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There’s an old story that goes something like this: One day a father bought a horse for his son. Everyone in the village was thrilled and congratulated the boy. But the local Zen master said only, “we’ll see.”

Later, the boy was thrown from his horse and permanently damaged his leg. Everyone in town was saddened by the tragedy and the boy’s new disability. But again the Zen master said only, “we’ll see.”

Some time after that, a war broke out. All the young townsmen were conscripted to fight, but due to the boy’s previous injury he was not eligible, and thus was spared. His friends and family were overjoyed. But again, the Zen master said, “we’ll see.”

The message of this story, of course, is that it’s hard in the moment to see the full picture. What might seem like a victory — a new horse, or in modern times a new job, home, relationship or anything else — might have unforeseen consequences down the road. And what might seem like obvious tragedies, can turn out to have surprising impacts in the future.

There are numerous examples of this in real life. Abraham Lincoln lost many elections on his way to the presidency. J.K. Rowling received many rejection letters before finding a publisher for Harry Potter. A young Walt Disney was famously fired from a newspaper for allegedly lacking imagination.

These stories came to mind repeatedly this week as it became increasingly clear that real estate is falling on harder times. Already this spring there was a long list of job losses in the mortgage sector, thanks largely to rates that rose at an unprecedented rate — pricing out many would-be buyers along the way.

Then, on Tuesday, two more dominos fell when the layoff frenzy jumped to the brokerage side of the business and both Compass and Redfin cut hundreds of jobs. All told, the layoffs at those two companies, as well as earlier rounds at more than a dozen mortgage firms, mean that today there are many thousands of people who were working in real estate a year ago but who have since lost their jobs.

This is a shitty situation. There’s no other way to put it. And while everyone is hopeful that whatever is happening right now will soon pass, there’s a chance things will get worse before they get better. For instance, some experts believe the industry is poised to lose tens of thousands of agents, who so far have not been the primary focus of recent job cuts.

The good news is that even as some companies cut positions, others are still hiring. Here are a few resources for those currently looking for work:

• The REACH Job Board
  • REACH is a the technology accelerator of the National Association of Realtors, meaning many of the jobs on its board will have some connection to the real estate tech industry.
• The Vendor Alley Job Board
  • Real estate veteran and current Lone Wolf general manager Greg Robertson runs Vendor Alley, a blog that covers the real estate industry. The site’s job board is a smaller but more curated list of current openings compared to other industry offerings.
• National Association of Realtors jobs
  • These are all jobs at NAR itself.
• NAR’s Association Executives job board
  • This is a NAR-hosted board that lists jobs at various Realtor associations across the U.S.

If you know of additional resources, let us know and we’ll add them to this list.

Finally, if you’ve been part of the recent wave of lay-offs and are searching for your next opportunity in the real estate industry, the Inman community is here to support you. To that end, complete the form here to apply for a complimentary ticket to Inman Connect Las Vegas Aug. 3-5. and connect with your next career opportunity.

To qualify for a complimentary ticket, you’re previous company must be listed in this Inman article. Additionally, your employment must have ended after March 1, 2022. And finally, you must currently be “Open to Work” in your LinkedIn Profile for verification.

Learn more about the conference here:

Email Jim Dalrymple II