A market research born out of a simple question
We set out to check something the real estate industry talks about a lot, but rarely backs up with hard data: do agents and brokers actually use business plans in their day-to-day work, and do those plans actually serve them. We sent out a survey through our mailing list, Facebook groups, industry forums, and Reddit. The form was opened 14,032 times. 384 respondents completed it. The survey was open from February to April 2026.
Who took this survey?
Of the 384 respondents, most came from industry forums (140 people) and Facebook groups (125 people). Reddit and other, less formal sources made up the rest, and our own mailing list, meaning people already familiar with CraftedCharts, accounted for just 12 respondents. In other words, this isn't a survey filled out by our own customers. It's a voice from the market, mostly from outside our existing base. Respondents were based mainly in the United States and Europe.
Among all respondents, 12 people were already CraftedCharts customers, and 8 of those had access to our real estate agency business plan template.
They have a plan, but few actually use it
The first question was simple: do you use a plan of action in your work as a realtor. Close to 67% said yes, in a more or less developed form. That's a lot. The problem shows up in the next layer of data: only 15% still use, on a daily basis, a document that was prepared before starting the business or at its launch.
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In other words, most agents had some kind of plan at one point, but the vast majority abandoned it. The plan was made once, at the start, and that's usually where it stayed.
An even more telling number: 48% of respondents admitted they never had a written plan in a form that actually satisfied them. This isn't a group of people who never tried to plan their business. It's a group that tried, and ran into tools that didn't work for them.
Why are solo agents left without documentation?
One of the clearer dividing lines in the data runs between agents working solo and people working in teams or agencies. Among teams and agencies, 87% had access to internal documentation and a plan mapped out for the coming years. Solo agents mostly didn't have that kind of access.
This makes organizational sense. Agencies invest in documentation because they have the resources and someone to prepare it. But it also means that independent agents, who need clear structure the most since they don't have a team to lean on, are the group worst equipped with planning tools.
What's missing from existing plans
The survey included an open question: what's missing from your current business plan. The answers clustered around a few recurring themes.
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No clear path to the goal. The most commonly cited problem was a lack of concrete milestones. Respondents described growth targets and percentages that felt pulled out of thin air, with no explanation of where they came from or how to actually reach them step by step.
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Marketing and client acquisition treated as an afterthought. Many respondents noted that reaching clients, meaning marketing and PR for their business, was treated in their plans as something extra, almost as if it didn't belong in a business plan at all. That's surprising, given that client acquisition is one of the pillars of a real estate agent's work. If this is a gap you're dealing with too, our guide on how to create a marketing plan covers exactly the piece most business plans leave out.
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Chaos and readability. Another recurring theme was how the data was organized. Respondents described their plans as unreadable and chaotic, which made it hard to come back to them and actually use them in daily work.
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Data disconnected from market reality. Some answers pointed to an even more serious problem: the data shown in the plan differed significantly from the actual market situation. A plan that paints a false picture of the market doesn't just fail to help. It can actively mislead business decisions.
What do agents say they need?
Asked directly what should be in a good business plan, respondents most often pointed to two things: market research and budget planning. That lines up with what they struggled with most in their existing plans: a lack of solid market analysis and a lack of clearly laid out costs are the natural opposite of the chaos and disconnected data they described earlier.
Results
Putting this data together, a fairly consistent picture emerges: real estate agents don't have a problem wanting to plan. They have a problem finding a plan that actually reflects what their work looks like. They need clear milestones instead of abstract percentages, marketing built into the structure of the plan instead of treated as an afterthought, a readable layout, and market research grounded in reality rather than wishful thinking.
The gap is especially visible among agents working solo, the group least likely to have access to ready-made documentation, and at the same time the group that would benefit from it the most.
Methodology: the survey was available online from February to April 2026 and was distributed through CraftedCharts' mailing list, Facebook groups, industry forums, and Reddit. The form was opened 14,032 times, and 384 people completed it. The sample is not statistically representative (a self-selecting sample), but given the range of sources and the sample size, it provides a solid picture of the challenges real estate agents face when planning their business.
