At the GOE conference a few weeks ago, Tom Ferry reported that 648,000 real estate agents in the U.S. have not completed even one transaction in 2022. As we discussed earlier this week, these agents (and a bunch more who got licensed in the last two years) are amateurs. When things get difficult or even unpleasant, amateurs fail, lose interest, and leave the industry. This creates more opportunities for the professionals who are left. In the same presentation, Tom Ferry said there is a “land grab” going on right now. The professional agents are getting bigger and stronger because they know how to adjust to the changing market conditions. And many of them learned how to do this during the last downturn when they were new agents. There are a couple of takeaways a professional hiring manager can learn from all this:1.) Support your professional agents. Be discerning with your current agents. Who are the amateurs and who are the professionals? Spend your time and resources on your professionals. The amateurs are here for the wrong reasons and most will not be able to make the adjustments necessary to survive.2.) Hire more professional agents. It’s a mistake to stop recruiting. There are now some natural economic and mindset barriers that will deter many individuals from pursuing real estate. Who’s left? The professionals who are not deterred by these obstacles.There will be a new crop of agents who will start their real estate careers in the next few years. And a higher percentage will grow up into high-performers because they’re learning real estate during challenging times.