Uncertainty has been the underlying force in 2025.
Ginger Wilcox
But Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Brand President Ginger Wilcox said that market turbulence, shifting industry practices and protocols, rapid consolidation, and monumental technological changes have prompted agents to take a second look at brokerages like hers, which have the resources and reach to guide agents through a still-raging storm.
“Agents realize they don’t necessarily want to go it alone,” she told Inman. “We actually sold out our conference, the Better Retreat, many months in advance. And I think that that kind of deep level of agent engagement shows that agents are looking for more guidance and support from the network and from the people that they’re working with.”
Wilcox said brokerages cannot take agents’ return for granted — they’re looking for more from the companies they hang their licenses under, and leaders must deliver. Marketing and branding assistance, robust transaction platforms and cutting-edge technology are among the highest priorities, particularly as artificial intelligence expands its reach.
“The complexities of our industry are going to accelerate as we think about some of the transformation happening with AI,” she said. “I don’t see [AI] moving us toward a one-click transaction … but there’s still a lot of opportunity for AI to make the process easier, especially on the back-end.”
“But, I don’t see a world where consumers will ever go away from needing a trusted advisor,” she added. “Despite market shifts, despite technology shifts, there is still a need for trusted and skilled agents.”
What follows is a version of Inman’s conversation with Wilcox that has been edited for length and clarity. [Ed. note: This interview took place on Sept. 18, 2025, prior to the announcement of the Compass-Anywhere acquisition.]
Inman: It’s nice talking to you again, Ginger. The last time we spoke, we discussed Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate’s new Trendmakers course. So, staying in that same vein, what trends do you think have guided 2025?
Wilcox: I would say there are a couple of things. The big story for 2025 from my perspective is that agents are coming back to their brokerages, and they’re getting a lot more support from their brokerage. We’re seeing a lot more agent engagement throughout the network in a variety of ways.
I think that as we look at some of the uncertainty that was facing the industry, whether it was looking at the changes in what was happening with inventory, the challenges with interest rates, and then obviously, we had lots of conversations around things like lawsuits, the need for brokerage support has become magnified this year. Agents realize they don’t necessarily want to go it alone.
I’ve noticed that trend as well this year. A few years ago, many press releases in my inbox were about brokers going independent. And this year, it’s been the reverse. As a leader, which areas do you see brokerages stepping up their value proposition?
The areas where we’re seeing brokers dive deeper and support their agents is certainly in the area of training. That has become really critical as we think about the need for more professionalism in our industry, specifically the need for an enhanced skillset.
We’ve been talking a lot about the craft of real estate at BGHRE and the need for agents to level up and make sure that they’re serving consumers. Consumers’ needs are evolving, and that means agents’ skillsets need to evolve, too. So, training has been a big area of focus for us.
Another area is general legal support. Some of the complexities surrounding transactions are becoming more challenging, and there’s a need for guidance. [Artificial intelligence] is an interesting addition to this, as there are great opportunities to speed up transaction efficiency. But brokers need to make sure they’re supporting their agents around using AI. Somebody just shared this phrase with me: “ChatGPT doesn’t have E&O insurance.”
And I think that that’s a really good way to think about it. Broker support around the transaction is even greater now because they need to make sure that agents are working in a way that’s compliant.
Lastly, we’re seeing agents really engage with a lot of our brand materials.
Let’s focus on the craft of real estate and how it impacts consumer trust. Consumers are dealing with record levels of anxiety about the market, and I believe some of their trust in agents has been eroded by the coverage of topics such as buyer-broker commissions and private listing networks. They’re not attuned to the nuance in those conversations.
How does honing ‘the craft of real estate’ help break through the reputational hit the industry has faced over the past few years?
You know, for a while transactions were really easy, and that meant that we kind of had transactions falling out of the sky. Now they’re much harder to put together and the agents that have honed their craft, that are thinking about how to make sure that they have the necessary skills to be able to support their client, are able to really thrive and build that trust.
Trust comes from a couple of different things. It comes from knowledge of every detail of how to put together a transaction and making sure that they understand the nuances of contracts. It comes from understanding their market inventory, their knowledge of what’s happening in their local market, their knowledge of issues that might come up during inspections and during disclosures, etc.
I think we spend a lot of time talking about the upfront process and marketing and lead generation, but consumers ultimately, that’s not how they’re judging an agent. They’re judging an agent based on how they make them feel through the transaction.
And you said something that really hits it in my mind.
Consumers are skeptical. They have so much information. They need an agent who can actually help them identify what they should pay attention to so that they can move forward with the right decisions and help guide them through that process in a way that cuts out the noise that’s happening in the transaction.
I know we’re getting low on time, so why don’t we circle back to your first point — the trend of agents returning to large brokerages. How does this fit into the larger trend of consolidation? This is a phrase I’ve heard since joining Inman in 2015, but I feel that this is the year it has really come into fruition.
And so, as a brand leader, what are your thoughts on consolidation and how you can become more competitive? There’s only so much of the pie.
The transaction volume numbers are going to be what they’re going to be. There’s going to continue to be a need for agents to capture more market share that, unfortunately, comes from other agents.
The M&A market has been, for a while, has been sort of stuck. And we’re starting to see that open up as companies realize that there’s opportunities to be able to take advantage of scale. And by coming together, they’re able to do more.
We’ll also continue to see consolidation, I think, as people continue to look at how do they provide more value across the end-to-end transaction. That’s something that we are uniquely positioned for. We have our brokers who are able to take advantage of some of the services that we offer, like Upward Title, to be able to expand their service offering and create a greater value for consumers through that. So I think we’ll see consolidation in a number of different ways.
But it’s clear that the larger industry players are going to be the winners from my perspective, because they have the ability to provide that full suite of services for the agents in a landscape that’s not going to get any easier.
