KGCI: Real Estate on Air - The Affordability Reset: Why Global Conflict and AI are Reshaping 2026 Real Estate

Episode Date: September 19, 2026

Summary:presents a solo episode analyzing the changing corporate real estate landscape, specifically addressing large-scale brokerage mergers and agent vulnerability. She breaks down the potential risks behind cash recruitment incentives, shifting franchise fees, and market contraction. 

70% of agents in 2025 did not do a single deal. Now, the truth is, there's a lot of part-time agents out there that treat this as a hobby. They need to just get out. Sorry, I'm not trying to be offensive. I'm just talking about business here. Don't do this if this is a part-time job because there's plenty of agents out here, like me, that are actually doing this as a full-time career and it's a business. So what's happening is the good agents are having to be.

more creative. Hey there, welcome to real estate riches. I am going to be doing this podcast by myself today because there's something I really want to talk to a bunch of agents out there. There is so much going on with this Compass, anywhere merger, lots of surprises in the industry. And we're agents, I think they're vulnerable and they're not even realizing how vulnerable they are. I've written many articles about this in my LinkedIn articles for agents to start to ponder. You know, if you were part of that merger, the truth was the majority had no say in that. You had to be a stockholder to agree to that merger. And according to Zillow, who said that there were 53 or 58% of the agents didn't want that. Well, if you're part of that, then what are you looking at? Are you

looking at a change? Or how about if you're one of the agents who was paid to come to Compass or to Cobble Banker and found yourself in a situation where you had to stay for X amount of years or you had to pay back? I have an agent right now that literally her business has been dying and she's having to claim bankruptcy and she owes that money to Cobble Banker and they're threatening to sue her. I mean, these cash. incentives they should be a red flag to agents it's not because they value you so much they do they value you for what you'll produce but are you being valued back where you're getting extra value for that I want you to really start to think about

those cash incentives as number one but back to the whole merger one of my articles was all about the franchise owner who was involved in that whole thing who didn't necessarily have a say unless they had stock in either anywhere or compass. So now you've invested X amount of dollars, which isn't a minimal amount to buy a franchise for a real estate company. And you've invested that money. You've got a whole group of agents that are also struggling in this market. And you have to act as if this was a good thing because you don't want to lose your agents. Of course. And so there's an integrity component that's being challenged there. And the agents are trusting you like this is all going to be great.

And Compass is going to give us great attack. And we're going to really do better because all of this is going to be fine. Is it going to be fine? Your business is dependent on it. Everything that you do as an independent contractor is related to where you put your license. And you have to dig deep into these things. Don't just pursue. that every company that you're with is telling you the facts in your favor. They're giving you benefits about what they're bringing to the table, tech. What does tech actually mean? How is that tech going to happen?

Even though Compass went from 40,000 agents now to 340,000 agents, which is a massive switch, how is the whole culture of it all changing? You've got all these different companies, even different companies within the same town that are in essence, in a sense, competing with themselves, right? The internal systems is probably where the tech is going to try and evolve is to kind of bring people together. That's where some of the tech's going to happen. Now, AI is a big component, and that will help level it up. It depends on how much they're willing to invest. Remember, when Compass did this merger, they took up.

on a $2.5 billion debt, where's it coming from to pay it off? The agents. And if you're not recognizing this, you're being very naive. You're the part. A couple of the agents said, well, we're not going to have franchise fees anymore. There's going to be a flat fee that we're going to have our clients pay. The good agents are going to be able to maybe pitch that. But an average everyday agent, which the majority of agents are going to struggle with how you get your client. to pay the fee that equates to a franchise scenario. Now, I'm picking all this information up from sources that I'm getting from all over the Internet and they're validated. And you can read any of these articles because I cite the sources where I'm getting this information.

But I'm also talking to agents who are living it, that one Coldwell banker agent who wanted to leave to come to another company so that she could get ownership, and all these different components couldn't afford to leave to get started again. And so you have to ask yourself, what are the options out there? Because the country's in trouble with real estate right now, because interest rates are down, we've got a war going on, we got things happening. But the truth is, people are still buying and selling homes

because they need to. Not as much because they want to, right? That's where the want tos are kind of backing off. But the need tos are still happening. So has that shortened the demand? Of course. So if it shortens the demand, and yet we've still got gazillion agents out there,

then that's why the numbers are down. 70% of agents in 2025 did not do a single deal. Now, the truth is, there's a lot of part-time agents out there that treat this as a hobby. They need to just get out. Sorry, I'm not trying to be offensive. I'm just talking about business here. Don't do this if this is a part-time job,

because there's plenty of agents out here like me that are actually doing this as a full-time career and it's a business. So what's happening is the good agents are having to be more creative. They absolutely have got to incorporate AI at higher levels than they're doing. And it's not just about writing your descriptions

of your property. It is about having much more eye-popping AI videos for your properties. It's about being out there yourself, being on video where you're marketing yourself. It's about connecting, networking. And there are opportunities where you can level up. Now, I am a recruiter with EXP and I don't hide it. Man, I think it's the biggest blessing anybody could get to come to a company where the focus is on the agent. The, all the founder and all the higher ups. They're all former real estate agents. They've also got the real estate licenses. They get us. The founder of Compass is a Goldman Sachs guy. He's corporate. There's a corporate mindset

and there's an entrepreneur mindset. And when you've been a realtor, you've been in the trenches and Glenn Sanford, the founder of EXB, he was right there in the meat of it all when it all crashed. And his business crashed. Now, that wasn't when he just got in because he was. doing amazing work on the internet. He was a tech guy before tech was really tech. And that's how he made this company. He made it as a tech platform. He made it as a single company where all the agents got stock and ownership in the company. He's making it agent-centric on steroids and continues to do so. Yes, there's an 80-20 split with a $16,000 cap. And yes, that may feel heavier because because you could go someplace and get 100%,

but 100% of yours by paying a flat fee, if you're doing a lot of production, the flat fee can add up more than the cap at EXP. But here's something to think about. Now I got into EXP almost nine years ago this summer. And the first thing I noticed immediately was collaboration, which I had never experienced in any company that I was with, and I've been with five firms including EXP,

never experienced collaboration, especially like we have here. Because we're all empowered to help each other because we're all stock owners in a company that we want to grow, not part of a franchise where we're helping somebody else's bottom line grow. This is our company. Do you see the difference? So for me, I was recently called an evangelist for EXP. I am because it's been a blessing to me. And it can be a blessing to you. Now, do EXP agents leave? Yes, they do. They were never meant to be either in the business or they got bamboozled by maybe a cash offer from either a compass or a co-bable banker because they were struggling and they needed the cash. And I get that. But instead of doing that, if agents would dive in to what the opportunity has here, all the different platforms, all the different things within it to find your exact niche. Go to the 85 plus hours of 20. training that are available to you at any time. You know, be a part of the different trainings that happen all around the world.

Have the ability to work a sphere that you didn't even know you had, which are global opportunities. Internal systems that are just easy to maneuver through the global environment that we have. I have built, and right now I'm 75 years old, so if you're telling me you can't do this, that's bull. And I've been doing this since I got in at 67. So at 67, I had a good business, but it was not a great business. And at 67, well, I had started over at 56. So if you start over at that age and I started over broke, and I went through those years of 2007 through 1112 where the market was insane.

And I've been trying to build a business in a new state that I was not familiar with and a new career. I'm telling you, I didn't have whole piles of money. just sitting there waiting for me so I could retire. It didn't happen. So if I was struggling, I know that a lot of you are struggling. And the 40 plus group that got in for a second career or a third career like me, you have to have an end game because otherwise you're going to be panicking and you're not going to be integrative with your clients. So what this is done for me, just to give you an example, I was so overwhelmed with the excitement of the collaboration that I got. It helped me level

up my business. I got better and better. It also gave me opportunities to refer in different areas, including global. It gave me the opportunity to grow globally. I started sharing this with people right away because I was blown away because in those, what was it, 14 years that I'd been in the business. I had not seen collaboration. Nobody was helping me. Nobody was showing me the little secrets of how they leveled up. Their systems. I didn't have any systems. I'm ADD off the charts. We're not designed for systems, but I started to get my systems. I started to be online. I started to do so much more than I could. And if you think I like being on video, feeling at this age of the age that I look, it's hard for me, but I do it anyway. And you can too. Because if this is

your business, you got to work it like a business. And I'm just encouraging you that this is where you've got to go because this has been a blessing and it's a blessing to you if you choose to take it and I'm encouraging you to do that I'm encouraging you to check it out and I just had the most remarkable thing introduced to me from a fellow expe agent that I'm able to offer to other agents and it's about getting leads and it's incredible it's incorporated with AI it's going to change lives at a whole another level so If you're interested in that, be sure and say, I'm interested in leads because I will be happy to share that with you and invite you into that opportunity. So this has been all about EXP and why I believe it's a blessing.

You have been potentially poisoned by the existing firm that you're at, that it sucks or that we're all just recruiters. The truth is that I am on a minority of people that is a recruiter. only about 5% I've heard actually go out and recruit for EXP because they're so focused on building their business and selling homes that they're missing an important piece that they could have to have that end game. You don't have to ever do it. For me, you're crazy not to if you believe in it. I believe that it's the blessing that it is. I believe it so strongly that that's exactly why I'm sharing it. I'm not pushing. I'm not pulling. I'm not dragging. I'm looking for people who have energy who want

more who are looking for that end game who want to dive in, who want to be collaborative, who want to serve and serve others and be served and grow. And if that sounds like you, then I invite you in. Please reach out. Get on the in the comments here and just let me know that this is something that you want to pursue. There's even a thing way you can schedule an appointment. with me to talk about it more. And again, I'm not dragging you in. I'm inviting you in. I'm inviting you into a blessing. So I hope you like that. I hope you'll subscribe if you like this because there's lots of people I interview on here with gold, gold, gold that can help your business no matter what. So check those out, subscribe, and hopefully you reach out to me because you want more for your

business. This is Kathy Burns with Real Estate Riches and I hope to see you on the next one. Let's book a strategy call and see how it would look in your eyes. And if you're thinking, man, I'd like to have a conversation with Kathy Burns. Maybe I'd like to be part of this EXP company and see what it's all about. That sounds good to me. Let's book a strategy call and let's have a talk. No pressure. But man, it's worth a conversation.

The links in the description.