A statistical model of the average real estate agent.

If I told you that a real estate agent was going to ring your doorbell this evening, who do you picture at your front door?  An older, distinguished woman who’s been in the business a long time?  A hot-shot young broker showing off his brand new Mercedes Benz?  Would they be new to the real estate game or a grizzled veteran?  How much money would you guess they made and how many homes did they sell last year?  Do they own their own home?

We were curious about who the average realtor is, too, so we did some digging.  What we came up with is a list of statistics and demographics describing the average real estate agent.  This comes from a variety of sources like Realtor.org and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.  Of course real estate brokers and salespeople come from all walks of life, ranges of income and experience, but it’s interesting to compile a statistical model of the average real estate agent. 

·      The typical realtor is a 57 year-old female who attended college and is a homeowner.

·      In fact, almost 60% of all realtors are women.

·      19% had a previous career in management, business, or financial services. 

·      15% had a career in sales or retail, while real estate was a first job for only 6%.

·      Real estate is the sole occupation for 77% of realtors.

·      87% of realtors own their primary residence.

    72% of realtors are married, 15% divorced, and 8% single and never married.

    32% have some college, 29% a bachelor's degree, and 11% a graduate degree. 

·      56% of realtors are licensed as sales agents.

·      Eight in ten realtors specialize in residential brokerage.

    The average realtor has 13 years of experience.

·      17% of them have at least 1 personal assistant.

·      70% of realtors report having a website for at least 5 years.

·      12% are using a real estate blog, 56% use social media for business.

·      8 in 10 realtors are certain they’ll be in business for at least 2 more years (up from 76% last year)

   As of 2012, the average real estate agent closed 12 transactions, up from an average of 10 in 2011.

·      The typical agent sold at least one foreclosure and one short sale out of those.

·      The average agent sold $1.5 million worth of real estate in 2012, up from $1.3 million in 2011.

·      The typical realtor received 21% of her business from repeat clients and 21% from customer referrals.

·      Most realtors brought in 4 leads a year and 4% of their business from their website.

·      7 out of 10 realtors earn money from a commission split.

·      The median gross income of realtors in 2012 was $43,500, which is up significantly from $34,900 in 2011.

·      Realtors with 16 or more years of experience had a median gross income of $57,300, while realtors with 2 years or less experience made a median gross income of $9,700.

·      Median business expenses were at $4,900 in 2012, up from $4,520 in 2011.  Of that, vehicle expense was the highest single item at $1,790.

8 in 10 are independent contractors (1099) with their firm.

·      56% of realtors work for an independent company.

·      The typical realtor works at a firm with 23 employees.

·      Employment of real estate brokers and sales agents is projected to grow 11 percent from2012 to 2022

·      Real estate brokers and sales agents held about 422,000 jobs in 2012

·      The median hourly wage for real estate brokers was $28.05 in May 2012

·      The median hourly wage for real estate sales agents was $18.82

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     Florida is the state with the highest employment level of this occupation, with 26,300 realtors, followed by Texas (17,010) New York (16,480) and California (14,010).

·      The top paying states for realtors are New York ($83,660) the District of Columbia ($82,830) Illinois ($77,470) and Alaska ($68,480).

·      Century 21 employs the most brokers and agents (119,206) followed by Re/Max (89,682) Coldwell Banker (87,203) Keller Williams (77,672) and Prudential R.E. (55,000).