There’s a running joke in our office about my repeated failure to predict the beginning of the downturn in the number of agents. I’ve been saying for years that the number of agents would be declining “any time now” and I’ve been wrong for years. In fact, I’ve been wrong for so long I began to doubt whether it would ever happen. As I speak with MLS executives across the country, very few are actually predicting any major downturns in agent numbers in their markets.
Yet, today I read about Foxton’s on the east coast about to declare bankruptcy. And there’s speculation in the Twin Cities area about agent malaise. And the growth in agents at the national level flattened some time ago. Are we about to see a significant decline in the number of agents? What are you seeing in your market?