Real Estate Brokers
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.
- Median pay
- $73,220
- Doing it now
- 103,500
- By 2035
- Up 0.8%
- Usually needs
- High school diploma or equivalent
a year
across the country
7,800 openings a year
to get in
What the work involves
- Sell, for a fee, real estate owned by others.
- Obtain agreements from property owners to place properties for sale with real estate firms.
- Monitor fulfillment of purchase contract terms to ensure that they are handled in a timely manner.
- 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.
- Generate lists of properties for sale, their locations, descriptions, and available financing options, using computers.
- Maintain knowledge of real estate law, local economies, fair housing laws, types of available mortgages, financing options, and government programs.
What to study
The fields of study the Department of Education links to this occupation, most widely taught first.
- Real EstateSee 68 colleges that teach it
- Real Estate DevelopmentSee 4 colleges that teach it
Who it suits
O*NET scores every occupation on six interest dimensions. This one leans hardest on these three.
Leading and persuading
Organised and precise
Helping and teaching
Careers like this one
- Property, Real Estate, and Community Association Managers$69,990
- Real Estate Sales Agents$52,830
- First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers$48,520
- Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Except Technical and Scientific Products$72,080
- General and Operations Managers$105,770
- Purchasing Managers$148,080
Where this comes from: the description and the task list are O*NET, which the Department of Labor maintains. Pay, workforce size, outlook and the education normally needed are the Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections programme, 2025 wages and 2025 to 2035 projections. Half of them earn more than $73,220 a year, which means half earn less, and what you would earn depends on where you work and how long you have been doing it. The fields of study come from the National Center for Education Statistics crosswalk.