At the end of 2022, Delta Media Group® conducted a survey in which over 100 real estate brokerage leaders participated. The leaders who participated come from various-sized firms, ranging from only a few to over 1,000 agents. 

This survey gave us valuable insight into how real estate leaders were feeling about the state of the market and the economy going into 2023. It also helped us to better gauge how beneficial their technology partnership and all-in-one platform are to them in navigating the obstacles they foresee facing in the year ahead. 

When taking a look at the results, here's what we found:

The majority of leaders believe that over the next 12 months, their real estate brokerage's profitability will decrease, as opposed to increasing or remaining the same.

Additionally, the majority of leaders, at 53%, think that their firm's total transaction sides will decrease in the coming year, compared to the last three months of 2022.

The majority of brokerage leaders don't seem hopeful about the state of the global economy, with nearly 64% saying they believe the economy will deteriorate in 2023, and less than 5% saying they believe we will see an improvement. Over 50% of leaders also believe that the U.S. economy will see a deterioration in 2023, while approximately 32% think it will stay the same. In terms of their state and local economies, leaders appear to be a bit more optimistic. About 50% said that they thought they would remain relatively the same, not seeing a drastic shift either way. 

Overall, over 65% of leaders feel less confident in the state of the global and U.S. economies than they did a year ago. However, most feel largely the same level of confidence regarding their state and local economies. 

The survey results also show us that market predictions can differ depending on the brokerage's location. 33% of participants believe the housing demand in their market will stay the same, while another 33% said they believe the demand will deteriorate in 2023. About 28% think the housing demand will see an improvement. Very few believe there will be a significant improvement or deterioration.

Despite obvious concern over the state of both the global and U.S. economies, a clear majority of approximately 56% of brokerage leaders said they believe their market share will increase over the next 12 months. About 38% believe it will remain the same.

During the survey, we asked real estate leaders what they thought the single best thing they did in 2022 for their brokerage was. Many responses were related to agent recruiting and training, while others included adopting a new CRM, getting a new website, improving lead generation, and consolidating their technology.

Over 59% of brokerage leaders said that they believe their training and coaching efforts will increase over the next 12 months. Only 6% said they thought these efforts would decrease. 

When real estate leaders were asked what they thought their biggest business challenges will be in 2023, recruiting agents was on the list for 62% of leaders, followed by reduced profit margins, at 48%. Recruiting top producers appears to be the third biggest challenge they foresee at about 42%.

When asked on a scale of 0-100 (100 being highly valuable) how valuable an all-in-one platform is to their organization, the average number was 70, meaning the majority feel that it is either valuable or highly valuable to their business. 

When asked what their biggest complaint was with regard to many of the technology firms in the marketplace, the most popular responses were: lack of customer service and support, privacy, poor integration, lack of continuous innovation, and not delivering what was promised.

Finally, we asked participants how important they feel it is to have a real estate technology partner that continues to innovate to keep their system cutting-edge. About 58% said that this was highly important, while 29% said it was important. Only 3% said that they felt it was not important. 

Key Findings:

• The majority of real estate brokerage leaders foresee a deterioration of the global and U.S. economies in 2023.
• Over 50% of brokerage leaders believe their brokerage profitability will decrease in 2023.
• Over 50% of real estate leaders see their transaction sides decreasing in 2023, compared to Q4 of 2022.
• Approximately 56% of leaders believe that their business will increase market share in 2023.
• The most-reported business challenge foreseen by brokerage leaders in 2023 is recruiting new agents.
• A substantial number of real estate leaders plan to ramp up training and coaching efforts in 2023.
• The majority of brokerage leaders feel that having an all-in-one platform is valuable to the success of their organization.
• About 86% of brokerage leaders feel that it is important, or highly important, to have a technology partner that continues to innovate.