For two decades, the largest residential brokerage in the world — NRT, later renamed Anywhere Advisors, home to Coldwell Banker, Sotheby's International Realty, Century 21, and Corcoran — was just acquired by upstart Compass, founded roughly 14 years earlier. It is the clearest signal yet of how fast the ground is shifting beneath the industry.
22 years of the Swanepoel Trends Report
22 Years of Telling Real Estate Leaders What Is Coming Next — Before It Arrives.
Every year, real estate leaders open the year with the same question: what is actually changing, and what should be done about it. The Swanepoel Trends Report answers both — not with predictions, but with research T3 Sixty conducts across the industry each year to separate what reshapes the business from what simply fills a conference agenda.
Deal After Deal
Acquisition Mania!
The dominant global name of the 1980s and '90s, RE/MAX, has agreed to be acquired by upstart Real. One of the fastest-growing real estate companies of the last two years, Fathom, has agreed to be acquired by Bed Bath & Beyond.
A more-than-40-year-old, fiercely independent, single-brand brokerage — Keller Williams — has ceded control to private equity firm Stone Point Capital, which simultaneously owns one of the largest MLS technology platforms in the country (Cotality's Matrix) and a major real estate software company (Lone Wolf). Never before has so much happened on such a scale in our industry to introduce new trends reshaping and redefining our industry.
22 years publishedbulk opens Aug 7individual opens Sep 7print Dec 7, 2026T3 Trends access included
The 2027 Edition
What comes next?!
Only in the 2027 Swanepoel Trends Report.
“
This is so powerful that editor Steph Reid-Simons asked — and brought Stefan Swanepoel back from retirement — to help the T3 Sixty and Real Estate News team understand, analyze, and create a trends report worthy of the decade.
The industry's most trusted strategic guide
Built to Be Acted On, Not Just Read
The guidance is forward-looking, actionable, and built to support smarter decisions.
Digital Access, Well Ahead of Print
Digital access becomes available to early orders about two weeks ahead of the December 7 print run, so the report is in hand before planning season locks in, not after.
One Purchase, Two Formats
The digital edition supports work now; the print edition remains for the shelf. Both are included in a single purchase, not an either/or.
Not a Once-a-Year Read
A full year of access to T3 Sixty's T3 Trends research library is included with every order, so the research stays current well past the report's publication date.
Built for the Decision, Not the Deadline.
Brokerage leaders are making 2027 decisions now, often with incomplete information: where to hold the line on commission structure, whether to build or buy technology capability, how much of the roster to commit to new compensation models.
The Swanepoel Trends Report is built for exactly that moment — the same research discipline T3 Sixty applies in its own consulting engagements, delivered as a planning tool ready for immediate use.
T3 Sixty's research discipline dates to 1997 — nearly 30 years. The last 22 of those years have been published as the Swanepoel Trends Report; before that, the same underlying research took the form of the Real Estate Confronts book series. In-depth analysis and interpretation by the T3 Sixty and Real Estate News human team, with research and analysis support, supplementary, by T3 IntelligenceOS.
Pre-order reserve pricing
Every Order Includes More Than the Report.
Every pre-order includes the 2027 Swanepoel Trends Report — digital access available to early orders roughly two weeks before the December 7, 2026 print date — plus full access to T3 Sixty's research library, T3 Trends, and a RealEstateNews.com subscription for new subscribers. Pre-order reserve pricing now open.
Years like 2026 only come around less than once a decade. The opportunities ahead in 2027 and 2028 rival the changes the world is seeing outside of real estate.
2027 Edition
