4 ms·

It's also pretty exploitative in the way "becoming a realtor" is marketed to women in particular as a way to "make money fast"

WalterBright 5y ago
The women realtors I know make lots of money at it.
- lostcolony 5y ago
  Survivorship bias. Likely also non-representative sample, but that's, of course, debatable.
  - WalterBright 5y ago
    Being a realtor is definitely a way to leapfrog ahead in income far quicker than attempting to climb the corporate ladder. Of course, the ones that do have to be willing to put out the effort to learn salesmanship. Most people are too lazy to, and drop out. Yes, it is survivorship bias, but survival is up to the person, it isn't automatic or random.
- MerelyMortal 5y ago
  there are more real estate agents than there are houses for sale [0]. The average house price is $374,900 [1]. The most common real estate agent commission is 6%. 6% of $374,900 is $22,494. That is how much income a real estate agent can make on average if they buy and sell one home. Of course they have expenses, so it's not all profit. Real estate agents have to network and advertise to get the higher value houses, and those are going to skew the average, so most real estate agents make less income than that on average. [0] https://www.npr.org/2021/04/21/989588150/too-many-real-estate-agents https://www.npr.org/2021/04/21/989588150/too-many-real-estat... [1] https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/research/average-house-price-state/ https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/research/average-house-price...
  - WalterBright 5y ago
    > there are more real estate agents than there are houses for sale I'm not surprised. I'm sure there is a long tail of realtors with licenses but who aren't very active. I know who the get-up-and-go agents are in my area. There's no way to not know, as they make sure you know :-) Becoming a realtor is not a good choice for someone lacking get-up-and-go, or someone who needs to be managed. I talked to one a year ago, wondering how on earth he thought he could get $3m for the house he was showing. He said the other realtors all thought he was crazy. He got it, and the 6% commission. Ka-ching!
    - Ancapistani 5y ago
      > I'm sure there is a long tail of realtors with licenses but who aren't very active. I have a "drone services business". It isn't even very active - it's more of an enjoyable way for me to make some money for my hobbies and a fallback if I lose my tech job since I live in the middle of nowhere. I've looked at becoming a licensed real estate agent for the ability to "join" a brokerage and get access to upload photos directly to MLS for the agents who are my customers. It's not that expensive to do, doesn't take that much time, and what downside does it really have?
  - toast0 5y ago
    You may not have considered buyers agents. Usually the commission is split between a buyers agent and a sellers agent. Some agents may specialize in acting as buyers agents, and they wouldn't tend to have any listings. Other agents may not be looking for a lot of income. If you want to make $50k a year (gros and you get half the comission amount you mention, you need to make 5 sales a year. If your listing is up for a month (which is a long time in my area), you'll have a listing up for 5/12th of the year, and if you sell to a dedicated buyers agent, between the two of you, that would suggest 24 agents for every 5 listings or almost 5 agents to 1 listing. The article says 3 agents to 1 listing, so agents are more industrious that I suspect (or listings are up longer) There's a fair amount of work for agents on both sides during the closing process as well, managing inspections and repairs and shepherding lenders and title companies and the parties to make sure things happen on time, and some sellers agents will manage pre-listing sales work like staging, needed repairs, sometimes even light remodeling. So just because they don't have any listings up doesn't mean they're not working.

WalterBright 5y ago

The women realtors I know make lots of money at it.

lostcolony 5y ago
Survivorship bias. Likely also non-representative sample, but that's, of course, debatable.
- WalterBright 5y ago
  Being a realtor is definitely a way to leapfrog ahead in income far quicker than attempting to climb the corporate ladder. Of course, the ones that do have to be willing to put out the effort to learn salesmanship. Most people are too lazy to, and drop out. Yes, it is survivorship bias, but survival is up to the person, it isn't automatic or random.
MerelyMortal 5y ago
there are more real estate agents than there are houses for sale [0]. The average house price is $374,900 [1]. The most common real estate agent commission is 6%. 6% of $374,900 is $22,494. That is how much income a real estate agent can make on average if they buy and sell one home. Of course they have expenses, so it's not all profit. Real estate agents have to network and advertise to get the higher value houses, and those are going to skew the average, so most real estate agents make less income than that on average. [0] https://www.npr.org/2021/04/21/989588150/too-many-real-estate-agents https://www.npr.org/2021/04/21/989588150/too-many-real-estat... [1] https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/research/average-house-price-state/ https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/research/average-house-price...
- WalterBright 5y ago
  > there are more real estate agents than there are houses for sale I'm not surprised. I'm sure there is a long tail of realtors with licenses but who aren't very active. I know who the get-up-and-go agents are in my area. There's no way to not know, as they make sure you know :-) Becoming a realtor is not a good choice for someone lacking get-up-and-go, or someone who needs to be managed. I talked to one a year ago, wondering how on earth he thought he could get $3m for the house he was showing. He said the other realtors all thought he was crazy. He got it, and the 6% commission. Ka-ching!
  - Ancapistani 5y ago
    > I'm sure there is a long tail of realtors with licenses but who aren't very active. I have a "drone services business". It isn't even very active - it's more of an enjoyable way for me to make some money for my hobbies and a fallback if I lose my tech job since I live in the middle of nowhere. I've looked at becoming a licensed real estate agent for the ability to "join" a brokerage and get access to upload photos directly to MLS for the agents who are my customers. It's not that expensive to do, doesn't take that much time, and what downside does it really have?
- toast0 5y ago
  You may not have considered buyers agents. Usually the commission is split between a buyers agent and a sellers agent. Some agents may specialize in acting as buyers agents, and they wouldn't tend to have any listings. Other agents may not be looking for a lot of income. If you want to make $50k a year (gros and you get half the comission amount you mention, you need to make 5 sales a year. If your listing is up for a month (which is a long time in my area), you'll have a listing up for 5/12th of the year, and if you sell to a dedicated buyers agent, between the two of you, that would suggest 24 agents for every 5 listings or almost 5 agents to 1 listing. The article says 3 agents to 1 listing, so agents are more industrious that I suspect (or listings are up longer) There's a fair amount of work for agents on both sides during the closing process as well, managing inspections and repairs and shepherding lenders and title companies and the parties to make sure things happen on time, and some sellers agents will manage pre-listing sales work like staging, needed repairs, sometimes even light remodeling. So just because they don't have any listings up doesn't mean they're not working.