Do Real Estate Agents Make Good Money?

Everyone seems to be interested in real estate, mainly because you can make a lot of money without too much education.

In other words, you can make the same money doctors and lawyers make without going to school for a decade.

But “do real estate agents make good money?”

Some would argue yes and some would say no, but like anything else, it really depends.

The big difference between real estate agents and doctors and lawyers, aside from the obvious, is that the pay is based on commission and performance, and not a salary.

So a real estate agent will only make good money if they work hard and make sales; doctors and lawyers, on the other hand, tend to make big money more consistently.

I forget where I heard this, but there was some statistic about real estate agents and their sales figures over a year.

It said the average real estate agent sold just a single property in a year, so clearly there were a lot of agents out there making not very good money, if any at all.

Of course, the numbers are likely dragged down by those who register as real estate agents but never follow through, or those that simply do it as a side job.

If you work hard and dedicate yourself, you can make very good money, as real estate commission is typically 5-6% of the sales or purchase price.

On a $500,000 property, that’s $25,000 to $30,000, so it’s not a bad haul.

Of course, that figure is generally split between the buying agent and selling agent, unless you’re both.

Then there is the split taken by the office you work for, and any other costs, which reduces your actual pay even more, though there are 100% commission programs as well.