It’s official, there are more agents than listings. A red-hot housing market brings a record number of Real Estate Agents saturating the market. Redfin alone is hiring a record number of 162 people a week into their brokerage (up from 92 a week at the same time last year).

The industry is filling the bar, not raising the bar.

It appears that the brokers, associations, and MLS are the ones creating this rhetoric, as they are the ones benefiting from the record number of agents. While a cumbersome home selling process gets neglected and goes unchecked for quality, causing home sales not to rise. The existing practitioners are the ones losing by the industry’s motivation to continue to keep the licensing standards and fees low to continue to bring on agents at a rapid pace. More and more competition, you, me, and the other elite agents have higher attrition to their client base yearly as a higher percentage of the public has a license and we all know that people will buy with their friend.

The industry and its brokers have built a business based on agent count as that’s how they make their money, but with no plan to stop the growth in licensing. A few years ago, real estate analyst Stefan Swanepoel put together the Danger Report which is a study of dangers, unpredictable events, and game-changers in the real estate market. This report helped the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) identify opportunities, trends, and risks. It appears the industry has shown its true colors by not taking action against its conclusions as the industry continues to bring on more new agents. Those conclusions were published but nothing came of it. With the utmost certainty, Stefan asserted the rising population would ruin the reputation of the brand and agents. The industry promoted raising the bar but instead filled the bar.

We need to work together and change this. Join the National Association of Real Estate Teams who are focused on changing the industry.