State of Brokerage Technology 2024: What Changed in One Year
Optimism dropped 25 points. Margins replaced rates as the top concern. Here is what 100+ brokerage leaders told us in 2024.
Last year we published the first-ever industry benchmark for brokerage technology. The 2023 survey gave us a baseline: 92 brokerage leaders telling us how they buy, use, and feel about their technology. This year we went back to find out what changed.
The short answer: a lot. And not in the direction most people expected.
We partnered with T3 Sixty again to survey more than 100 of the top brokerages in the United States. The 2024 results tell the story of an industry under real financial pressure. Optimism collapsed. Margins replaced interest rates as the number one concern. Technology satisfaction dropped across nearly every measure. The mood has shifted from "buy more tools" to "make what we have actually work."
This post covers all the key findings at a high level. Over the coming weeks, we will publish deeper analyses on each major topic. If you want to understand where the industry sits heading into 2025, start here.
Optimism fell off a cliff
In 2023, brokerage leaders were cautiously hopeful. More than 40% reported feeling very optimistic about the market outlook. One year later, that number dropped to approximately 15%.
| Outlook | 2023 | 2024 (approx.) |
|---|---|---|
| Very optimistic | 40%+ | ~15% |
| Somewhat optimistic | – | ~30% |
| Neutral | – | ~22% |
| Somewhat pessimistic | – | ~20% |
| Very pessimistic | – | ~5% |
| Uncertain | – | ~5% |
A 25-point drop in strong optimism in a single year is significant. And when you combine somewhat pessimistic, very pessimistic, and uncertain, you get roughly 30% of brokerage leaders who are not confident about what is ahead. That is a real shift in sentiment.
The reasons are not hard to find. Margins are tighter. Transaction volume is still suppressed. The cost of running a brokerage has not gone down, even as revenue has.
We will dig into the confidence data in detail in Brokerage market confidence in 2024.
Margins replaced rates as the top concern
In 2023, rising interest rates were the clear number one worry at 48.91%. Reduced profit margins sat at number four with 34.78%.
One year later, the rankings flipped. Reduced profit margins moved to the top spot. Interest rates, while still on the list, dropped down significantly.
| Concern | 2023 Rank | 2024 Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Reduced profit margins | #4 (34.78%) | #1 |
| Recruiting top performing agents | #3 (43.48%) | Top 3 |
| Rising interest rates | #1 (48.91%) | Dropped |
| Lack of housing supply | #2 (46.74%) | – |
This tells you something important. Rates are where they are and brokers have adjusted to that reality. The bigger problem now is that the money coming in does not cover the money going out the way it used to. Margins are being squeezed by rising costs, lower volume, commission compression, and operational overhead that nobody has figured out how to cut.
When margins are the number one concern, every line item gets scrutinized. That includes technology spending.
We break down the margin story in Why profit margins are now the top concern for brokerages.
Technology satisfaction went backward
This is probably the most telling finding in the entire survey. We asked brokerages to describe how their technology performs. In 2023, 39.13% said technology was integral to operating their business. In 2024, that number dropped to approximately 20%.
| Tech perception | 2023 | 2024 (approx.) |
|---|---|---|
| Integral to operating our business | 39.13% | ~20% |
| Drives productivity | 28.26% | ~22% |
| Simply checks a box | 16.30% | ~30% |
| Unique differentiator | 7.61% | ~12% |
Read those numbers carefully. The percentage of brokerages saying their technology "simply checks a box" nearly doubled, going from 16.30% to approximately 30%. Meanwhile, the percentage saying tech is integral to operations got cut in half.
In one year, the industry went from "our tech is essential" to "our tech is just there." That is a dramatic reversal.
Part of this is probably a hangover from the buying spree of 2020-2022 when brokerages stacked tool on top of tool. Now that money is tighter, leaders are looking at what they actually bought and finding that most of it does not connect, does not report accurately, and does not make anyone faster. The tools exist. They just do not do enough.
We explore this fully in Why brokerage technology now "checks a box" for 30% of leaders.
CRM satisfaction dropped hard
We asked brokerages how they feel about their CRM. In 2023, satisfaction was moderate. In 2024, it fell noticeably.
| CRM sentiment | 2023 | 2024 (approx.) |
|---|---|---|
| Average star rating | ~3.7-3.9 | ~3.2 |
| Love and recommend | 25.39% | ~12% |
| Don't like at all | 5.56% | ~15% |
The "love and recommend" group got cut in half. The "don't like at all" group nearly tripled. CRM is the most visible piece of a brokerage's tech stack, and satisfaction with it is going the wrong direction.
This matters because CRM dissatisfaction tends to drag everything else down. When agents do not trust or use their CRM, the data that flows from it into back office systems is incomplete. That means inaccurate reporting, broken workflows, and more manual work for operations teams.
The full CRM analysis is coming in CRM satisfaction dropped in 2024. Here is what brokerages said.
55% have not changed back office systems in six months or more
More than half of respondents reported they have not made changes to their back office technology in six or more months. In an industry where the financial picture has shifted this much, that is worth paying attention to.
It could mean brokerages are satisfied with their back office. But given the satisfaction numbers above, that seems unlikely. More plausibly, it means brokerages are either locked into contracts, overwhelmed by migration complexity, or simply too busy putting out fires to fix the infrastructure underneath.
This is the operational drag problem. When your back office systems are fragmented across transaction tools, accounting software, and spreadsheets, the pain of switching feels enormous. So you stay. And the inefficiency compounds.
What brokerages spend on technology per agent
We asked about monthly technology costs per agent. The range was wide:
| Monthly cost per agent | % of respondents (approx.) |
|---|---|
| Under $50 | ~28% |
| $50-$100 | – |
| $100-$200 | – |
| $200+ | ~18% |
Roughly 28% of brokerages are spending under $50 per agent per month on technology. Another 18% are spending $200 or more. That is a huge spread. Some brokerages are spending four times what others spend on a per-agent basis.
The question is whether the high spenders are getting better outcomes. Based on the satisfaction data, the answer is: not necessarily. Spending more does not help when the tools do not connect and the data does not flow.
We benchmark these costs in detail in How much brokerages spend on technology per agent in 2024.
AI curiosity is high, but adoption is still early
We asked about emerging technologies. Approximately 48% of respondents identified AI as the technology they are most interested in. Virtual reality came in at approximately 18%, IoT at roughly 15%, and blockchain at 3%. About 25% said they are not focused on any emerging technology right now.
The AI interest is not surprising. Every conference, every vendor pitch, every industry newsletter is talking about it. But "interested in" and "getting value from" are different things. The brokerages that will benefit from AI are the ones with clean, connected data to feed into it. If your transactions live in one system, your commissions in a spreadsheet, and your compliance files in a shared drive, AI is not going to fix that. You need the foundation first.
The five problems that keep showing up
Across both years of this survey, the same five operational problems keep surfacing in different forms. They are worth naming directly:
- Fragmented systems. Data scattered across transaction tools, accounting software, and spreadsheets. No single source of truth.
- Manual compliance. File reviews, checklists, and approvals done by hand. Slow, error-prone, and impossible to scale.
- Commission complexity. Splits, caps, tiers, team structures, and exceptions calculated manually or in fragile spreadsheets.
- No real reporting. The broker cannot answer basic financial questions without hours of manual work.
- Operational drag. Staff time burned on coordination, follow-ups, reconciliation, and data entry instead of running the business.
Every major finding in this survey connects back to one or more of these. The margin pressure is worse when your commission calculations are wrong. The technology dissatisfaction makes sense when none of your tools talk to each other. The back office stagnation is a symptom of how hard it is to move off a fragmented setup.
The brokerages that will navigate this market are not the ones buying more tools. They are the ones fixing the operational foundation. That means a real system of record for the back office: one place where transactions, commissions, compliance, and reporting actually connect.
What this means going forward
Year one of this survey established a baseline. Year two shows an industry moving in a harder direction. The financial pressure is real. The technology disappointment is real. The need for a connected back office is more obvious now than it was twelve months ago.
If you are evaluating your brokerage technology strategy, start with the basics. Do you have one system that handles transactions, commissions, compliance, and reporting? Can you answer fundamental questions about your brokerage's financial performance without pulling data from five different places?
If the answer is no, that is the problem to solve first. Not another CRM. Not another marketing tool. The back office.
TotalBrokerage is the back-office operating system for brokerages. Every transaction, every commission calculation, every compliance check, and every financial report lives in one place. It works alongside whatever CRM and marketing tools your agents already use. No rip-and-replace required.
If you want to see what a connected back office looks like, book a demo.
About this survey
The 2024 State of Real Estate Brokerage Technology Survey was conducted by TotalBrokerage in collaboration with T3 Sixty. More than 100 of the top brokerages in the United States participated. This is the second annual survey, following the 2023 survey that established the industry's first comprehensive benchmark for brokerage technology usage, spending, and satisfaction.
This is the first in a series of posts exploring the 2024 findings:
- Brokerage market confidence in 2024
- Why profit margins are now the top concern
- Why brokerage technology now "checks a box"
- CRM satisfaction dropped in 2024
- How much brokerages spend on technology per agent
FAQ
What is the State of Real Estate Brokerage Technology Survey?
The State of Real Estate Brokerage Technology Survey is an annual study conducted by TotalBrokerage in collaboration with T3 Sixty. It surveys leaders from more than 100 of the top brokerages in the United States on how they buy, use, and evaluate technology. The 2024 survey is the second year, building on the 2023 baseline. It covers market confidence, top concerns, technology satisfaction, CRM sentiment, spending, and interest in emerging technologies.
How did brokerage market confidence change from 2023 to 2024?
Strong optimism dropped from over 40% in 2023 to approximately 15% in 2024. Roughly 30% of respondents described themselves as somewhat pessimistic, very pessimistic, or uncertain about the market outlook. The shift reflects tighter margins, suppressed transaction volume, and rising operating costs that have not eased even as the industry has adjusted to higher interest rates.
What is the biggest concern for brokerage leaders in 2024?
Reduced profit margins moved to the number one spot in 2024, up from number four in 2023 when only 34.78% of respondents ranked it as a top concern. Interest rates, which led in 2023 at 48.91%, dropped down the list. Recruiting top-performing agents remained a top-three concern in both years.
Why did technology satisfaction decline in 2024?
The percentage of brokerages saying their technology "simply checks a box" nearly doubled, rising from 16.30% in 2023 to approximately 30% in 2024. At the same time, the percentage saying technology is integral to their business dropped from 39.13% to approximately 20%. The likely cause is that brokerages stacked tools during the 2020-2022 buying period and are now realizing those tools do not connect, do not produce accurate reporting, and do not justify the spend.
How much do brokerages spend on technology per agent?
Monthly technology costs per agent vary widely. Approximately 28% of brokerages spend under $50 per agent per month, while roughly 18% spend $200 or more. The data suggests that higher spending does not automatically correlate with better outcomes. Brokerages with fragmented systems often spend more and still report lower satisfaction because the tools do not share data or work together.
What is the right technology for a brokerage back office?
The survey data points to a consistent need: a connected platform that handles transactions, commissions, compliance, and reporting in one system of record. Rather than adding more point solutions, the brokerages reporting the best outcomes are the ones that consolidated their back office into a single operational platform. This eliminates re-entry, reduces errors, and gives brokers real-time visibility into financial performance. You can learn more about what a brokerage tech stack should include.
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