What are the greatest challenges facing real estate brokers in 2024? The new 2024 Delta Real Estate Leadership Survey asked that of more than 130 brokerage leaders (representing firms that collectively were responsible for 2 out of 3 residential real estate transactions in 2023).
The top five challenges were as follows:
- Recruiting new agents (65%)
- Reduced profit margins (60%)
- Agent adoption of brokerage-provided technology (55%)
- Impact of commission lawsuits (55%)
- Cutting the right expenses (37%)
The top three had been listed as problems in previous years, though to a lesser degree (for instance, the technology concerned was only no. 5, cited by 39% of respondents, in 2023). The impact of commission lawsuits being cited is unsurprising thanks to the Sitzer/Burnett class-action suit outcome, which ruled traditional buyer-broker compensation anti-competitive.
“It’s no surprise that recruiting remains the largest challenge for real estate leaders and that the majority see the industry lawsuits as another top challenge,” said Michael Minard, CEO and owner of Delta Media Group, “What is a bit of a surprise is seeing the importance of agent tech adoption catapult into the top three business challenge. This indicates that real estate technology will be under a microscope in 2024, and it had better benefit the brokerage’s bottom line.”
The Delta survey also asked leaders to share their take on the value of all-in-one marketing technology platforms in the brokerage’s organization. Industry leaders gave all-in-one platforms an average rating of 7 out of 10.
However, brokerage leaders 30 years old and younger, gave the centralized tech platforms a perfect rating of 10. In contrast, the oldest age group of leaders, 60 and older, gave the platforms the lowest rating of any age group: 6.6. Female leaders ranked the value of all-in-one platforms significantly higher (7.03) than their male counterparts (6.73).
The survey also found:
- Rounding out the Top 10 business challenges for this year included “Recruiting top producers” (47%), “Retaining top producers” (44%), “Recruiting younger agents,” “Providing higher quality leads for agents,” and “Making sure you have the right technology” (all tied at No. 8 with 35%).
- Only about 1 in 10 leaders consider managing teams or managing the impact of AI to be a top business challenge this year.
- Less than 1 in 7 leaders said that increasing the speed of agent lead follow-up or recruiting a more diverse workforce was a top challenge for 2024.
Additional details from the Delta Real Estate Leadership Survey are featured in the latest issue of Delta Media’s Real Estate and Marketing Technology Magazine, found online here.
