Just the other day, I was chatting with a well-known Realtor (let’s call him Bob). The discussion was: “Real estate agents who are broke make worse real estate agents.” 

Now, let me be clear, Bob was being a bit inflammatory on purpose. He was raising the conversation and asking for input on the topic. 

It’s a common sentiment in the profession. If the Realtor needs the pay cheque desperately, then they will give you biased advice. Does that mean a Realtor’s financial condition is a conflict of interest? Is it time to start adding Realtors’ private bank accounts to the list of other disclosures that are already required? Should we tell consumers to only hire the agents who have healthy savings accounts? Instead, let’s reframe the question.

Charlie Munger famously said, “Show me the incentive, and I’ll show you the outcome.” Commission sales create the perfect storm of pressure and temptation. If you don’t close, you don’t eat. That’s not a personal failing; that’s part of the system we’ve designed. With that in mind, why don’t we ask the more pertinent professional question: “How do we maintain integrity when our outcomes are beyond our control?” While it is within our ability to educate, influence, and guide, we can’t put a pen in our client’s hand and force them to sign.  

Industry responses to integrity gaps

It’s worth noting that regulators don’t turn a blind eye to conflicts of interest. Across Canada, real estate watchdogs have clear rules in place: disclose any circumstance where your financial interests could collide with your client’s, advise them to seek independent advice, and get informed consent before moving forward. When those lines are crossed, the penalties can be severe.

Consider the case of Jinnah (Re), 2024 BCSRE 51. In this decision, the B.C. Financial Services Authority found that a Realtor had allowed a personal relationship with a client to compromise his professional obligations. By putting his own interests ahead of the client’s, he breached fiduciary duty in one of the clearest ways possible. The outcome was decisive: he was fined $10,000, and ordered to pay more than $67,000 in enforcement costs.

Cases like this send a message: when conflicts are explicit, regulators act. What about the quieter pressures, though? The rent due next week, the slow quarter, the commission cheque you need to survive? Those don’t appear in a hearing room, yet they shape behavior across our industry every day.

Reframing the problem

It’s easy to point fingers at individual Realtors and say “work harder,” “prospect more,” or “build your business.” Yes, personal accountability matters. If you don’t work, you don’t eat. At the same time, reducing these kinds of challenges to the integrity of the profession glosses over the structural problem. Commission-only models magnify risk for new and struggling agents. That’s not to say that commission is going away. It’s not. Realtors still need to be paid for their work. So then what could we do differently? 

A great deal! For starters, we could build better on-ramps for new Realtors. To date, real estate is one of the only professions I know that doesn’t have a formal apprenticeship model. Doctors must do a residency. Lawyers have to article. Carpenters, plumbers, electricians, and other trades have a four-year apprenticeship that requires both on-the-job experience and classroom training. In short, other professions set people up for success.  Alternatively, brokerages themselves could share in some of the risk, absorbing losses and gains for training new Realtors.  

Answering the original question, though, whether broke Realtors make worse Realtors? Instead of blaming agents, maybe we can look at the structural issues that surround our profession. The challenge of slow markets and new Realtors isn’t about an individual’s morality or even competency, but these challenges expose some of the structural weaknesses of the profession.  The majority of new Realtors are rushed through education programs that don’t prepare them for the realities of business.  A lot of them are given a license and a lockbox key, and told, “Go get ‘em!”

So instead of asking “Should consumers avoid broker Realtors?” maybe we ought to be asking “Why are there broke Realtors in the first place?”  

Cameron Tsoi A Sue

Cameron has worked within the real estate industry for over a decade. With early success in sales and winning a handful of local and corporate awards, he transitioned to the management side of the office. It was in this phase of his career that he found his strength. He has consistently worked on business development for brokerages since, consistently recruiting 50+ realtors per year, coaching and developing new realtors and designing custom brands and business strategies for senior realtors. Today, Cameron continues in this work, helping offices and realtors consistently grow their bottom line through implementing results-orientated processes.