Trends 2025: 9 opportunities for brokers adapting to a new world 

Editor's note: Since 2006, the Swanepoel Trends Report has provided in-depth research and analysis to help leaders understand the forces shaping residential real estate. This exclusive series of excerpts highlights each trend featured in the 2025 report, which was released in November 2024.

Insights at the Industry's Inflection Point: Almost a decade ago, The DANGER Report outlined the biggest threats facing the real estate industry. Over time, many of those threats emerged, leaving the industry more susceptible to criticism — and ultimately to lawsuits and the largest settlement in NAR's history. Now, as leaders attempt to navigate the most significant reset in memory, planning for 2025 and beyond is critical.

This excerpt presents nine opportunities for agents and brokers, as laid out in The Opportunity Report, the follow-up to The DANGER Report. 

The Opportunity Report begins by providing extensive exploration of near- and long-term opportunities for real estate brokers and agents. This section outlines some of the main discussion points.

Decouple buyer and seller agent compensation

NAR's lawsuit settlement makes buyers separately responsible for compensating the real estate agent that helps them buy a house. This can no longer be paid by the seller through guaranteed sell-side compensation via the MLS. Practitioners should lean into this change and implement it widely, even if workarounds exist.

Establish best practices for buyer services

The settlement encourages competition for agent services, and brokerages must avoid unintentionally undermining these efforts by continuing outdated practices. Instead, they should work to preserve the valuable benefit of buyer representation. This includes establishing best practices for handling unrepresented buyers, and for buyer representation, as this is the clearest way to provide transparency and clarity of the agent's role for both sellers and buyers.

Enhance credibility with consumers

Confidence in residential real estate agents is in decline, exacerbated by recent lawsuits. Restoring credibility and trust is vital for the industry's future stability and important for consumers, who benefit from expert representation. Now is the time for real estate brokerages and agents to prioritize consumer interests, regardless of jurisdiction. Focusing on transparency, integrity, ethical practices and exceptional representation will improve the perception of real estate professionals and the value they offer.

Elevate agents: A new perspective on their role

The industry is getting a unique second chance to redefine the role and value of a real estate agent as a trusted advisor and professional rather than just an agent and salesperson. Brokers must enforce higher accountability from their agents.

Digitize the real estate transaction with AI

Artificial intelligence is among the most transformative technologies ever introduced to residential real estate, potentially serving as the ultimate catalyst to fully digitize the real estate transaction process.

The potential of AI is immense, and the industry requires a sophisticated use of data to achieve a digital transaction and countless other beneficial innovations.

Thrive amid compensation compression

With changing consumer behavior, emerging business models and a declining perceived value putting significant downward pressure on agency compensation, it is crucial to strategize now to mitigate the impact.

Compensation lawsuits could act as a catalyst for industrywide change — prompting a re-engineering of the business model, improving efficiency, raising standards, increasing transparency and adopting new best practices. This is a critical moment for transformation.

Reinvent the brokerage model for a new era

Recent upheaval caused by the lawsuits together with the ongoing downward pressure on brokerage margins have created a fertile landscape to implement new business model options not previously considered viable. Many brokerages still rely on outdated models that struggle to compete in today's rapidly evolving business and technology landscape. Failure to proactively disrupt their own models may result in significant external disruption between 2025 and 2030.

Harness the power of mergers

Consolidation can reduce redundancies, help widen thin margins, enable better use of technologies and provide an excellent exit strategy. The next wave of consolidation in the residential real estate sector is driven by mounting economic pressures that compel companies to merge and optimize operations for greater efficiency.

Maximize the strength of teams

Teams bring together a range of skills, perspectives and experiences enabling them to tackle challenges that the traditional real estate brokerage model has not addressed. By leveraging diverse skills and perspectives, teams are better.

Read the full chapter: Digital and printed copies of the 2024 Swanepoel Trends Report are available for purchase at T3 Trends.

Note: T3 Sixty and Real Estate News share a founder, Stefan Swanepoel.