Agent mood improving post-settlement — a little 

How do agents feel about their careers now that they've had a chance to work with new rules in effect? That's one of several questions Clever Real Estate sought to answer in an updated survey related to a prior report on agent and consumer sentiment in the aftermath of the NAR settlement announcement. 

The company polled 516 real estate agents nationwide and found that while the overall agent population appears to be slowly accepting the changes, most are still split on their outlook when it comes to agent attrition and overall career prospects.

Agents appear to be slowly accepting the new practices

In its recent poll, Clever researchers found that the majority of agents still oppose the changes to commission procedures due to the NAR settlement. However, the percentage of disaffected agents has decreased from 70% in their first poll earlier in the summer to 64% today.

Additionally, a whopping 76% of agents surveyed still believe the rule changes will negatively affect first-time buyers, though this percentage has dropped 12 points since the first poll from April. 

According to findings from a separate survey by the Real Brokerage of 300 of its sales professionals, 59% of agents said that they were "very well prepared" for industry changes while 30% reported being "somewhat prepared" and only 5% said that they were unprepared for the new rules. Additionally, Real also reported that overall agent sentiment and optimism has increased back to pre-settlement levels.

Agents see the rule changes leading to increased attrition  

Perhaps one of the more revealing findings in the survey is agent attitudes on attrition. A plurality of 86% of respondents believe the rule changes will lead to an increase in real estate sales professionals leaving their job. However, this rate is down from the 95% of agents surveyed in April who believed the settlement would cause a major exodus from the industry. 

Recent NAR membership data showed more agents were joining the powerful trade association in the lead-up to the August deadline to enact the rule changes. State association membership data revealed that NAR gained more than 29,000 member agents between April and August, pushing membership to roughly 1.53 million.

Nearly half of agents are pessimistic about their careers 

Despite more agents warming up to the new reality of real estate sales, nearly half — or specifically, 48% — of agents surveyed had a pessimistic outlook on their career outlook.  This contrasted with just 16% who said that they feel more optimistic than before the NAR settlement.

Additionally, nearly three-quarters of the agents surveyed — 72% — said the NAR settlement, and industry practice changes that came about from it, will have an overall negative effect on the industry. Only 20% felt the changes would be positive.