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An immigrant tech worker uncertain about the state of the economy — and their family’s future. A retiree with a suddenly shaky investment portfolio. A homebuyer hit with a shockingly high price tag for needed repairs.
These three stories of real estate transactions gone awry are just a taste of how the tariff fallout is seeping into client decisions and beginning to eat away at the margins of the brokerage industry, agents across the country told the Intel Index survey in May.
As part of its flagship monthly survey of real estate professionals, Intel found that a small but significant share of agents and brokers had already seen a deal blow up because of tariffs.
- 12 percent of agent respondents and 16 percent of brokerage leaders told Intel that they had already witnessed at least one sale fall apart as a result of the tariffs.
- Another 9 percent of agents and 4 percent of brokerage leaders in the survey said that it had not happened to one of their clients, but they had seen it happen to a client of another agent or brokerage in their market.
At this time, most agents surveyed have not yet seen an actual deal fall through for this specific reason alone.
Still, Intel sought these stories to better understand where things might be headed if current tariff levels remain in place — and especially if the temporary reprieves on even higher “reciprocal” tariffs are allowed to expire.
Agents and brokerage leaders said that the primary effect so far has been psychological — but a number of clients have been materially affected by tariffs as well.
“The tariff noises are unpredictable and chaos is reigning, which is creating an environment of instability and uncertainty in my buyers,” wrote one decision-maker at a brokerage on New York’s Long Island.
In this week’s report, Intel breaks down the most frequently cited tariff-related obstacles that real estate professionals are running across.
Wide-ranging experiences
Real estate agents whose business has been affected by tariffs reported numerous reasons given by clients.
- Roughly half of the agents who told Intel that tariffs had tanked a deal in their market said that they had seen at least one instance where the client had not yet been directly impacted by tariffs, but worried they would be in the weeks to come.
This type of general fear and uncertainty, even before any direct impact was felt, was the most common scenario that these agents witnessed killing a sale.
One agent in Charlottesville, Virginia, reported to Intel that they had seen multiple deals fall apart in March and April.
At least one of this agent’s clients used HOA documents as an excuse to back out, but “later admitted the entire reason was economic uncertainty,” the agent wrote.
In Austin, an agent told Intel they were aware of another agent’s client who backed out because he or she was increasingly fearful of both tariffs and deportation when they backed out of a home search.
The client, who worked in tech, had lived in the U.S. for more than three decades, raised children that were born here and had proper documentation, the agent said.
But it’s not just fear of a hypothetical outcome that’s giving some buyers cold feet.
The government’s ever-changing tariff policy hit financial markets particularly hard in April, with the S&P 500 falling 12 percent in value in the days after the Trump administration’s April 2 announcement of so-called “reciprocal” tariffs.
Since then, markets have recouped most of their losses from that early period as the Trump administration paused a number of the highest tariff rates and signaled a willingness to strike deals with trading partners.
But for a number of agents who had a deal on the line in April, the damage was done.
- More than 4 in 10 agent respondents who had seen tariffs tank a deal told Intel that a client had lost income from, or value within, their stock investment portfolio before backing out of a deal.
Actual job loss due to tariffs was rarely cited as a reason for a deal falling through in the earliest weeks of tariff implementation.
But loss of income or business revenue in a trade-dependent field was a relatively frequent issue for the clients who did back out, agents said. And some clients even told their agents that tariffs had already begun to push up their cost-of-living.
Another agent from New York City said one of their clients backed out of a deal after learning how high tariffs had pushed the cost of renovating the property.
This general experience was shared by 1 in 5 of the affected agents, who said they had seen tariffs raise the cost of a newly built home outside a client’s price range.
Here’s the full text and responses to Intel’s question from agents who said they’ve seen a sale fall apart due to tariffs.
Intel: You mentioned you’ve seen the tariffs contribute to at least one lost sale in your market. Which of the following scenarios have come up? Select all that apply.
- 49 percent — Client was not directly impacted by new tariffs, but expressed concern that they might be in the months to come
- 42 percent — Client lost income from, or value within, a stock investment portfolio
- 30 percent — Client did not lose a job, but lost income or business revenue in an industry reliant on international trade
- 26 percent — Client cited rising household expenses from new tariffs
- 21 percent — Client backed out of a search for new construction listings because of increased costs of material goods due to tariffs
- 18 percent — Client lost a job in an industry reliant on international trade
For now, new tariffs in imports remain a relatively rare cause of a busted purchase or sale. And based on financial market movement in recent weeks, investors appear to be increasingly convinced that the new levies will not remain in place long-term, or will not be pushed as high as once feared.
But the longer that they remain in place, and the likelier it becomes that the pauses on higher rates are allowed to expire, the more that cases like these may creep further into the mainstream.
For some brokerage decision-makers, that’s already the reality.
“The propensity for a negative business environment outweighs the indicators of positive views looking forward,” the Long Island brokerage leader wrote, “and this is directly related to tariffs, and mayhem around them.”
Methodology notes: This month’s Inman Intel Index survey was conducted May 20-June 3, 2025, and received 529 responses. The entire Inman reader community was invited to participate, and a rotating, randomized selection of community members was prompted to participate by email. Users responded to a series of questions related to their self-identified corner of the real estate industry — including real estate agents, brokerage leaders, lenders and proptech entrepreneurs. Results reflect the opinions of the engaged Inman community, which may not always match those of the broader real estate industry. This survey is conducted monthly.
