American Real Estate Agents Forced Into Survival Mode Taking School Jobs As Housing Market Bleeding Artery Deepens

Tens of thousands of American real estate agents are scrambling for supplemental income as a prolonged housing market freeze strips commissions bare, pushing some of the country's 1.4 million licensed Realtors into classrooms, retail floors, and substitute teaching rosters just to stay afloat.

The numbers tell a punishing story. A Redfin executive told attendees at the Inman Connect conference that approximately 71% of agents registered on Multiple Listing Services (MLS) closed zero home sales in 2024, a figure that includes part-time and referral-only licence holders but which nonetheless exposes how thin deal-flow has become across the industry.

Combined with a landmark antitrust settlement, persistent mortgage rates, and the slowest sales pace in years, agents are rethinking whether a real estate licence alone can still pay the bills.

NAR Membership Haemorrhage and the Zero-Sales Reality

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported its total membership fell to 1.4 million in 2025, down from an all-time peak of 1.6 million recorded in October 2022. That is roughly 200,000 fewer active members in under three years. NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun warned as far back as early 2024 that 'further declines in membership over the next 24 months' should be expected, citing a lag of 18 to 24 months between market deterioration and eventual agent exit.

The Consumer Federation of America (CFA) had already sounded the alarm in January 2024, releasing the third instalment of its 'Surfeit of Real Estate Agents' study series. The report found that nearly half of all agents sold either one or zero homes in 2023, describing the industry as characterised by 'lax hiring' and inadequate mentorship. The CFA warned of a fundamental mismatch: too many licence holders, too few transactions to sustain them.

Official NAR data for active, dues-paying members draws a more nuanced picture, with the 2025 NAR Member Profile showing the median professional closed 10 transactions in 2024 and only 5% of residential members reported zero deals. The divergence between that figure and the MLS-wide statistic reflects the breadth of licence holders who are technically registered but functionally inactive, a distinction that matters when agents are being urged to justify their continued membership fees.

Commission Pressure from the Sitzer/Burnett Fallout

Agents were already navigating a frozen market when the Sitzer/Burnett antitrust settlement reshaped compensation structures across the industry. In March 2024, NAR agreed to pay £329 million ($418 million) to settle the class-action lawsuit brought by home sellers who alleged that NAR and major brokerages had conspired to inflate buyer-agent commissions. The settlement, which came into effect on 17 August 2024, banned seller agents from pre-setting buyer-agent compensation on MLS platforms and required all buyer representation to be formalised through written agreements.

The downstream effect on agent income has been measurable. Redfin's 2025 Industry Survey of 500 agents from across the industry found that 54.4% had observed increased commission negotiation since the settlement changes took effect. Around 34.8% reported commissions had declined modestly in their area, and 51.2% believed they would continue falling over the next 12 months. For agents who already closed fewer deals than usual, shrinking per-transaction fees compounded an already precarious income position.

The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals began hearing oral arguments on an appeal of the settlement in January 2026, meaning the legal landscape remains in flux. Objectors to the settlement, including home sellers and a law professor, argued the district court erred in approving it.

The practice changes for written buyer agreements and MLS compensation disclosures, however, remain in force throughout the appeal process.

Schools, Side Hustles, and the Dual-Career Pivot

The income squeeze is pushing a growing cohort of agents toward salaried or hourly work to supplement commissions that no longer arrive consistently. Teaching has emerged as one of the more natural crossovers. According to a survey by We Are Teachers, 49% of educators already hold a side job during the summer, and the skills overlap between the two professions, including communication, negotiation, client education, and schedule management, is considerable. Some agents are reversing that equation, returning to classrooms or picking up substitute teaching contracts as a stable income floor.

For agents working fewer than 20 hours a week on real estate, Colibri Real Estate's 2025 Salary Guide found that nearly two-thirds earn under $25,000 annually from the profession. At that income level, a substitute teaching role or a retail cashier position is not simply extra income; it is what keeps the lights on. The pivot is especially visible in states like North Carolina, where licensed broker numbers dropped by nearly 5% between May and October 2024 as agents bowed out or reduced their activity.

John Campbell, then Managing Director at Stephens Inc., predicted a 50% attrition rate for agents during a 2024 episode of the 'Real Estate Insiders Unfiltered' podcast. That prediction has not materialised in headline membership numbers, but the economic pressure on marginal agents remains acute. Re/Max Holdings CEO Erik Carlson put it bluntly at HousingWire's 2024 industry conference in Scottsdale, Arizona: 'Full-time agents probably have a better chance than part-time agents.'

For the agents who cannot wait for a market recovery, the classroom, the retail counter, and the substitute roster are not fallback positions — they are the plan.