Realtors worried about the future of the industry?

[Katherine Hamilton]

I'm a journalist working on an article about how the recent news about the head of NAR and the tough housing market right now is impacting Realtors and the Realtor industry. I'm based in Virginia, so hoping to get a perspective from Realtors within the state, but have Realtors been reconsidering the career since housing sales have been down and mortgage rates up? How does the recent lawsuit against NAR impact your career or firms you work for? Is the field changing? Are other industries like lending or homebuilding affected?

Thinking about the topic based on this WSJ story: https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/careers/realtor-career-real-estate-industry-3b1dcf41

[Jay Hinrichs]

From my perspective.. Licensed RE broker in 3 states  CA OR MS  started in 1975.  Owned and managed 3 different brokerages over the years had hundreds of agents working for me in those Brokerages..

Real Estate sales / brokerage contract  when there is any down turn  or significant rise in interest rates ( although we have not seen that since the Carter years). When things get going good then more people jump in .

Its the same in all industries that support real estate ..  Appraisal companies  Lenders MLO  title and Escrow companies start laying off.  When things rebound they start hiring again.

This is normal flow of the ups and downs of our national economy and the RE sales business.  Property Managers are somewhat immune from these swings. Commercial transactions are WAAY down.