Real Estate Is Becoming an MLM Without The Pyramid

Everyone is selling something

Welcome To The Hustle Cult

There’s a persistent myth in real estate that success is one big grind away. If you just knock on more doors, post more reels, join another team, hire another coach, you’ll get there. And if you haven’t gotten there yet? It’s not the system, it’s you.

This isn’t real estate anymore. It’s a motivational movement with a real estate license.

The modern real estate industry has started to mimic the exact mechanics of multi-level marketing. There’s no formal pyramid, but the hierarchy is crystal clear. There are the charismatic leaders at the top who are rarely closing deals themselves. Then there are the rest - trying to “build something,” mostly by recruiting more agents, following frameworks, and learning how to package themselves as successful, regardless of actual production.

Sales Revival

If you’ve attended a real estate conference recently, you already know: the vibe is less industry education, more sales revival. Music blasting, keynote speaker walking through the crowd like they’re Tony Robbins, and thousands of agents taking notes on how to manifest success.

It’s not that motivation is inherently bad. But the real estate world has confused motivation with methodology. It’s why the most repeated phrase in this business is: “You just have to want it bad enough.” That’s not a business strategy. That’s a religion.

Agents are being taught that feeling good is the same as doing good work. They’re bombarded with content that prioritizes daily affirmations over data analysis. The belief is that if you just stay motivated enough, the clients will come, as if sheer willpower can replace knowledge, experience, and execution.

This is a dangerous conflation. Motivation can be a catalyst, but it is not a system. It’s a state of mind, not a plan of action. And when an entire industry leans on motivational messaging without coupling it with the substance of actual practice - market study, negotiation strategy, client service - you don’t get empowered agents. You get overextended ones, running on fumes and wondering why their business isn’t growing.

Methodology is what builds careers. Motivation, at best, is the spark. But we’ve built a culture that teaches agents to chase the spark like it’s the fire, and that’s why so many are burning out.

The Recruiting Trap

Real estate teams used to exist to share resources and provide mentorship. Now? They're a numbers game.

Many of the so-called “top agents” online are no longer top producers - they’re top recruiters. They’re not generating income from client transactions. They’re collecting override commissions from the newer agents under their banner. And their focus isn’t the market, it’s the optics.

Let’s call it what it is: real estate’s version of an upline. Except instead of protein powder or essential oils, the product is mentorship, culture, and some weekly Zoom meetings.

Mega teams have mastered the art of selling dreams to new agents — but few are upfront about the math.

They promise you mentorship. They promise paid ads, signage, admin support, and a steady stream of leads. And all they ask in return? A majority cut of your commission.

Sounds fair, until you realize what that actually means.

Most new agents on teams are starting at a 70/30 split in favour of the team. That means when you finally land a listing and sell it, you keep 30%, and your team leader, who likely never met your client, takes 70%. And on purchase deals, it gets worse. You might be looking at a 60% cut to the team, leaving you with 40% - or less - to show for your effort, mileage, client hand-holding, and unpaid therapy sessions.

Let’s do the math: On a $20,000 commission, you’re keeping $6,000. From that, you’ll pay taxes, board fees, gas, marketing, and maybe lunch if you’re lucky. You’re not a business owner - you’re an underpaid subcontractor.

This model isn’t mentorship. It’s vertical extraction disguised as guidance.

And here’s the kicker - it’s incredibly profitable for the team lead. They’ve positioned themselves as benevolent leaders, generously offering “support,” when in reality they’re building a scalable income stream off the labour of agents too new or too insecure to recognize the power imbalance.

Sure, some agents succeed in this model, but they would’ve succeeded anyway. The system didn’t build them. It profited off them until they woke up and left.

So next time a mega team promises “everything you need to succeed,” ask yourself one question: If I’m doing the work, why am I being paid like I’m not?

Coaching Is The New Commission Split

The rise of real estate coaching culture has created a generation of agents who are taught to seek mindset over mastery. Thousands of dollars a year are poured into group coaching, mastermind calls, and playbooks - most of which are repackaged versions of the same concepts: post more, call more, believe more.

Many agents aren’t closing deals, but they’re sure as hell coaching other agents on how to do it. The math doesn’t add up, and no one seems to be asking the hard questions. Because once you're in the coaching ecosystem, you're incentivized to sell it to others, even if it hasn’t worked for you.

I’ve flirted with the idea of offering coaching - not the empty kind, not the overpriced hype disguised as value. I’m talking about the kind of strategic, tested guidance that’s actually built on results. No daily affirmations. No motivational wallpaper. Just method, execution, and outcome.

Here’s the truth: I’ve grown a six-figure real estate business entirely through organic content. No paid ads. No lead generation platforms. No cold calls. I’ve done it by understanding the market, speaking to consumers (not colleagues), and creating digital trust at scale. Nearly all of my leads are inbound, which in real estate, is like finding gold in a river everyone else insists is dry.

And while I didn’t set out to become some marketing oracle for the industry, it happened suddenly and unexpectedly because the demand is there. Agents constantly ask how I built this. How I convert without chasing. How my content gets attention in an oversaturated feed of sameness.

That’s why I’ve been contemplating the next phase: creating a coaching platform that isn’t designed to trap you in a funnel, but instead teaches agents how to build something real, like I did. There’s value in that, especially in a space so crowded with fluff and false promises.

So yes, it’s on my mind. Because this market is starving for substance, and I know how to serve it. I have experienced sub-par coaching myself on numerous occasions. I was on the rise on TikTok 2 years ago and in one instance, a real estate coach offered a free session to see if the value was there for me. I took the bait, and I was not surprised with what I was advised. In a 30 minute coaching call, I was told to abandon my online presence in favour of traditional real estate lead generation practices. The reason? “You are divisive and that’s not good for business.” This was all I needed to hear to make up my mind about my general feelings towards coaching. How could a “coach” advise me to lean away from methods that were truly working? It was complete bullshit. I got the sense the coach was evaluating my content through a business-to-business lens rather than a consumer-focused one. It was clear they had no experience guiding a personality like mine - someone leveraging nontraditional, front-facing strategies. Instead of adapting to what was clearly working for me, they attempted to redirect me into a more familiar framework. That only confirmed they didn’t know how to coach someone operating outside the usual playbook.

The Client Is No Longer The Priority

In the new-age real estate ecosystem, the client has quietly been demoted.

At the top of the pyramid sits the agent’s personal brand, followed closely by their podcast, their Instagram carousel, their new team launch, and - of course - their real estate coaching funnel. Somewhere buried beneath all of that is the actual buyer or seller.

This is where the industry narrative has gone dangerously sideways: clients are no longer the centre of the business, they’re a means to an end. They are leverage. Proof of production. Screenshots to use in a “just closed” Reel. And as long as the optics are intact, no one seems too concerned about the substance. But who’s actually serving these clients?

Who is guiding a nervous first-time buyer through the fine print of their financing conditions?

Who’s explaining what it really means when the Bank of Canada holds or hikes rates… beyond the headline?

Who is sitting down, undistracted by content deadlines or branding launches, and strategizing a sale in a volatile market? The answer? Not enough agents.

Too many have traded practical expertise for performance. They’ve become so obsessed with appearing successful online that they’ve forgotten what it means to be effective offline.

The real estate industry’s trust gap is widening. Consumers are already skeptical. When agents become indistinguishable from lifestyle influencers, it further erodes the credibility of the profession. If the most visible agents are more focused on growing their follower count than their negotiation skills, we shouldn’t be surprised when clients start questioning our value altogether.

This isn’t a rejection of branding, it’s a call to remember what the job actually is.

Your brand means nothing if your clients are poorly represented.

And your platform is hollow if it’s built on the backs of people you were too distracted to serve.

Less Performance Please

At some point, real estate stopped being a profession and started being a stage. But not everyone belongs on it, and not everyone should be building an audience before they’ve built a foundation.

Here’s the truth: no brand, no coaching business, no curated persona will protect you from a lack of skill.

You can buy followers, spin sales, and shout success from every platform you’ve got, but when the market shifts, when the transaction gets messy, when the client needs a real professional - all that noise fades. And what you know, or don’t know, becomes the only thing that matters.

This industry needs less performance and more preparation.

Fewer funnels, more fundamentals.

Fewer agents trying to be motivational speakers, more agents trying to be irreplaceable professionals.

If you want to build something real, let the work be the loudest thing in the room.

Because that’s what survives in the end - not the algorithm, not the applause.

Just the results.