved into a classic case of SaaS sprawl—a silent, creeping financial liability that plagues countless modern enterprises. Every department, it seemed, was authorized to procure best-of-breed solutions, often resulting in a tangled web of overlapping functionalities.

The hidden financial drain associated with this sprawl was staggering. While individual monthly subscriptions might seem negligible, when aggregated across thousands of agents and hundreds of specialized roles globally, the total annual outlay for redundant, underutilized, or legacy SaaS platforms began to resemble a significant operational budget item in its own right. This fragmentation meant that critical business data was siloed across dozens of vendor platforms, creating latency in decision-making and increasing administrative overhead simply to manage access and billing.

This sprawling tech stack was not just a financial headache; it created a massive internal operational bottleneck, leading directly to the genesis of a debilitating support ticket problem. When agents or staff encountered issues—which platform held the correct data, which integration had failed, or how to navigate three different systems to complete one task—the IT and support teams were immediately overwhelmed. The complexity inherent in managing disparate vendor contracts, integrations, and version updates meant that simple fixes often required extensive triage, grinding productivity to a near halt and fostering agent frustration.

The Strategic Pivot: Centralizing Operations with an Internal Platform

Faced with escalating costs and crippling inefficiency, leadership at eXp Realty recognized a fundamental truth: buying fragmented tools to solve integrated problems was a self-defeating strategy. The necessary pivot was away from continuous external procurement and toward strategic, centralized internal development. The goal was not merely to reduce costs, but to own the core workflows that defined the agent experience.

This strategic initiative was not built on hiring an army of traditional software engineers, which would have been slow and expensive. Instead, eXp tapped into the burgeoning power of low-code/no-code (LCNC) platforms, enabling their internal operational experts—those closest to the pain points—to become solution architects. The context shared by @antonosika on February 6, 2026, points specifically to leveraging such agility to rapidly prototype and deploy customized, tightly integrated systems that precisely matched their unique business logic.

The introduction of this internal platform initiative represented a fundamental shift in technology philosophy. Instead of asking, "Which external vendor solves this 80% well?" the question became, "How can we build a 100% tailored tool that integrates seamlessly with our core data layer?" This empowered teams to move with unprecedented speed, bypassing lengthy procurement cycles and vendor lock-in, allowing them to iterate on solutions based on real-time agent feedback.

By prioritizing an integrated core system built in-house, eXp sought to create a single pane of glass—or at least, a single source of operational truth—where previously there had been dozens of competing systems shouting conflicting information. This centralization was the key to unlocking efficiency gains far beyond mere cost savings.

Financial Tsunami Averted: Eliminating $2M+ in Redundant Subscriptions

The most immediate and quantifiable success of this strategic overhaul was the dramatic reduction in recurring expenditure. eXp Realty successfully decommissioned a host of legacy SaaS subscriptions, resulting in documented annual savings exceeding $2 million. This figure is more than just a rounding error; it represents millions redirected from vendor pockets back into core business growth, agent resources, or platform iteration.

The analysis of this waste revealed the true cost of unmanaged sprawl. Many legacy tools were retained long after superior or functionally identical features had been rolled out within newer platforms. Others were paying premium enterprise rates for functionality that only a handful of specialized users ever touched. The sheer weight of unused licenses and overlapping capabilities—where two or three separate apps all performed minor CRM updates or document generation—was unsustainable.

This success spurred a significant cultural shift within the organization. The default response to a new operational need began to transition away from the knee-jerk "always buy" mentality. Instead, the mantra became "always build or integrate." This mindset fosters a greater sense of technological stewardship, forcing teams to consider the total cost of ownership (TCO) for any new workflow, including maintenance, integration debt, and licensing, before defaulting to an external subscription.

Revolutionizing Agent Support: Crushing Support Tickets by 85%

While saving $2 million annually is impressive, the transformation in operational health, specifically agent support, may be the more profound long-term victory. Prior to the overhaul, the scope of the support crisis was immense: high-volume requests stemming from confusion, broken integrations, or simple procedural gaps overwhelmed staff, leading to slow resolution times and a negative feedback loop impacting agent productivity.

The primary mechanism for this improvement was the new internal tool’s ability to streamline complex, multi-step workflows that previously required human intervention to reconcile data across systems. For example, a process that might have required an agent to submit a ticket to have a closing file reviewed across three different platforms could now be automated or self-served through a single, intelligent interface built on the new backbone.

This streamlining drastically reduced the creation of unnecessary tickets. Better self-service portals, immediate access to integrated data records, and automated validation checks meant that agents received instant answers or confirmations, bypassing the need to engage a human support agent. The result was a staggering 85% reduction in support tickets related to platform navigation and data retrieval—a metric that speaks volumes about the failure of the previous fragmented architecture.

The $1M Chatbot Replacement

Perhaps the most dramatic example of savings combined with improved service was the decommissioning of an expensive, external chatbot service. This third-party tool, costing roughly $1 million annually, was largely ineffective—it relied on rigid decision trees and failed frequently when presented with complex, real-world agent scenarios. It was an expensive band-aid.

This costly external service was directly replaced by intelligent automation built into the new internal platform. This system leveraged the centralized data and integrated logic to answer complex queries contextually, effectively acting as a far smarter, always-on virtual assistant deeply embedded in the workflows. The $1 million was saved, and the quality of automated support measurably improved because the automation understood the business process, not just keywords.

The Blueprint for Success: Lessons Learned from eXp’s Overhaul

The journey undertaken by eXp Realty offers a valuable blueprint for any large enterprise grappling with the silent pandemic of SaaS waste and operational bloat. Success in such an overhaul hinges on several critical factors that extended beyond mere technology selection.

First and foremost was executive buy-in and clear scope definition. This wasn't a grassroots IT project; it was a strategic mandate that authorized teams to sunset expensive external contracts, giving the internal builders the necessary authority to enforce the new unified standard. Second, the emphasis on user-centric design ensured that the internal tools were adopted quickly. If the LCNC-built solution was harder to use than the legacy vendor tool, adoption would have failed, regardless of the cost savings.

For other large enterprises facing similar SaaS bloat, the lesson is clear: look inward before looking outward. Before signing another multi-year contract for functionality that overlaps with 70% of what you already pay for, ask if an empowered internal team, leveraging modern LCNC capabilities, could build a focused, integrated solution for less. The cost of integration debt often far outweighs the perceived convenience of buying off-the-shelf.

The long-term vision established by eXp is crucial. The internal platform is not a static deployment; it is a continuously maintained ecosystem. Sustained cost control and operational agility are only achieved by establishing robust governance for ongoing iteration, ensuring that the core platform remains the path of least resistance for solving future business challenges. This creates a virtuous cycle: building internally reduces SaaS reliance, freeing up capital to invest back into the platform, which further enhances agility and efficiency.

Source: Shared by @antonosika on February 6, 2026 · 12:23 PM UTC. Original Post Link