As the downturn in real estate transactions has expanded from a multi-month correction to a years-long slowdown, more and more real estate agents are considering an exit from their field, according to research from Intel.
The results of November’s Intel Index survey reinforce a clear trend since last year: Agents are increasingly likely to say they’ve thought about leaving the industry, even though many of them aren’t yet fully addressing their frustrations.
- 32 percent of agent respondents said they had considered leaving the industry at some point in the past 12 months.
- That share is 1.5 times as high as the proportion of officers who said the same thing this year.
This week, Intel takes a closer look at how this group of “fence sitters” — agents who say they’ve considered leaving real estate in recent months — are driven by different factors and motivations than those seen this time last year.
Read the full conclusions in this week’s report.
What today’s fence sitter looks like
Unlike this time last year, the most obvious sign of an agent considering leaving the industry was a significant loss of sales and low transaction income.
- 64 percent of agents sitting on the fence in November said their buyer pipeline was “significantly lighter” than the same period last year, a big jump from 37 percent who said the same thing last December.
- The share of witch sitters who indicated that they had not carried out any transactions in the past year has almost doubled from just under 7 percent in December last year until 11 percent last month.
An influx of new inventory may have blunted this effect on the listings side. Still, agents considering a real estate exit this year were also more likely to report thinning seller pipelines.
- 39 percent of fence sitters said their pipelines were significantly lighter than the same time last year An increase of 12 points from December 2024.
Like many real estate agents, fence-sitters are increasingly reporting friction with buyers trying to negotiate compensation.
- 59 percent of agents sitting on the fence said at least some of their buyer clients tried to negotiate compensation, an increase from 45 percent late last year.
Agents who had considered leaving the industry this year were also more likely to report dissatisfaction with the industry’s largest trade association.
- 42 percent of fence sitters said NAR was not positive for the industry, compared to 35 percent of fence sitters in the closing days of 2024.
These figures paint a picture of agents under increasing pressure from business conditions, struggling to find clients, execute transactions and earn commissions. And with more agents in this position today than last year, this is a key driver in the number of agents who have at least happily moved on.
Another crop
Last year it looked very different.
Business conditions were far from ideal in 2024, but the challenges were slightly different than what agents experience most acutely today. And fewer officers looked at the exit door, according to Intel’s studies.
And digging deeper, it appears that industry unrest was the reason agents were considering leaving, the results suggest.
The main market-based factor that weighed more heavily on agents sitting on the fence last year was — no surprise — inventory.
- 30 percent of respondents who will be on the fence in December 2024 cited “lack of housing inventory” as their top business concern.
- By the following November, that share had fallen to 22 percenta move that was largely offset by an increasing focus on mortgage rates and affordability.
In the early days of the enactment of the NAR settlement rules, agents were also more sensitive to downward pressure on commissions. This fear may also have played a role in officers considering a career change.
- 40 percent of the 2024 group of fence sitters noted that commissions had “declined slightly” since the settlement rules went into effect.
- By November 2025 that share fell to 27 percent.
And while most agents who considered leaving the industry didn’t actually leave, some ended up switching agents—leaving clues in Intel’s surveys about what was on their minds.
- Those who had considered leaving the industry in 2024 and instead changed brokers are most likely to say they left their old brokerage in search of a better commission or compensation structure.
- In contrast, recent real estate agents eyeing a real estate exit in 2025 were more likely to have switched firms in search of better technology.
The surveys show that agents at the bottom rung of the brokerage ladder have had a particularly difficult year – and more than a few have seriously considered quitting.
As the page turns to 2026, Intel will continue to monitor agent experience in this difficult market.
Methodological notes: This month’s Inman Intel Index questionnaire ran from November 20 to December. 3, 2025, and received 485 responses. The entire Inman reader community was invited to participate, and a rotating, random selection of community members were asked to participate by email.. Users responded to a series of questions related to their self-described corner of the real estate industry – including real estate agents, brokerage leaders, lenders and proptech entrepreneurs. The results reflect the views of the involved Inman community, which do not always reflect those of the wider real estate industry. This questionnaire is carried out monthly.
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