H5game8

The industry needs hands-on boutique brokers more than ever before. Keith Robinson pays homage to their personal and professional value.

Inman Connect

Invest in yourself, grow your business—real estate’s biggest moment is in New York!

I think we owe you a love letter.

Yes, you.

The small- to medium-sized real estate broker who has been holding this industry together with grit, caffeine and whatever emotional reserves you have left after the past few years. So that’s what I have sat down to write today.

TAKE THE INMAN INTEL INDEX SURVEY

Like any good love letter, I want to remind you why our relationship matters, apologize for what the industry has put you through, and show you that my admiration is real.

So pull up a chair and let’s talk.

Dear small- and medium-size broker,

It feels like the love has been one-sided for a while.

There was a time when you were the center of the industry’s gravity. You knew every street, every school boundary, every cracked sidewalk that meant “park here and your alignment is never coming back.” You built the business the old-fashioned way. By earning trust, building people and keeping communities anchored, while the rest of the world tried to automate human relationships.

Your value was never hypothetical. It lived in driveways, living rooms and offices with carpet older than some of your agents.

But somewhere along the way, the industry stopped returning your calls. Or worse, it answered, put you on hold and then transferred you to someone who clearly had you confused with a warranty department.

Because let’s be honest. The past few years have felt like you were dropped straight into the real estate version of Game of Thrones.

While you were out here coaching agents through the longest elevated-rate market of your career, the giants were in the courtyard slamming dragons together.

Compass and Anywhere merged into a mega-house so large it probably qualified for its own ZIP code.
Private listing networks started acting like rival kingdoms, selecting champions.
The portals kept redrawing the map every few months, as if the rest of us had time to memorize new territories.
And every time you turned around, someone was shouting “bend the knee,” even though you were busy fixing the office printer.

Meanwhile, your world kept getting harder.

Rates stayed high long enough for everyone to age a decade because the industry was being measured in dog years. Transaction volume tanked. Recruiting became a knife fight. Retention became group therapy. Your margins went on life support.

And through it all, you were expected to remain optimistic, collected and visionary, even though most days you were running entire offices on expired Halloween candy and pure adrenaline.

And yet, here you are. Still standing. Still serving. Still leading. Still refusing to tap out even when the industry acts like you are an extra in someone else’s Targaryen subplot.

So let me say something the industry does not say nearly enough.

You matter

And the data backs that up. Even with all the noise about consolidation and mega-mergers, real people still choose real agents, which means brokers like you remain at the center of the industry.

NAR’s latest Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers shows that 88 percent of buyers used an agent or broker to complete their purchase, and 91 percent of sellers did the same. When a transaction happens, a human is still the one steering the ship.

On top of that, more than half of all Realtors work with independent companies, not the giant national brands, which means a significant share of the business still lives in local, community-rooted offices.

And even when you zoom out, industry rankings show that the top 1,000 brokerage entities account for about 64 percent of total residential sales volume, according to T3 Sixty data, leaving roughly 36 percent of all transactions to the tens of thousands of smaller and midsize firms across the country.

Consumers trust local knowledge, local relationships, and local leadership, and you deliver all three in a way no algorithm or national marketing slogan has been able to replicate.

You are the one training the new agent who thinks “CC&R” stands for Credence Clearwater Revival, which honestly puts them ahead of those who think it is a boy band.
You are the one who knows which lenders can close without lighting something on fire.
You are the one who sits with clients when a deal explodes and reminds them their dream is not dead.
You are the one who drives across town to reset a lockbox because someone “swears they pressed the right buttons.”
You are the one who hosts the office holiday party where someone always cries, and somehow that becomes the bonding moment the team talks about for years.

You are the culture keepers. The stabilizers. The quiet backbone of the entire industry.

And the truth is, the industry has never needed you more.

In a world of mega-mergers, algorithmic leads and private listing kingdoms, your ability to show up in person still beats a landing page. Your hyperlocal understanding still outperforms any portal’s AI-generated neighborhood blurb. When the giants fight, you are the one reminding people that real estate is not a spectacle. It is a service.

So how do we fix ourselves? How do we strengthen this relationship?

First, we tell the truth. This market has been brutal. Rates have squeezed affordability, squeezed margins and squeezed morale. It has felt like a four-year winter, the kind where even the snowplows give up and decide to pursue other careers. Your survival is not luck. It is talent. It is leadership. It is the kind of resilience that does not make headlines but holds communities together.

Next, we get strategic, not scared. The giants’ consolidation does not make you irrelevant. It makes you irreplaceable. When the industry gets louder, people crave local. When the rules get more complicated, they want someone they trust. When private listing networks fence off inventory like rival castles, the broker who knows their community best becomes even more valuable.

And finally, we remember why you got into this in the first place. It was not to run empires. It was to build people. To build agents. To build careers. To build trust. To build something that lasts longer than this absurd market cycle. Your work is legacy work. It matters more than any headline ever will.

So please, do not give up on us. The industry still needs you. More than ever. What you offer cannot be automated, consolidated or mass-produced. It can only be hand-built, the way you have always done it. With patience, wisdom, humor and that Jedi-level ability to talk an anxious agent off a ledge using only a ceramic mug and a raised eyebrow.

You are the heartbeat of real estate. And we see you now. Fully. Clearly. Finally.

Love (and a sincere prayer that rates come down before we all lose our minds),

Crazy Uncle Keith

P.S. If this industry really is Game of Thrones, you are not an extra. You are the character everyone roots for, the one who makes it through every battle because you fight with purpose, not for glory. Stay steady. The next season is shaping up to be a wild one.

All this month, we’re focused on The New Brokerage Playbook. Running a brokerage in 2026 looks nothing like it used to. From major players to scrappy indies, we’ll map the new playing field and talk with brokerage leaders across the country about what’s working now — and what’s next.

Keith Robinson is the Co-CEO of NextHome, Inc. and co-host of Real Estate Insiders Unfiltered. Follow Real Estate Insiders Unfiltered Podcast on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook or TikTok, and subscribe to their YouTube Channel.

Topics: independent brokers | leadership Show Comments Hide Comments Sign up for Inman’s Morning Headlines What you need to know to start your day with all the latest industry developments Sign me up By submitting your email address, you agree to receive marketing emails from Inman. Success! Thank you for subscribing to Morning Headlines. Read Next Keith Robinson book list