The past few years have been tough, with a sharp downturn in trade. But real estate agents surveyed by Inman Intel are increasingly reporting genuine interest from homebuyers and sellers across their customer pipeline ahead of the crucial spring season.
A growing number of real estate agents now believe that a market turnaround is just around the corner. And some report that it may already be underway.
The percentage of Intel Index survey agent respondents who say their clients’ pipelines are better than a year ago is now about the same as the percentage who say their pipelines are worse. And this new development helped propel Intel’s Client Pipeline Tracker metric to its highest level since Intel began tracking agents during the 2023 real estate downturn.
January Client Pipeline Tracker Score: +14
Last score: December +9 3 months ago: October +2
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These improved business conditions on the ground could be an early sign of what real estate agents have long predicted is that easing mortgage rates and slowing price growth will at some point bring back significant numbers of potential home buyers and sellers.
But it will be several months before we know whether these early signs translate into a stronger spring and summer trading market.
In recent years, agent optimism in January hasn’t panned out. But it’s also true that during this time in 2024 and 2025, agents were less optimistic and had fewer customers in the pipeline to support their hopes than they do now.
Intel breaks down all the details of the detailed research that informs our scores in this week’s report.
ground situation
Our Client Pipeline Tracker summarizes how agents feel about their buyer and seller pipeline over the past year and in the near future.
Intel explained the methodology in this post, but here’s a quick refresher on how to interpret the scores.
A score of 0 represents a neutral period in which the client pipeline is neither improving nor deteriorating. A positive score reflects a market where client pipelines are improving or are widely expected to improve within the next 12 months. The higher the rating, the more confident the agent is that things are progressing in the right direction. A negative score indicates that the client’s pipeline situation is deteriorating or is widely expected to deteriorate further next year.
A significantly positive total score falls around the +20 mark. This type of score means that much of the industry agrees that the pipeline is improving and will continue to improve.
On the other hand, a significantly negative total score is closer to -20. This is slightly lower than where the industry was in September 2023, when Intel first surveyed distributors about its pipeline.
Results as high as +50 or as low as -50 can be observed for each of the four separate components included in the score.
Below are the component scores for the latest survey and how each sentiment category has changed since the last survey.
Tracker component score
December→January
Current buyer pipeline: -17 → -7 Future buyer pipeline: +19 → +22 Current seller pipeline: -7 → +1 Future seller pipeline: +19 → +22
These are the highest scores recorded in all four component categories since Intel first began surveying agents on client pipelines in September 2023.
It’s also surprising how much of the recent movement in scores has been driven by actual conditions on the ground, rather than just expectations for the coming months.
Because the score is forward-looking, the forward-looking component carries twice as much weight as the current pipeline component.
Despite this weighting method, it is the current business climate that has increased the overall score in recent months. This is a clear sign that the agency is feeling real momentum in that both buyer and seller clients are expressing interest in entering the market.
The percentage of agent respondents who say their buyer pipeline has worsened year over year fell from 47% in October to 32% in January. Meanwhile, the percentage of agents who told Intel their buyer pipeline had improved jumped from 16% to 27% over the same period.
On the listing side, pipeline sentiment among distributors surveyed by Intel is actually in positive territory year-over-year.
The percentage of agent respondents who said their seller pipeline had worsened in the past year fell from 36% in October to 24% in January. Meanwhile, the percentage of agent respondents who said their seller pipeline had increased increased from 27% in October to 32% in January.
As the current pipeline situation improves, the agency appears to be making some adjustments to its forward outlook for the year ahead. However, it’s worth noting that these recent pipeline improvements appear to meet expectations expressed by the agency over several months of research.
In October, 43% of agent respondents expected their buyer pipeline to be heavier in a year, compared to just 16% who expected their buyer pipeline to be lighter. Through January, 53% of agency respondents expected their buyer pipeline to grow in some way over the next year, while fewer than 11% expected their buyer pipeline to shrink. Still, only 5% of agents told Intel they expected their buyer pipeline to improve “significantly” over the next year, not a significant difference from the previous month.
In other words, agents are encouraged by the interest they’re seeing from potential buyer and seller clients ahead of what will be a crucial spring market for many businesses. But more will need to be seen before we can meaningfully move from cautious optimism to a more bullish outlook.
Intel will continue to closely track the status of our agent pipeline in the coming months.
Methodology note: This month’s Inman Intel Index study was scheduled to run from January 22nd to February 22nd. Posted on April 4, 2026 and received 427 responses as of Thursday afternoon. These results are preliminary and subject to revision. The entire Inman reader community was invited to participate, and a rotating selection of randomly selected community members were encouraged to participate via email. Users answered a series of questions about their self-proclaimed niche in the real estate industry, including real estate agents, brokers, financiers, and proptech entrepreneurs. Results reflect the views of our passionate Inman community, but do not necessarily align with the views of the broader real estate industry. This survey is conducted monthly.
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