You Sold How Many Houses Last Year? The Download

The verdict is in — the old way of doing business is over. Join us at Inman Connect New York Jan. 23-25, when together we’ll conquer today’s market challenges and prepare for tomorrow’s opportunities. Defy the market and bet big on your future.

Each week on The Download, Inman’s Christy Murdock takes a deeper look at the top-read stories of the week to give you what you’ll need to meet Monday head-on. This week: A “glut” of agents, low inventory and a down market mean part-timers now make up the majority of real estate professionals, according to the Consumer Federation of America. What does that mean for clients — and for the industry?

If you feel like you’ve had a down year, you’re probably right. But if you’ve sold two or more homes, you’re doing better than almost half of your brethren and sistren in the real estate industry, according to the industry watchdog Consumer Federation of America.

In its new report, “A Surfeit of Real Estate Agents 3: Abundant Jobs, Inadequate Mentorship, and Few Sales,” CFA highlights what it calls a “glut” of more than 1.5 million agents nationwide selling between 5 million and 6 million homes per year.

Around the same time, we got our first confirmation that membership is down at the National Association of Realtors. While that’s no doubt due, in part, to the year’s scandals, lawsuits and other Very Bad Things, it’s also undoubtedly due to the fact that many agents simply didn’t sell enough in 2023 to make it worth re-upping.

According to the data, 49 percent of the agents in the four areas surveyed sold either zero homes or only one in the previous year and 70 percent sold five or fewer homes. The median number of sales was two. More than a third of the agents, 37 percent, didn’t sell a single home, Stephen Brobeck, a CFA senior fellow and the report’s author, told Inman.

EXTRA: It’s official: NAR reports first full-year membership dip since 2012

We want to make sure you’re always optimizing every opportunity the market holds — even when it’s more difficult than usual. That’s why our service content is driven by Inman contributors who know how to get the job done day after day. Check out this week’s insights on proving your worth, marketing your listings and serving everyone effectively.

Agents are worth more than the current commission model

Learn how to articulate the value you bring to every step of the transaction. Agent, attorney, coach and yoga instructor Renee Fishman joins Bernice Ross to discuss the problems and opportunities provided by the ongoing commission debate.

Prompt like a pro with ChatGPT, and you’ll get unparalleled output

Sell more homes when you add the leverage of AI to your marketing. Rajeev Sajja and Jimmy Burgess offer a four-step formula for making your ChatGPT input the best it can be, so you get the results you really want.

She owns it: How agents can engage the single woman buyer

Do more business when you take the time to communicate with all of your potential buyers. In a two-part series, new Inman contributor Bobbie Wasserman offers insights for attracting and assisting single women buyers to maximize their ever-increasing purchase power.

EXTRA: How 50 years of equal credit spurred women’s homeownership