Real-Estate Agents Are Quitting the Slow Housing Market

[Zorro]

In fourth year of struggling market, even real-estate professionals who made it this far are reaching breaking point

Kim Taylor bet her career on the housing market.

In mid-2023, the real-estate agent launched her own brokerage with her husband, Gordon Taylor. The market in the Fort Worth, Texas, area had cooled from its pandemic-era frenzy, but business was good. Taylor started out with a team of seven agents and quickly brought six more onboard.

By 2024, high mortgage rates and prices were weighing on demand, and homes sat on the market. Most of Taylor’s agents had to find other part-time or full-time jobs to stay afloat. Her husband took a job last year working for a school district.

“We just became a bleeding artery,” said Taylor, who started working in real estate in 2015. “The last 11 months have been the hardest of my career.” She closed the brokerage this spring and joined another firm.

The slowest housing market in decades is stretching into its fourth year, and even real-estate agents who made it this far are reaching a breaking point. Most of them are independent contractors and get paid when a deal closes. With fewer sales to go around and homes taking longer to sell, more agents are ditching the industry or finding second jobs.

https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/real-estate-agents-are-quitting-the-slow-housing-market-d95fc524?st=iNaFGb&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

[Vinca]

1. The prices are still through the roof just about everywhere. Someone wrote a letter to the editor last week in a

small town, Vermont newspaper and said a buyer needs to be making $70 an hour to afford a starter home in our area (southern VT/NH). $70!

[mwmisses4289]

2. Yup. Houston area is probably one of the last big metro areas to become unaffordable.

There are at least four new subdivisions going up around me, and houses in the least expensive one start at $290,000.
Our own house, if we wanted to try and sell (we don't), would have an asking price some $100,000 or so more than what we bought it for.
And rents! Holy moly, rents around us are as much or more than our mortgage payment for a studio or one bedroom apartment! Don't even get me on rents for homes!

[OC375]

3. Everyone is stuck. It's a no win right now.

I'd like to move, but prices are twice what they were in 2020. That means I need double for the sale of my home just to afford the mortgage on the new place. So, assuming you have cash to put down, if you home sells for double what you know it's actually worth, there's still...

-the money to pack and move, dispose of junk and the time/hassle involved. No biggies, every move requires that.
-all the real estate fees that go along with home buying and selling. OK, more $$$, but again, to be expected.
-the money to fix up things around my home to sell (mostly done, but labor rates are through the roof becuase everyone is competing for less skilled labor). OK, now I really can't lower the price when I sell!
-the money to fix the disaster I'm buying and moving into. Much in my range has been ravaged by people who watched too much HGTV, so everything trim related is painted white or worse, probably the fireplace too, every surface that can be has been made wood or LVP, etc... infinity number of can lights, etc... Crap, forgot, the low stock means I can only afford dogs, or to level up and buy well out of my budget!
-interest rates are double what my current home is running me. Yikes, why does this move make sense, right now!?!

Wait... maybe I just go with item number 3, fix up my place for me instead of for sale, and wait it out on my 3% loan, maybe even saving some money every month instead of giving it to someone else at double the interest?

Gen X is patient, especially with money. Find a reason NOT to buy a home. Let everyone else overpay, and buy cheap when it crashes, IMHO. It's unsustainable.

And, if you re renting, my God... You have my sincerest condolences. It's freaking criminal, and I have no answers, only empathy.

[Johnny2X2X]

5. Interest rates make moving hard to stomach for me

I'm locked in at 3%. But that's the only thing that would keep me from moving, the price is immaterial as I have a lot of equity in my home since it's worth 2.5 times what I pay for it in 2017. Could sell my home and put the profits down on a new home, (which avoids taxes) and be at near the same payment if the interest rates were the same. As it is, when I retire I'm going to cash out of this home and pay cash for something smaller in a more affordable area.

[SWBTATTReg]

6. I too, have equity built up in my home too, some four times then what I paid for it, but then, where would I go,

afterwards? Everything else is higher in price too. Thus, as I told my SO (and they agree), we're happy right where we're at (and home is paid for too).

[Johnny2X2X]

7. I mean, if you want to move to a lower cost area

Could sell your home and get a bigger and better home in a cheaper area to live with that equity and still have a paid for home.

The flip side of this is that if I was a renter right now looking to buy, there's zero chance I would be able to afford the home I own right now.

[SWBTATTReg]

8. There are pros and cons on both sides of the issue. One place I sold (actually three places w/ four mobile

homes) split into 3 properties was more of a resort area, fishing, and although I love fishing (fly fishing), I don't love that much to go fly fishing every day the rest of my life.

There are other people who were more interested in living there than I, so I didn't have any issues in selling (sister, a good neighbor friend of ours) who were very happy too). I too, was happy.

I'm happy to be in the city (STLMO) where you might call it the biggest little town around (vs. being called a 'city'), everything I want is here, vs. having to drive literally everywhere for everything, I didn't like that, 20+ miles minimum to town to shop, to dine, etc. Here in STLMO, we can have any sort of meal(s), delivered or sit down, other services too (besides eating). In short, the benefits of living in a more populated area that's not too crazy, if you know what I mean.

Take care!

[haele]

10. Not just the interest rates, the cost is still not coming down to be able to afford, period.

The rule of threes still applies for smart house buying. You should not buy a house of any type where the asking price more than three times your annual household income pre-tax.
That means most people whose pre-tax income is $50k - $75k should not be looking to buy anything - even a 10 x 20 ft. tiny house or RV plopped on a 100x100 sq. ft. easement lot - regardless of interest rates or local taxes if the land and "improvement" (home or trailer) is over $220k.
How many family sized homes (800 sq ft. 2 bdrm, 1 bath with garage or carport) in decent or even just livable condition out there are around that price point?

Someone's family farm inheritance where they sub-divided the bottom 20 acres into 30 parcels that flood out every February and August?

A portfolio full of "We buy any house for cash" cheap 1960s era redline home flips that had languished through probate near the highway that leads to the town dump or treatment facility?

The amount of affordable "rule of three" houses that won't require another $50 - $80k of repairs five years later is just not there.
And mostly because we Americans were told throughout the 1990's to the housing crash that our homes were investments - go ahead; take out that second or third mortgage out to - pay for your kid's free ride to grad school, add a second floor office or workout room over the garage, put in a neighborhood status symbol raised patio entertainment station with whirlpool, sauna and outdoor kitchen, or a RV for a cross country family summer vacation, or cruise to Europe or Japan!

It's not just to live in- make your house work for you to get all your fun stuff, the wanna haves.
Not a careful consideration that you saved as much as you could and save that second mortgage to pay for expensive emergencies - plumbing, HVAC, or roofing repairs, or an unexpected medical bill.
Your house as a credit card - that's the thinking that drove housing costs up.

[MichMan]

4. Too many people got a license, started selling on the side and oversaturated the market.

They count on a constant churn of clients and once interest rates rose, that was certain to decrease until rates come back down.

[MineralMan]

9. My sympathy is limited when it comes to real estate folks.

In 2021, I retired at the age of 75. My wife and I lived on the East Side of the Twin Cities, in St. Paul. I wanted to get rid of lawn mowing and snow removal. My wife did not like the neighborhood, or the house we bought when we moved here to be near her aging parents. Her parents are gone. Mine both died on January 6, 2021, complicated the horrors of that day.

I had to be the executor of their estate, which I did, in the smoothest possible way I could. Everyone was good with how it all went, and we had some extra money to make retirement more attractive.

So, as soon as the estate was settled and distributed, I asked my wife where she wanted to live. She told me where her Twin Cities friends lived, mostly in Western suburbs. So we called the realtor who sold us the house we were living in, and told her what we were planning. We wanted a townhome in a western suburb that didn't cost too much more than our current house was worth. She went to work.

It took a month, but we found a townhome in a development in a prime western suburb, close to every major Interstate and to my wife's friends' locations.

This was in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, so I wanted to limit our exposure as much as possible. We had our vaccinations. She showed us half a dozen townhomes that could work, but each had some problem, in my eyes. then, she showed us one that exactly matched what we were looking for, and at a lower price than we were willing to pay. Houses were all getting multiple bids at that time. We saw it the first day it was listed. We liked it. It was perfect. We had a limit set for what we would pay, so I told our realtor to bid that limit. It was 12% over the asking price. But, I said we had to have a decision from the seller within 24 hours. She advised against that, but I held firm. It was going to be a cash sale and I waived the inspection and did one of my own, based on my experience.

The seller went for it. He had already moved. We closed in 21 days. Then, we turned to getting our current house, which was paid for, ready to sell. I contacted a roofing contractor and the realtor engaged a painter and flooring outfit. The entire interior got fresh paint, along with the kitchen cabinets. I replace the older gas range and refrigerator. All of this took place after we moved. I wasn't there. The realtor monitored the work for us. She was acting as our broker and sales person and would get the entire percentage of the selling price after the sale.

We moved. We hired some folks to clear the house and garage of junk. Other stuff went on the curb with a FREE sign and disappeared within 24 hours. The painters came. The flooring people came, the roofers came. I was on the phone making sure all that happened ASAP, and paid the price as soon as that was done. The house got listed, for the same price we paid for the townhome. We hired a local moving company which packed and moved everything from one suburb to the other for only $2500. We moved in the same day.

That was two weeks after we closed on our new place. It took a couple of weeks to find a buyer for our old place, and we had to drop in price a little. That sale closed 30 days after the purchase agreement was signed. I gave in on a couple more requests.

It doesn't work like that now. Just five years later, it's a lot harder to make that kind of move quickly. I'm glad we did it when we did.

It's a lot of hard work to make a quick buy, sale, and move. But, if you have good help, it can be done without too much stress.