Redfin has conducted a survey of its agents across the industry to gauge key insights into the challenges and opportunities facing today’s real estate professionals. In its 2025 Industry Survey, Redfin dug deeper into how real estate agents view their careers, the housing market, and other hot-button industry issues. The 2025 Industry Survey highlights the opportunities and challenges agents see in this evolving market and the increasing pressures brought on by economic uncertainty and industry reforms.
For the study, Redfin-commissioned Ipsos to survey 500 agents from various brokerages, conducted between December 2024 and January 2025, identifying several key themes currently shaping the industry:
- Declining agent satisfaction: Fewer agents recommend real estate as a career. Only 21.2% of agents would encourage others to join the profession, with 49.8% unlikely to recommend it. This marks a significant drop in enthusiasm from prior years. Agents highlighted the unpredictability of income and difficulty of finding customers as major dislikes about their profession, while entrepreneurial independence was the top reason agents say they like their job.
- Significant economic headwinds: The affordability crisis is the biggest challenge agents anticipate in the next five years, with 64.2% rating it as a major concern. The ongoing lack of inventory (42.8%) and declining commissions (42%) are also significant challenges. Despite these concerns, a majority of agents are optimistic about increasing sales in 2025.
- Climate change and insurance issues: Nearly 40% of agents believe climate change is impacting where people choose to live, and almost half of all agents encountered more issues with home insurance during transactions in 2024. Despite the growing concern about climate risks, fewer than 10% of agents report having received training on how to address climate-related issues with clients.
- Discrimination in the industry: The share of agents experiencing discrimination rose in 2024. More than one-third of women (34.5%) reported experiencing sexism in the industry, and 38% of non-white agents reported experiencing racial discrimination.
- Negative attitudes towards the National Association of Realtors (NAR): Following a year of industry upheaval, a majority of agents (51%) now hold an unfavorable view of NAR, a significant increase from 19% in 2023. A substantial percentage (38%) believe the NAR settlement changes have negatively impacted their business, compared to 5.2% who noted a positive impact.
- Agents expect commissions to decline: Roughly half (47.8%) of agents say the average buyer’s agent commission has remained about the same since the NAR settlement changes took effect in August. However, more than half (51.2%) expect commissions will decline over the next 12 months, compared to just 4.6% who think they will increase.
“Our agents are ready to tackle this year’s challenges head on, knowing we have provided them with industry-leading tools, training and support,” said Jason Aleem, Redfin’s Chief of Real Estate Services. “And our customers know they can trust us to put them first, finding competitive advantages to save them money, while helping them navigate the challenges of buying or selling their home. That’s why as the industry changes, our core mission stays the same.”
Click here for more information on Redfin’s 2025 Industry Survey.
