48% of Real Estate Agents Plan to Grow Their Client List: What the Data Says

According to Dearborn Real Estate Education 2024, 48% of real estate agents expect to grow their client list in the next 6 to 12 months, and AI tools are expected to play a central role in how that growth happens. That combination of cautious optimism and rapid tool adoption is reshaping how agents prospect, market, and get found by buyers and sellers.

What Do Agents Actually Expect From the Next 12 Months?

The headline number from Dearborn Real Estate Education 2024 is that 48% of agents expect to grow their client list in the next 6 to 12 months. That is close to half the industry carrying genuine forward momentum into a market that has been difficult by most measures. But that optimism comes with a condition buried in the same data: agents who are not actively investing in marketing automation and digital tools are the ones most likely to be disappointed.

The agents expecting growth are not simply hoping the market turns. They are building pipelines through content, automation, and AI-assisted outreach. The ones expecting flat or declining business tend to be waiting for inventory or interest rates to solve the problem for them. Those are two very different business strategies wearing the same market conditions.

For context on how competitive the environment is, the Relitix Agent Movement Index 2024 showed an unexpected increase in the number of active real estate agents, meaning more people are competing for the same pool of clients. Growing a client list in that environment requires more than availability. It requires visibility.

Where Does AI Fit Into a Working Agent's Day?

According to Dearborn Real Estate Education 2024, AI is expected to support trend forecasting, marketing automation, and lead generation for agents over the next year. Those are three very different applications, and each one has practical implications for how an agent spends their time.

Trend forecasting through AI means an agent can pull neighborhood-level pricing patterns, days-on-market averages, and buyer demand signals faster than any manual research process. That gives agents something concrete to bring into a listing presentation or a buyer consultation. It is not magic. It is faster homework.

Marketing automation through AI handles the repetitive work: follow-up emails, drip campaigns, social content scheduling, and review requests after a closing. Agents using these tools are not doing less work. They are redirecting their hours toward conversations that require a human, because the automated pieces are running in the background.

Lead generation is the most competitive application. AI tools can now help identify likely sellers before they list, surface off-market opportunities, and prioritize which leads in a CRM are most likely to convert. For an agent trying to grow a client list without adding staff, that kind of filtering matters. You can read more about how AI tools are changing agent workflows in this coverage on AI daily tools for real estate agents.

What Are First-Time Buyers Doing Before They Call an Agent?

According to the National Association of Realtors Confidence Index, first-time buyers made up 33% of recent purchases, which is a higher share than the prior month. That is a significant segment of the market, and first-time buyers behave differently than repeat buyers in one important way: they do far more online research before they ever contact an agent.

A first-time buyer is not calling the agent their parents used. They are searching, reading reviews, checking profiles, and comparing options the same way they would evaluate any other service provider. By the time they reach out, they often have a shortlist and a strong sense of who they want to work with. An agent with a thin review profile, inconsistent online presence, or no visible content is simply not making that shortlist.

This is the part of client growth that AI cannot fully automate: the reputation that makes a buyer choose you over someone else. Reviews, response patterns, and profile completeness are the signals that convert a search into a call. Agents expecting to grow their client list through first-time buyers need both the AI tools to find leads and the online reputation to close them. For a deeper look at how reputation shapes that decision, see how social proof affects real estate client trust and decisions.

Why This Matters for Real Estate Agents

The survey data from Dearborn points to a dividing line forming inside the agent population. On one side are agents who see the next 12 months as a growth window and are actively building the tools, content, and digital presence to capture it. On the other side are agents waiting for external conditions to improve.

With active agent counts rising according to Relitix, the agents who are not investing in their visibility and automation infrastructure are not standing still. They are falling behind peers who are. The 48% who expect growth are not just optimists. They are likely the agents already doing the work that makes growth possible.

The first-time buyer share of the market reinforces this. That segment rewards agents who are easy to find, easy to evaluate, and easy to trust based on what they see online. Getting to that position does not require a massive marketing budget. It requires consistency: regular reviews, a complete Google Business Profile, and content that gives a buyer a reason to call.

The agents who treat the next 12 months as a reputation-building period, not just a transactions period, are the ones most likely to find the numbers in next year's survey moving in their favor.