Sam Sawyer on Building Pinnacle Realty: A New Brokerage Era

This week on SMU Stories, we sat down with Sam Sawyer — CEO of Pinnacle Realty Advisors and proud SMU alum from the Class of 2009. Since 2020, he has led Pinnacle from Austin, developing a cloud-based brokerage platform that enables real-estate professionals to retain 100% of their commissions while accessing streamlined tools, rapid support, and transparent monthly pricing.Sam refers to the model as “brokerage as a service.” It mirrors the SaaS approach: agents select the plan that fits their needs, pay a predictable monthly fee, and clearly understand the services included — with no unnecessary add-ons or hidden costs.Sam launched his real estate career while still an undergrad at SMU at 19 years old. He has worked in the real estate and technology industries since then across Dallas, Silicon Valley, and currently in Austin.