The housing market is starting to even out but are still too many people trying to make a living selling houses.

The housing boom brought in a flood of people in the real estate market.  This made most real estate companies rich, as they depend on desk fees, something I am happy never to pay at Robert Weil Associates.  It also made the bread and butter of real estate schools.  Strangely enough, many remain according to NAR who reached another record.  The last Realtors’ annual meeting in New Orleans think 8% Realtors will leave in 2007, roughly 10,000 people.

Here is how the realty market works for agents and companies.  Top Realtors make the big bucks and the rest pay desk fees.  In fact most of the them would make more money with a full-time job at McDonald’s.  Nearly a third earned under $25,000 in 2004, according to a NAR study.

Less than $10,000: 18%
$10,000 to $25,000: 13%
$25,000 to $35,000: 9%
$35,000 to $50,000: 11%
$50,000 to $75,000: 13%
$75,000 to $100,000: 10%
$100,000 to $150,000: 12%
$150,000 to $200,000: 6%
$200,000 to $250,000: 3%
$250,000 to $500,000: 4%
$500,000 to $1 million: 1%
Over $1 million <1%

By the way, a lot of the lowest-paid Realtors are the newbies who don’t have references and repeat clients. The median income for people who had been in the field for two years or less in 2004 was $13,000.

Great article that breaks it down for you.  Thank you Business Week.  Hopes this makes a few intrigued people think twice.  Being a real estate agent is a vocation, not a quick get rich scheme.