A Home Divided? 2024 Election Checks The Agent-Consumer Bond: Intel

This report is the primary in a two-part sequence centered on the presidential election and is accessible completely to subscribers of Inman Intel, Inman’s information and analysis arm. Subscribe right this moment and verify again on Oct. 28 for the conclusion to the sequence.

Intel survey outcomes are clear: For many actual property brokers and brokerage leaders, the 2024 election discourse doesn’t actually have an effect on their day-to-day expertise.

Showings go on, affords get submitted, purchasers shut, and brokers receives a commission — no matter whether or not they agree on what ought to occur in Washington, D.C.

However as the 2 main events current more and more conflicting visions for the nation’s future — and even competing accounts of its current previous — some brokers report that circumstances of political stress with purchasers have gotten much less uncommon.

And a few brokers say they’ve seen it spill over into friction inside the brokerage itself.

• Many brokers — practically half of these surveyed in late September and early October by the Inman Intel Index — say their purchasers deliver up politics, in comparison with only one in 5 who say their purchasers by no means elevate the subject.

In late September and early October, a whole bunch of brokers and brokerage leaders shared with Intel who they plan to assist in November, and what their expertise has been with purchasers and brokerage workforce members.

Their responses make clear an business that usually bends over to keep away from private disagreements getting in the way in which of a deal. 

The outcomes additionally reveal how two distinct experiences — that of a Donald Trump-supporting actual property skilled, and that of a Kamala Harris-supporting agent or dealer — typically diverge.

Learn the total breakdown within the report under.

The agent-client relationship

Whether or not it occurs at a exhibiting or in one other setting, it’s clear that many brokers run into purchasers who’re loose-lipped about their political beliefs, particularly on a presidential election 12 months. 

And whereas most actual property professionals see little distinction in 2024 vs. 2020, a couple of quarter of agent respondents informed Intel that election discuss is inflicting extra points with purchasers than final time.

• A large majority of agent respondents — 2 in 3 — stated this election is placing no extra pressure on the agent-client relationship than the 2020 election did. 
• However of brokers who say they’ve observed a change, those that noticed the stress is increased this 12 months outnumber practically 4-to-1 those that say it’s much less tense than they bear in mind 4 years in the past. 

As talked about above, it’s not unusual for the subject of politics to return up whereas on a exhibiting with a consumer.

That stated, regardless of occasional circumstances the place stress bubbles underneath the floor, brokers of all political stripes are inclined to handle the scenario reasonably than stoke battle.

• Solely 2 % of agent respondents stated they really feel snug weighing in after a consumer shares a political opinion with which they disagree.
• However, 48 % of agent respondents stated they “nearly at all times” preserve their opinion to themselves when their consumer shares a political opinion that doesn’t align with the agent’s beliefs.

Nonetheless, this leaves the door open for political conversations of a unique nature: one the place a consumer raises a degree that the agent agrees with.

• 23 % of agent respondents informed Intel that after they be taught their purchasers share their views, the agent then feels snug weighing in with their very own opinions.
• However a share practically as giant — 18 % — will nearly at all times avoid sharing political beliefs even after they suppose their purchasers would possibly agree with them.

However this type of consumer dialogue isn’t the one means the election has seeped into the brokerage expertise.

The broker-agent relationship

Dealer-owners and executives are much less prone to report that politics is a typical subject of debate on the brokerage degree.

• About 1 in 3 brokerage leaders who replied to the Intel Index in September stated that their brokers often deliver up politics, vs. 1 in 7 who say their brokers nearly by no means deliver up the subject.

Throughout the partitions of the brokerage, nonetheless, executives and broker-owners are a lot much less prone to preserve their mouths shut after they hear a political opinion from an agent that they disagree with. 

• Solely 20 % of brokerage chief respondents informed Intel that they “nearly at all times” preserve their opinions to themselves when an agent shares a political stance that they disagree with, in contrast with 48 % of brokers who stated the identical of their interactions with purchasers.
• The same share of brokerage leaders — 20 % — informed Intel that they really feel snug weighing in to disagree with an agent’s political opinion, in comparison with the 2 % of brokers who say the identical of their consumer interactions.

This freer perspective is smart. The broker-agent relationship is way more acquainted than the client-agent one. And when a political dialogue between agent and dealer turns south, it’s unlikely to jeopardize a deal from the dealer’s perspective.

Apparently, some brokers imagine that this election has been much less disruptive on the brokerage degree than the competition in 2020.

• 11 % of brokerage leaders informed Intel that this election has positioned much less pressure on the broker-agent relationship than they bear in mind taking place in 2020.
• Nonetheless, these leaders are outnumbered by the 25 % who stated this election has precipitated extra stress than final time, and the 63 % who stated it’s been about the identical.

These takeaways mirror basic situations each inside the brokerage and out within the area. 

However Intel additionally discovered distinct variations in the way in which that Trump supporters and Harris supporters have interaction with politics of their actual property enterprise. 

2 brokerage experiences

Most brokers who replied to the Intel Index this month don’t have a transparent thought of the place their typical consumer falls on the political spectrum.

However of those that do, some patterns emerged within the survey.

Brokers who plan to vote for Harris are…

1. …extra prone to really feel out of step with their purchasers’ political opinions — 23 % of Harris supporters say they understand their purchasers are extra conservative than they’re, in comparison with solely 11 % of Trump supporters say they understand their purchasers are extra liberal than they’re.
2. …and extra prone to report an “unwelcome stress” when their purchasers deliver up politics — 11 % of Harris supporters report feeling such stress, whereas solely 3 % of Trump supporters say the identical.

In the meantime, some patterns of conduct with purchasers seemed to be extra prevalent amongst Trump-supporting brokers within the survey.

Brokers who plan to vote for Trump are…

1. …extra prone to say their purchasers deliver up politics with them — 51 % of Trump supporters say this of their purchasers, in comparison with solely 45 % of Harris supporters. On a associated word, solely 15 % of Trump supporters say their purchasers by no means deliver up politics, in comparison with 26 % of Harris supporters who say the identical.
2. …and extra prone to report that political interactions with purchasers are getting extra tense — 31 % of Trump supporters say politics have been a supply of better stress with purchasers in 2024 than they bear in mind from 2020, in comparison with 21 % of Harris supporters who report the identical expertise.

Subsequent week, Intel will go deeper into the outcomes of the Inman-Dig Insights client survey, analyzing consumer behaviors and attitudes towards the true property business by way of the lens of assist for Harris and assist for Trump.

Inman Intel Index methodology notes: This month’s Intel Index survey was carried out from Sept. 18 by way of Oct. 4 and obtained 441 responses. Your entire Inman reader neighborhood was invited to take part, and a rotating, randomized collection of neighborhood members was prompted to take part by e mail. Customers responded to a sequence of questions associated to their self-identified nook of the true property business — together with actual property brokers, brokerage leaders, lenders and proptech entrepreneurs. Outcomes mirror the opinions of the engaged Inman neighborhood, which can not at all times match these of the broader actual property business. This survey is carried out month-to-month.

E-mail Daniel Houston