To all the agents in the house,
What does it mean to be productive at your job? How do you measure productivity? How has that measurement changed over your career?
My colleague Brooklee Han wrote about these issues in an article published yesterday on RealTrends.
It's a vexing topic, starting with the fact that productivity is, like, impossible to measure in absolute terms.
As a whole, real estate agents are, maybe, more productive than ever. There were 6.12 million existing homes sales in the U.S. in 2021, according to National Association of Realtors data, the highest since 2006. Existing homes are bought and sold by an agent about 90% of the time, according to RealTrends, a figure that is higher than at the start of the century.
On the other hand, there are now more agents than ever. Almost 1.6 million are members of NAR alone.
The "maybe" here correlating home sales with more industrious agents seems off…but maybe it's not. Surely, most people don't say "I sold my home, because my real estate agent convinced me too." But that has, like, happened, and maybe it is happening more frequently?
Agents, do you think that your performance and productivity can affect the real estate market?
Now, back to Brooklee's story. You should read it, because it interviews folks like Bonnie Williamson at Sotheby's International Realty and Ashley Cusack at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, who have weathered changes in how agents and consumers find leads, use technology, and interact with their brokerages.
The story perhaps suggests that productivity is easier to achieve now with in-house brokerage apps and customer relationship management software. But that's not entirely clear.
Agents, please send me your thoughts on productivity, and if/when your work impacts the market. I can be emailed at mblake@housingwire.com.
Sincerely,
Matthew Blake
Senior Real Estate Reporter
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