Keeping up with technology, facing increased competition from nontraditional market participants, and growing concerns over housing affordability are the top challenges that real estate firms say they're increasingly alarmed about, according to the National Association of REALTORS®' newly released 2019 Profile of Real Estate Firms. NAR's report is based on a survey of more than 6,000 executives and senior management at real estate companies, both commercial and residential.
Forty-four percent of real estate firms said they expect competition from virtual firms to increase over the next year, and 43 percent expect the same from nontraditional market participants.
"It is clear that the real estate industry is rapidly changing, and with that comes growing competition in the market," says NAR CEO Bob Goldberg.