--- title: "Real Estate Broker" description: "Operate real estate office, or work for commercial real estate firm, overseeing real estate transactions. Other duties usually include selling real…" canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/real-estate-broker" last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z" --- # Real Estate Broker **Category:** Sales and Related · **SOC code:** 41-9021 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 41-9021.00 Operate real estate office, or work for commercial real estate firm, overseeing real estate transactions. Other duties usually include selling real estate or renting properties and arranging loans. Also advertised as: Broker; Broker Associate; Commercial Leasing Broker; Commercial Real Estate Advisor; Commercial Real Estate Broker; Designated Broker; Managing Broker; Real Estate Associate. ## At a glance - **Median annual wage:** $73,220 (BLS OEWS, May 2025) - **Median hourly wage:** $35.20/hr - **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $37,110 to $143,300, with the middle half between $46,480 and $103,360 - **Total US employment:** 46,100 - **Typical entry education:** High school - **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed" - **Projected growth:** +0.8% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035) - **Annual job openings:** 7,800 openings a year - **AI-resilience score:** 37/100 — 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 46,100 US jobs. | Percentile | Annual wage | | --- | --- | | 10th | $37,110 | | 25th | $46,480 | | 50th (median) | $73,220 | | 75th | $103,360 | | 90th | $143,300 | | Mean (average) | $83,950 | ### 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 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | NJ | $111,390 | $102,376 | 1,290 | | CT | $105,800 | $102,114 | Not published by BLS | | UT | $92,830 | $93,897 | Not published by BLS | | WA | $82,790 | $77,364 | Not published by BLS | | AL | $82,630 | $93,028 | 460 | | MI | $82,510 | $85,754 | 1,150 | | MD | $81,550 | $77,697 | 430 | | CA | $80,450 | $72,661 | 8,430 | | NM | $80,340 | $87,125 | Not published by BLS | | CO | $79,970 | $77,602 | 3,280 | | VA | $77,270 | $76,426 | 1,500 | | VT | $76,920 | $78,523 | 80 | | IN | $75,000 | $80,361 | 740 | | HI | $74,310 | $67,585 | 160 | | AZ | $74,260 | $73,761 | 3,790 | 21 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 36 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/real-estate-broker/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/real-estate-broker. ## Outlook BLS projects employment to move from 103,500 in the 2025–2035 base year to 104,300 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 800 jobs, or +0.8%. Slower than average: 0.8% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 7,800 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:** Medium preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed". - **Related work experience typically required:** Less than 5 years. - **Typical on-the-job training:** None. ## What the work involves - Sell, for a fee, real estate owned by others. - Compare a property with similar properties that have recently sold to determine its competitive market price. - Act as an intermediary in negotiations between buyers and sellers over property prices and settlement details and during the closing of sales. - Maintain awareness of current income tax regulations, local zoning, building and tax laws, and growth possibilities of a property's area. - Maintain knowledge of real estate law, local economies, fair housing laws, types of available mortgages, financing options, and government programs. - Obtain agreements from property owners to place properties for sale with real estate firms. - Give buyers virtual tours of properties in which they are interested, using computers. - Generate lists of properties for sale, their locations, descriptions, and available financing options, using computers. ## Skills and knowledge ### Essential skills - Reading Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - 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 - Active Learning — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Critical Thinking — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Writing — importance 3.4 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 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Persuasion — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Service Orientation — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Coordination — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Time Management — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale ### Knowledge areas - Sales and Marketing — importance 4.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - English Language — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Economics and Accounting — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Administration and Management — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Mathematics — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale ### Abilities - Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Written 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 - Speech Clarity — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Written Expression — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Deductive Reasoning — importance 3.8 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). | Interest area | Score (1–7) | | --- | --- | | E — Enterprising | 6.48 | | C — Conventional | 5.76 | | S — Social | 2.90 | | R — Realistic | 2.71 | | I — Investigative | 1.52 | | A — Artistic | 1.00 | ### 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) | | --- | --- | | ESTJ | 86.4 | | ESFJ | 80.7 | | ENTJ | 66.2 | | ISTJ | 65.7 | | ISFJ | 64.2 | Best-fitting types: ESTJ. ## Related occupations O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order. - [Real Estate Agent](https://nuecareer.com/careers/real-estate-agent) — median $52,830 - [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 - [Financial and Investment Analyst](https://nuecareer.com/careers/financial-and-investment-analyst) — median $102,740 - [Appraiser of Personal and Business Property](https://nuecareer.com/careers/appraiser-of-personal-and-business-property) — median $67,960 - [Loan Officer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/loan-officer) — median $76,690 - [Purchasing Agent, Except Wholesale, Retail, and Farm Products](https://nuecareer.com/careers/purchasing-agent) — median $77,710 - [Sales Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/sales-manager) — median $148,270 - [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-broker