5 ways to defend your income from tech disruption

NEW YORK -- "I would say that we’re foolish to think that commissions are not going to be reduced in the future," said Ben Kinney, who owns several Keller Williams Realty brokerages. But that "doesn’t mean that our annual incomes wouldn't stay the same." His comment captured a loose consensus reached by a recent Inman Connect panel: Technology will put downward pressure on commission rates, but agents who adapt will gain enough marketshare to offset any decrease. “The bad agents sucked during the best years, and they still suck now," said Kinney. Perhaps technology, he added, will finally weed out the amateurs. The president of Real Trends, a widely-cited source of real estate data, recently predicted that the average commission rate -- pegged at 5.26 percent in 2015 -- will drop below 5 percent within the next few years, Kenneth Harney reported. Property-exchange platforms like Opendoor, for-sale-by-owner (FSBO) services, low-fee brokerages and au...