It seems no residential brokerage is immune to the slowing market.
Keller Williams’ numbers in the U.S. and Canada fell across the board, the firm revealed Thursday. Sales fell to $381 billion, a 3 percent decline from this time last year, and transactions fell to 884,500, a nearly 13 percent drop.
Written contract volume was down nearly 5 percent to $415 billion and the number of contracts fell 14 percent, to 962,000, over the same period.
The frenzied days when a broker could list a home, hold an open house, preside over a bidding war and get a contract signed within days are an increasingly distant memory. Listings are down and mortgage rates are up, so agents have to work harder to snag customers and close sales.
“We have moved from a speed-based market to a skill-based market,” said Keller Williams President Marc King.
The brokerage said it launched three training programs — on wealth management, lead generation and home staging — in August to help agents weather the storm. Keller Williams has nearly 180,000 agents in North America.
“As we face increasing macroeconomic headwinds, we are preparing for what we expect to be a slower growth period,” said Keller Williams COO Sajag Patel.
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The brokerage did enjoy growth internationally. It has increased its agent count abroad by 21 percent this year to more than 17,000 and closed $11 billion in sales, up nearly 30 percent over the same period last year.
Keller Williams is far from the only real estate company to see declines following last year’s record market. Anywhere Real Estate, the conglomerate formerly known as Realogy, whose flagship brands include Corcoran, Sotheby’s and Coldwell Banker, saw its third-quarter profits halved.
Zillow, the proptech giant, just posted a quarterly loss for the first time this year, but lost less money than it did during the same time last year, when its iBuying program was bleeding red ink.
Opendoor announces its third quarter earnings at 5 p.m. today and Douglas Elliman will release its figures tomorrow at 8 a.m.