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There are 1.5 million real estate agents nationwide, but less than one-third actually conduct transactions.
said Joe Russ, Redfin’s senior director of securities operations and head of industry relations, speaking at Inman Connect New York on Friday.
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In a session titled “Behind the Numbers: New Data Tells Us What’s Really Happening in Real Estate,” Russ said Redfin’s annual survey surveys agents from multiple brokerages. However, he pointed out that it only targets agents who actually close deals.
“Thirty percent of agents do all the work,” Russ said.
“Last year, 71% of agents didn’t close a deal.”
“That number can be a little misleading” because not all real estate agents are in the business of closing deals, he added, but Redfin’s research shows that they are actually closing deals. I emphasize this to emphasize that it represents the views of real estate agents.
The survey found that half of active agents expect an increase in home sales this year, and more than half expect home prices to rise in their area.
Russ said Redfin partnered with Inman Intel for the presentation, and Inman Intel also believes the agent’s outlook is better than it was 12 months ago. He said he found improvements.
When it came to survey respondents’ favorite things about being a real estate agent, entrepreneurial independence, or “being your own boss,” and helping others topped the list.
Still, the percentage of people who said they would recommend becoming a real estate agent hit an all-time low in 2024, Russ said.
“Maybe it’s just a correlation to market conditions, but it’s been a tough year,” Russ said.
Fewer agents entering the industry means experience levels are rising, with 83% of agents having three years or more of experience. It also increases agent productivity. 72% of respondents have made 5 or more transactions in the last year.
That means agent income is also increasing, with 30 percent of agents making more than $100,000 last year. Still, 42% of agents earned less than $50,000.
“That’s a problem,” Russ said. “It shouldn’t be that difficult to become a real estate agent.”
Respondents’ biggest complaint about being an agent was unpredictability of income, followed by difficulty finding clients. In this context, when asked about the most important factor when choosing an intermediary, 78% cited commission splits and/or commissions.
“That’s what Redfin Next is about,” Rath says.
“That’s why we needed to change our pay structure.”
But Redfin also asked respondents whether their brokerage firms would want to reduce investment in technology, training, and marketing to improve segmentation, and 55% said they would, while 45% said the opposite. I answered. Their split worsened slightly.
Outside of brokerage, housing affordability and inventory top the list of biggest challenges for agents over the next five years, while home insurance issues are growing.
“Forty-seven percent of agents are actually reporting significantly more home insurance issues than they were a year ago,” Russ said, noting that this is especially true in California and Florida.
“We’re hearing more and more from our customers that they’re actually just changing the way they search for a home because they have to think about storms, heat, drought, floods,” Russ said.
A significant share of respondents also believe lower fees (42%) and class action or Department of Justice (DOJ) litigation (38%) will be on the agenda over the next five years.
Still, 57% of respondents said they did not see any major changes in their business as a result of last year’s National Association of Realtors antitrust settlement. A further 38% said their business had been negatively impacted, while 5% said it had been positively impacted.
When asked if there had been any change in their efforts to negotiate commissions from customers, 54% said negotiations had increased slightly or much more, and 34% said they had remained about the same. .
“We’re going to do more training on negotiation,” Russ said.
At the same time, nearly half of respondents (45%) said most sellers in their area pay buyer agent fees upfront, 22% said most sellers leave them unlimited, and the remaining 33% said they were mixed. Allows sellers to choose their local approach depending on their preferences.
Rath said that in a survey of real customers conducted by Inman Intel, 60% of active sellers agreed to pay buyer’s agent fees upfront, and 29% were willing to offer them during negotiations. It was pointed out that it was found that
Perhaps because of this increased negotiation, 52% of Redfin survey respondents expect fees to decline “moderately” or “significantly” over the next 12 months.
Redfin also surveyed active agents regarding their views on NAR and found that 51% of active agents have a negative view of the industry association in 2024, compared to 19% in 2023. It turned out that Only 25% had a positive view of NAR in 2024, compared to 49% in 2024. 2023.
Active agents’ views of multiple listing services have also declined, although to a lesser extent, in 2024, with more than half of respondents still having a favorable view of MLS, increasing from 66% to 57%. decreased. 14% had a negative view, up from 8%.
“I think the difference between MLS and NAR is that agents are concerned about MLS,” Russ said, adding that 30% of respondents said “MLS decline as a source of inventory” will be a challenge over the next five years. He pointed out that he thought it would.
“They want a central repository of all the listings available on the market, and because they overwhelmingly recommend marketing on the MLS, they know their customers do too. 88 percent completely or somewhat agree that it should be listed on the MLS.”
Lars said the agent’s decision is not whether the MLS benefits the seller, but rather whether the MLS benefits the agent.
When asked whether pocket listings and office-only products typically benefit agents, 44 percent of respondents agreed “somewhat” or “completely,” 30 percent neither agreed nor disagreed, and 26 percent answered “somewhat” or “completely” opposed.
“I think that’s the problem. At the end of the day, you want to align the agent’s interests with the customer’s interests, right?” Lars said.
Email Andrea V. Brambilla.
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