---
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: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# 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; Sales Agent.

## 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:** Some preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +3.1% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 36,600 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 48/100 — 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 420,900 in the 2024–2034 base year to 433,700 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 12,800 jobs, or +3.1%. About as fast as average: 3.1% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 36,600 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2024–2034.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** High school diploma or equivalent (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Some preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Moderate-term on-the-job training.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| High School Diploma | 42.9% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 23.8% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 9.5% |
| Some College Courses | 9.5% |
| Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree) | 4.8% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 4.8% |

## What the work involves

- Prepare documents such as representation contracts, purchase agreements, closing statements, deeds, and leases.
- Present purchase offers to sellers for consideration.
- Act as an intermediary in negotiations between buyers and sellers, generally representing one or the other.
- Generate lists of properties that are compatible with buyers' needs and financial resources.
- Confer with escrow companies, lenders, home inspectors, and pest control operators to ensure that terms and conditions of purchase agreements are met before closing dates.
- Promote sales of properties through advertisements, open houses, and participation in multiple listing services.
- Compare a property with similar properties that have recently sold to determine its competitive market price.
- Interview clients to determine what kinds of properties they are seeking.

## 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 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.1 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 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — 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 4.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Sales and Marketing — importance 4.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Law and Government — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administrative — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.7 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 3.4 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 30.3 Database, May 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, 2024–2034. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024–2034 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 30.3 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