This text was shared right here with the permission of Mike DelPrete for Inman Intel, a knowledge and analysis arm of Inman providing deep insights and market intelligence on the enterprise of residential actual property and proptech. Subscribe right this moment.

The primary quarter of 2023 noticed a wide range of winners and losers by way of brokerage agent rely – the numerical manifestation of agent recruitment and retention.

Why it issues: As I’ve beforehand asserted, brokers are central to the actual property transaction; progress in transaction volumes goes hand in hand with progress in agent rely, as a result of brokers promote homes.

Dig deeper: Disruptive, low-fee brokerages like eXp Realty, Actual Brokerage, United Actual Property, and RealtyOne all added brokers throughout the first three months of the yr.

• In the meantime, a few of the largest incumbent brokerages and franchises — Keller Williams, RE/MAX, and Anyplace — all misplaced brokers.

The 5 largest brokerages and franchises on this record — Anyplace, Keller Williams, RE/MAX, Compass, and eXp Realty — account for over 427,000 brokers, down 1.1 % from the earlier quarter.

• Amongst them, solely eXp Realty grew its agent rely from the final quarter.
• Redfin, with lower than 2,000 salaried principal brokers, is the draw back outlier after three rounds of layoffs.

Actual Brokerage is the clear upside outlier, rising its agent rely over 20 % — to 10,000 brokers — from the earlier quarter.

• 10,000 brokers is significantly fewer than Anyplace’s 58,000 or RE/MAX’s 82,000, however Actual is catching as much as Compass’ 28,000 brokers.

Talking of Compass, Q1 2023 was the primary time that the brokerage’s agent rely decreased.

• Context is necessary: Many brokerages misplaced brokers.
• However Compass is not within the ranks of “fast-growing brokerages,” a class it dominated over the previous three years. That mantle now passes to eXp Realty and Actual (and several other different low-fee brokerage fashions).

What to look at: Agent migration patterns are a major main indicator of future brokerage progress.

• In a interval of belt-tightening and fewer transactions, brokers are transferring away from conventional manufacturers and flocking to comparatively newer fashions the place they’re capable of hold extra of their fee.

The underside line: Brokers — and never AI, machine studying, a complicated CRM, a one-click transaction, nor another tech buzzwords — promote homes.

• This era of market shortage reveals the brokerage enterprise fashions capable of thrive in a downturn, in addition to these dealing with extra elementary challenges.
• To determine the brokerage enterprise fashions of the longer term, one merely must comply with the brokers.

Be aware: Because of reporting limitations, the agent rely included for eXp Realty is a worldwide determine, whereas Keller Williams and RE/MAX embody the U.S. and Canada.