---
title: "Real Estate Agent"
description: "Rent, buy, or sell property for clients. Perform duties such as study property listings, interview prospective clients, accompany clients to property…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/real-estate-agent"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Real Estate Agent

**Category:** Sales and Related · **SOC code:** 41-9022 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 41-9022.00

Rent, buy, or sell property for clients. Perform duties such as study property listings, interview prospective clients, accompany clients to property site, discuss conditions of sale, and draw up real estate contracts. Includes agents who represent buyer.

Also advertised as: Real Estate Agent; Real Estate Salesperson; Realtor; Realtor Associate.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $52,830 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $25.40/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $32,970 to $123,590, with the middle half between $40,040 and $82,020
- **Total US employment:** 193,370
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +1.7% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 32,600 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 41/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 193,370 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $32,970 |
| 25th | $40,040 |
| 50th (median) | $52,830 |
| 75th | $82,020 |
| 90th | $123,590 |
| Mean (average) | $69,510 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| DC | $123,770 | $112,620 | 590 |
| NY | $102,990 | $95,431 | 8,660 |
| NJ | $99,990 | $91,898 | Not published by BLS |
| AK | $89,170 | $87,115 | 170 |
| NV | $79,990 | $80,007 | 1,490 |
| WA | $79,130 | $73,944 | 5,150 |
| MT | $79,100 | $83,575 | 370 |
| NM | $76,170 | $82,603 | 550 |
| ND | $73,920 | $83,094 | Not published by BLS |
| SD | $65,170 | $73,567 | 640 |
| VA | $63,980 | $63,281 | 5,750 |
| CO | $63,670 | $61,784 | 6,120 |
| OR | $61,610 | $59,607 | 1,940 |
| AL | $60,890 | $68,552 | 1,580 |
| RI | $60,310 | $58,966 | Not published by BLS |

33 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 48 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/real-estate-agent/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/real-estate-agent.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 427,000 in the 2025–2035 base year to 434,500 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 7,400 jobs, or +1.7%. Slower than average: 1.7% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 32,600 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** High school diploma or equivalent (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Moderate-term on-the-job training.

## What the work involves

- Present purchase offers to sellers for consideration.
- Act as an intermediary in negotiations between buyers and sellers, generally representing one or the other.
- Advise clients on market conditions, prices, mortgages, legal requirements, and related matters.
- Compare a property with similar properties that have recently sold to determine its competitive market price.
- Coordinate appointments to show homes to prospective buyers.
- Generate lists of properties that are compatible with buyers' needs and financial resources.
- Interview clients to determine what kinds of properties they are seeking.
- Promote sales of properties through advertisements, open houses, and participation in multiple listing services.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Negotiation — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Sales and Marketing — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Computers and Electronics — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administrative — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Recognition — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Clarity — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Enterprising (E), Conventional (C), Social (S).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| E — Enterprising | 6.46 |
| C — Conventional | 4.94 |
| S — Social | 3.52 |
| R — Realistic | 2.12 |
| A — Artistic | 1.92 |
| I — Investigative | 1.47 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ESFJ | 82.2 |
| ESTJ | 79.9 |
| ENFJ | 67.9 |
| ENTJ | 66.8 |
| ESFP | 61.2 |

Best-fitting types: ESFJ, ESTJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Real Estate Broker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/real-estate-broker) — median $73,220
- [Property, Real Estate, and Community Association Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/property-real-estate-and-community-association-manager) — median $69,990
- [Appraiser and Assessor of Real Estate](https://nuecareer.com/careers/appraiser-and-assessor-of-real-estate) — median $67,960
- [Security, Commodity, and Financial Services Sales Agent](https://nuecareer.com/careers/security-commodity-and-financial-services-sales-agent) — median $78,660
- [Sales Representative of Services, Except Advertising, Insurance, Financial Services, and Travel](https://nuecareer.com/careers/sales-representative-of-services) — median $69,990
- [Appraiser of Personal and Business Property](https://nuecareer.com/careers/appraiser-of-personal-and-business-property) — median $67,960
- [Counter and Rental Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/counter-and-rental-clerk) — median $41,300
- [Loan Officer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/loan-officer) — median $76,690
- [Financial Advisor](https://nuecareer.com/careers/financial-advisor) — median $105,070
- [Insurance Sales Agent](https://nuecareer.com/careers/insurance-sales-agent) — median $62,280

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025–2035 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/real-estate-agent