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Whether you are a student looking for a future career path, an agent in search of better opportunities, or simply a person interested in the industry, learning about the salaries in the real estate niche can be extremely helpful and informative. Today, we collaborated with DashTickets’ editor-in-chief Mark Dash to provide all the data you might need on the topic.

How much do real estate agents earn?

Despite real estate generally being seen as a rather lucrative niche, in practice, this is true only for high-performing agents, while an average specialist generally cannot boast of earning huge sums of money on a regular and stable basis. The industry is also incredibly competitive, making it even more difficult to reliably outperform other agents and earn significantly more. 

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median annual wage for real estate agents is $54,300; however, some agents can earn up to $120,000. Compare this to the UK, where experienced agents are expected to earn around £40,000 per year on average, according to the country’s National Careers Service. This is also where we should note that the nature of the work itself is rather unstable, with agents generally receiving solid bonuses based on successful sales, so individual performance can significantly impact the resulting numbers. 

Another thing worth noting is that entry-level positions in the industry can be quite low-paying — for example, in the UK, a beginner specialist can expect to earn only around £23,000 per year, and in the U.S., the bottom line is around $31,000.

Interestingly enough, while real estate is by far the most popular industry in terms of U.S. agents’ employment, it is also significantly outscaled in terms of wages by multiple other options. According to Inclave statistics, the hourly mean wage for real estate agents is around $31, while the same figure for the land subdivision niche is around $41.50. 

If we were to list the best-paying industries for U.S. real estate agents, the real estate itself wouldn’t even make it to the top 5:

When it comes to the best-paying states for real estate sales agents, New York and Vermont offer the best opportunities, with annual mean wages of $112,080 and $100,750, respectively. For comparison, Connecticut comes in third with only $84,810. However, while some numbers soar high in the graph like the airplane, it is worth noting that salaries correlate with the cost of living in these areas, meaning that if you don’t own a property there, you might not have more disposable income compared to other states.