Delta Survey Reveals Real Estate Brokers' Top 5 Challenges for 2024

What are the top five business challenges for real estate broker leaders in 2024? That's the question answered by the new 2024 Delta Real Estate Leadership Survey of more than 130 brokerage leaders representing firms that collectively were responsible for 2 out of 3 residential real estate transactions last year.

For the second year in a row, "Recruiting new agents" was the No. 1 business challenge (65% versus 63% in 2023), followed by "Reduced profit margins" (60% versus 48% in 2023). "Agent adoption of brokerage provided technology" leaped into the No. 3 spot at 55% (it tied for the No. 5 spot last year at 39%).

The "Impact of commission lawsuits" jumps into the No. 4 spot cited by a majority of brokerage leaders (52%) as being a top challenge for this year. At the No. 5 spot was "Cutting the right expenses" at 37%.

"It's no surprise that recruiting remains the largest challenge for real estate leaders and that the majority see the industry lawsuits as another top challenge," said Michael Minard, CEO and owner of Delta Media Group. "What is a bit of a surprise is seeing the importance of agent tech adoption catapult into the top three business challenge. This indicates that real estate technology will be under a microscope in 2024, and it had better benefit the brokerage's bottom line."

The Delta survey also asked leaders to share their take on the value of all-in-one marketing technology platforms in the brokerage's organization. Industry leaders gave all-in-one platforms an average rating of 7 out of 10.

However, brokerage leaders 30 years old and younger, gave the centralized tech platforms a perfect rating of 10. In contrast, the oldest age group of leaders, 60 and older, gave the platforms the lowest rating of any age group: 6.6. Female leaders ranked the value of all-in-one platforms significantly higher (7.03) than their male counterparts (6.73).

The survey also found:

• Rounding out the Top 10 business challenges for this year included "Recruiting top producers" (47%), "Retaining top producers" (44%), "Recruiting younger agents," "Providing higher quality leads for agents," and "Making sure you have the right technology" (all tied at No. 8 with 35%).
• Only about 1 in 10 leaders consider managing teams or managing the impact of AI to be a top business challenge this year.
• Less than 1 in 7 leaders said that increasing the speed of agent lead follow-up or recruiting a more diverse workforce was a top challenge for 2024.

The Delta survey also asked brokerage leaders to identify the single best thing their brokerage did in 2024. The most common responses focused on three things: activities related to cutting costs and streamlining operations (also the most common best thing accomplished in 2023), technology adoption, and digital marketing, as many brokerages said they focused on integrating new tech and expanded their digital marketing activities; and agent support and growth, implementing new programs and services, from training and coaching to providing more brokerage marketing support.

Finally, when real estate leaders were asked to provide additional insight into their top business challenge for 2024, the study uncovered three common themes:

• Keeping agents engaged and productive
• Attracting and retaining new talent
• External market pressures, from high interest rates and inventory shortages to legal and economic uncertainties

Additional details from the Delta Real Estate Leadership Survey are featured in the latest issue of Delta Media's Real Estate and Marketing Technology Magazine, found online here.