Real estate agents are reluctant to recommend their career amid industry challenges

A growing share of real estate agents wouldn't recommend their career to others.

Only 21.2% of agents said they are likely to recommend being a real estate agent, compared to 49.8% who said they are unlikely to recommend their career to others, according to a survey conducted by real estate firm Redfin Corp. That nearly -29 percentage-point differential is the worst it’s been in years, and the metric has worsened since the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2019, there was a -17 percentage-point differential between the share of agents likely to recommend the profession versus those who would not.

The biggest issue of the job cited by agents surveyed is the unpredictability of income, which ranked highest among surveyed agents — 42.6% said it was a major issue while 34.2% said it was a minor issue. The difficulty of finding customers and building a business was the second-highest reason cited, with 37.8% saying that was a major issue and 38% saying it was a minor issue.

Dealing with other agents who are rude or unprofessional ranked No. 3 on the major issues list, eclipsing total income, difficulty closing deals in a volatile market, poor hours and even abusive customers.

A whopping 86.8% of agents rated "entrepreneurial independence" and being able to set their own schedule and make their own decisions as major benefits of the job. Another 10% named those things as minor benefits. Additionally, 76.4% said helping people whose lives are in transition is a major job benefit, while 72.4% said relationships with customers are a major benefit.

Another 61.4% said a love of real estate, houses and neighborhoods was a major benefit.

Agents are also aware of big challenges, with 64.2% rating homeownership affordability as a major concern facing agents in the next five years. Another 28.4% rated affordability as a minor concern.

"For many Americans, buying a home remains more out of reach than ever. Agents know all too well that elevated mortgage rates and high prices are not going away," Redfin said in the report.

Affordability was far and away the top concern cited by agents. An ongoing lack of housing inventory, declining commissions and the continued fallout of class-action lawsuits related to buyer agent commissions were ranked next.

Housing market has been tough for agents

Median home prices skyrocketed during the pandemic, from $327,100 in the fourth quarter of 2019 to $442,600 in the fourth quarter of 2022 — a 35% increase, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Since then, sale prices have largely leveled off, with the median price standing at $419,200 in the fourth quarter of 2024.

The tough market for buyers has also been tough for agents. By the end of 2024, the number of full-time real estate agents and brokers dropped to its lowest point in more than a decade. 

In 2019, there were about 543,000 full-time real estate agents and brokers in the U.S., according to data gathered by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. After a slight dip in 2020, there were 524,000 brokers and agents in 2021 and 512,000 in 2022. In 2023, that number dropped to 440,000, then to 398,000 in 2024.

The last time the number of full-time agents and brokers was that low was in 2013, according to the Federal Reserve data. During the height of the housing boom in the run-up to the financial crisis, the total number of agents and brokers was about 504,000.

Some experts also attributed the recent decline in agents, in part, to a $418 million NAR settlement in March 2024. That came in response to a wave of class-action lawsuits in which plaintiffs charged the NAR’s "participation rule" and "cooperative compensation" practices unfairly forced home sellers to pay inflated commissions to buyer agents. Plaintiffs argued a complex network of rules kept buyer-broker commissions high and essentially mandated the seller offer buyer commissions.

The NAR, as part of its settlement, agreed to a series of internal changes that took effect in August. Those steps include sellers no longer being able to make offers of buyer-broker commissions on any Multiple Listing Service the NAR owns, although they can still make commission offers on other websites and through negotiations.

Meanwhile, the overall share of buyers agent commissions has shifted — but not by much. Data from Redfin indicates the average buyers' agent commission was 2.37% for homes sold in the fourth quarter, largely unchanged from 2.36% in the third quarter but down from 2.45% in the fourth quarter of 2023.

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