Study Shows Real Estate Brokerages Are More Profitable — And Fewer Are Losing Money

For all the anxiety that once surrounded brokerage economics, the numbers now tell a calmer story. New research shows that more brokerages are profitable, losses are shrinking and margins are beginning to stabilize.

In a study published on Tuesday, real estate accounting firm AccountTECH reported that its data is showing a steady increase in the share of profitable brokerages.

Based on AccountTECH’s 2025 data, these doomsday scenarios have not played out. According to real estate industry expert Steve Murray, there are a few key reasons as to why.

“After several years of depressed sales, the firms that have survived, have finally managed to adjust their costs downward,” Murray, the co-founder of RTC Consulting, said. “Additionally, while the number of transactions per year has been pretty flat since 2025, the value and sales price of those homes has gone up each year. So, assuming that commissions stayed relatively stable and your transaction count stayed stable, your revenue would still go up.”

Variety of business models studied

AccountTECH analyzed the 2025 financial performance of 157 brokerages. The firms, which were located all over the country, ranged in size from 50 agents to over 6,500 agents and they ranged from traditional legacy brands, to both large and small independents. AccountTECH also noted that a variety of brokerage business models were examined in the study, including those offering traditional brokerage splits and those operating under a 100% commission flat fee model.

The analysis found that 69.4% of the firms studied reported positive EBITDA margins in 2025. This is up from 55.8% of the 138 brokerages studied in 2023 and 61.3% of the 155 firms analyzed in 2024. 

Additionally, AccountTECH notes that the population of loss-making firms has declined by over 30% since 2023.

According to AccountTECH, the data indicates that there has been wide-spread financial improvement across the industry and not financial gains isolated to a small cohort of brokerages. 

Overall, the data shows that only one firm reported a real estate brokerage EBITDA margin below -10% in 2025, compared to four firms in 2023 and five firms in 2024. At the other end of the spectrum, 10 firms reported an EBITDA margin of above 10% in 2025, up from six firms in both 2023 and 2024. 

The largest number of firms reported a real estate brokerage EBITDA margin of 1-2% in 2025, with 22 firms falling into this category. In the two prior years, the largest number of firms in the study fell in an EBITDA margin range of -1% to 0%.

The data also shows that there has been “meaningful growth” in the -1% to +3% EBITDA range in 2025, which AccountTECH said indicated margin stabilization. 

“This research shows a structural shift in the industry,” the AccountTECH research team said in a statement. “The most important change isn’t that top performers are dramatically more profitable — it’s that fewer firms are losing money, and those losses are becoming smaller.”

Past doomsday predictions

In June 2024, just two months prior to the business practice changes outlined in NAR’s settlement went into effect, AccountTECH published a study warning the industry that without changing their expenses, 79% of brokerages would be unprofitable if the typical agent commission fell to 2%. If commissions fell to 2.5%, 60% of firms would be unprofitable. 

Given all of the cost-cutting measures many brokerages have enacted, assuming the housing market improves in the next few years, Murray said we could be looking at some of the best brokerage profit margins in this housing cycle.

“Historically, the years after a slow down when the market starts improving are some of the best for profit margins because the smartest brokers and leaders keep a tight lid on costs because they are nervous about the market,” Murray said.