Some very interesting statistics have been released by NAR.
Median income was $47,700 in 2006, down from $49,300 in 2004. Members licensed as brokers earned a median of $73,700 last year, while sales agents earned $34,600. Men earned a median income of $58,600 in 2006 and were more likely to be brokers, while women earned $42,000 and were more likely to work part time. Realtors in the business for two years or less earned a median income of $15,300, while those with three to five years of experience earned $44,200. For six to 15 years, the median was $64,600, while members in the business for 16 or more years earned $76,200. Nearly six in ten NAR members are women. Five percent are younger than 30 while another 6 percent are 30 to 34 years old; 12 percent are 65 or older. Most Realtors hold a sales agent license (63 percent), followed by a broker's license (22 percent), broker associate (16 percent), and appraiser license (3 percent). One percent hold some other kind of license. One quarter of all business is from referrals or repeat business from previous clients. Seven out of ten are compensated through a split commission arrangement, 17 percent receive a full commission and another 3 percent receive a commission plus a share of profits. Only 10 percent work fewer than 20 hours per week and 30 percent work 20 to 39 hours per week, while 15 percent work at least 60 hours per week. Eight out of ten brokers report their primary business specialty is residential brokerage. Nine out of ten members report their firms have websites, and 61 percent have personal websites. Half of all members communicate with their clients by e-mail more than 50 percent of the time. What do you think about this information? I would definitely say I'm soaring WAY above the average for the typical sales agent. I'm also considerably above the number for agents who have been in the business 6-15 years. I used to be in the 5% bracket for age, but now I'm part of the group making up 6%. I'm also working my fair share around or over that 60 hours a week mark. I can't believe it's only half of agents communicating via email for most of their business.
Any of these numbers shock or surprise you?
Donna, I'm not surprised at the "50%" using email. Lots of Realtors are pretty technophobic and behind the curve. (Obviously, that doesn't apply to anyone on AR; the technophobes don't know what blogging is!)
What's goofy is that 61% have websites, but only 50% use email... obviously having a website and not checking and responding to email is kind of a waste of the website!
I think that the 61% includes people who have a personal site branched off their broker's site. Many people don't realize that's not considered a personal site, so I think the number is actually much lower. When I was at my last brokerage, people would ask me all the time why I maintained my own website when the broker gave all of us a free one...
I think the number is below 50% for people who have real personal websites.