Just under three-quarters of real estate agents nationwide (74%) say buyers are gaining power in their local markets.
The stat comes from the Zoodealio-ResiClub Real Estate Agent Survey for Q3 2026. ResiClub ran the survey with Zoodealio, a company that makes cash-offer and iBuyer-management software for agents.
For context, in the Q4 2025 survey, 82% of agents said buyers were gaining power.
A total of 208 agents and brokers from every region of the U.S. took part in the survey between August 17 and September 29, 2026. Of those, 44% have been agents for 15 years or longer.
The survey asks agents what they’re seeing from buyers and sellers and where they think prices and mortgage rates are headed over the next 12 months. A second set of questions covers how agents feel about their business and how they’re getting paid.
Buyer Demand Falls as Buyers Gain Negotiating Power
Across the U.S., 63% of agents say buyer demand in their market is lower than it was 12 months ago. Of those, 43% call it slightly lower and 20% call it much lower.
In every region, more agents report lower demand than higher demand. Here’s the share in each region who said buyer demand has dropped:
- Midwest: 74%
- Southwest: 66%
- Southeast: 63%
- West: 61%
- Northeast: 50%
None of the Southwest agents said demand has picked up. In the Northeast, 17% said it has.
Agents gave a similar read on negotiating power. Across the U.S., 17% say power isn’t moving in either direction and 9% say sellers are gaining.
Here’s the share of agents in each region who said buyers are gaining power:
- Southwest: 89%
- Southeast: 78%
- West: 74%
- Midwest: 67%
- Northeast: 50%
The other half of Northeast agents say power isn’t moving either way.
The Midwest has the largest share of agents who see sellers gaining power, at 20%. In the West, 13% said the same, compared with 5% in the Southeast. None of the agents in the Northeast or Southwest said sellers are gaining power.
Seller Urgency Climbs in Four of Five Regions
With fewer buyers around, sellers are feeling more pressure to make a deal, which partly explains the nationwide record high for price cuts in September.
Across the U.S., 49% of agents say seller urgency is higher than it was a year ago. That includes 3% who picked “significantly higher” and 46% who picked “slightly higher.”
Here’s the share of agents in each region who said seller urgency is higher:
- Midwest: 60%
- Southwest: 55%
- Southeast: 48%
- West: 48%
- Northeast: 17%
According to ResiClub’s interpretation of the data, fewer sellers in the Midwest, Southwest, and Southeast appear willing to wait for conditions to improve.
Meanwhile, in the Northeast, half of agents say seller urgency is about the same as last year, compared with 31% across the U.S.
Northeast agents who do see a change lean the other way, with 34% reporting less urgency.
Agents Expect Flat or Lower Prices and Higher Mortgage Rates
Agents expect weaker home prices than they did at the end of 2025. Here’s what they think will happen to prices in their local market over the next 12 months:
- Increase significantly (5% or more): 1%
- Increase slightly (1% to 4.99%): 29%
- Stay flat: 33%
- Decrease slightly (1% to 4.99%): 30%
- Decrease significantly (5% or more): 7%
The survey has asked this question in three periods, and the results have bounced around:
- Q3 2025: 28% expected increases and 47% expected decreases
- Q4 2025: 39% expected increases and 29% expected decreases
- Q3 2026: 30% expect increases and 37% expect decreases
The share of agents expecting a slight decline grew from 22% in Q4 2025 to 30% in Q3 2026. ResiClub says the growth in that group drove the drop in agents expecting prices to rise. The share expecting flat prices hasn’t changed.
Mortgage rate expectations have moved up. Here’s where agents expect the average 30-year fixed rate to be over the next 12 months:
- Higher than 7.5%: 10%
- 7.0% to 7.5%: 16%
- 6.5% to 7.0%: 48%
- 6.0% to 6.5%: 24%
In total, 26% of agents expect rates of 7% or higher.
Agents expected lower rates at the end of 2025. In the Q4 2025 survey, 72% expected rates between 6.0% and 6.5%, and 7% expected anything above 6.5%. In Q3 2025, 49% expected 6.0% to 6.5% and 38% expected 6.5% to 7.0%.
Fewer Than Half of Agents Feel Optimistic About the Year Ahead
Agent confidence has dropped. Across the U.S., 48% of agents describe their business outlook for the next 12 months as optimistic, compared with 60% in the Q4 2025 survey.
Here’s how agents nationwide describe their outlook:
- Very optimistic: 11%
- Somewhat optimistic: 37%
- Neutral: 23%
- Somewhat pessimistic: 21%
- Very pessimistic: 8%
The mood changes a lot from one region to the next. Here’s how optimism and pessimism compare by region:
- Southeast: 62% optimistic and 21% pessimistic
- Southwest: 44% optimistic and 44% pessimistic
- Midwest: 40% optimistic and 40% pessimistic
- West: 35% optimistic and 21% pessimistic
- Northeast: 34% optimistic and 50% pessimistic
West agents had the biggest neutral group at 43%. They had the highest share of “very optimistic” agents too, at 22%.
ResiClub ties the regional split to the kinds of homes agents sell. Southeast agents work in larger new construction markets, which haven’t shrunk as much as resale volumes over the past four years.
Northeast agents depend more on resale deals, where turnover has hovered near 40-year lows.
Commissions Hold Steady After the NAR Settlement
More than two years after the March 2024 NAR settlement, agents say their pay looks a lot like it did before. Fixed-percentage commissions are the norm on both sides of the deal.
When agents represented the seller on their most recent deal, here’s how the commission was set up:
- Fixed percentage: 88%
- Negotiated per client request: 11%
- Flat fee: 1%
On the buyer’s side of their most recent deal, the breakdown looks similar:
- Fixed percentage: 84%
- Negotiated per client request: 11%
- Flat fee: 1%
- Other: 3%
Typical rates look familiar as well. Here’s what agents say they charge on the seller side:
- Seller side, 2% to 3%: 92%
- Seller side, above 3%: 7%
- Seller side, 1% to 2%: 1%
On the buyer side:
- Buyer side, 2% to 3%: 90%
- Buyer side, 1% to 2%: 10%
None of the agents reported buyer-side rates above 3%.
Agents haven’t warmed up to NAR, either. Here’s how they describe their view of the trade group:
- Very unfavorable: 28%
- Somewhat unfavorable: 31%
- Neutral: 32%
- Somewhat favorable: 6%
- Very favorable: 3%
In total, 59% of agents view NAR unfavorably, compared with 9% who view it favorably.
On the iBuying front, the survey asked how often agents have talked with clients about iBuyer cash offers over the past 12 months. iBuyers are companies that make fast cash offers on homes.
Here’s how agents across the U.S. answered:
- Very often: 4%
- Occasionally: 18%
- Rarely: 28%
- Never: 50%
The Southeast leads in this area, with 32% of agents discussing iBuyer offers very often or occasionally. In the Northeast, 83% of agents say they’ve never brought them up, and the other 17% say they’ve done it only rarely.
Compared with the Q4 2025 survey, the Q3 2026 results point in the same direction with a little less momentum. Buyers keep gaining leverage, and agents feel less sure about the year ahead.
The next survey will show whether Midwest agents keep reporting the steepest drop in demand along with the largest share who see sellers gaining power. It’ll be a chance to see if the Northeast stays the most stable region on leverage and seller urgency, and whether its agents stay the most pessimistic.
Agents’ rate expectations moved up a full bracket between Q4 2025 and Q3 2026, from the 6.0% to 6.5% range to the 6.5% to 7.0% range.
Future surveys will show whether that view holds.
