Real Estate Brokers
Operate real estate office, or work for commercial real estate firm, overseeing real estate transactions. Other duties usually include selling real estate or renting properties and arranging loans.
Most important skills
- Negotiation
- Reading Comprehension
- Active Listening
- Speaking
- Active Learning
- Critical Thinking
- Persuasion
- Judgment and Decision Making
Key knowledge
- Sales and Marketing
- English Language
- Economics and Accounting
- Customer and Personal Service
- Administration and Management
- Mathematics
- Administrative
- Law and Government
What the work involves
- Sell, for a fee, real estate owned by others.
- Obtain agreements from property owners to place properties for sale with real estate firms.
- Monitor fulfillment of purchase contract terms to ensure that they are handled in a timely manner.
- Compare a property with similar properties that have recently sold to determine its competitive market price.
- Act as an intermediary in negotiations between buyers and sellers over property prices and settlement details and during the closing of sales.
- Generate lists of properties for sale, their locations, descriptions, and available financing options, using computers.
- Maintain knowledge of real estate law, local economies, fair housing laws, types of available mortgages, financing options, and government programs.
- Check work completed by loan officers, attorneys, or other professionals to ensure that it is performed properly.
Strongest interest areas (O*NET): Enterprising, Conventional, Social.
Qualifications and licensing
- Most common education
- Bachelor's Degree (25.6% of expert ratings)
- Related experience
- None (46.3%)
- On-the-job training
- Over 6 months, up to and including 1 year (34.7%)
- Preparation level
- O*NET job zone 4: Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed
- Licensing
- Not yet verified. Check your state licensing board.
Check before planning
- Licensing for Real Estate Brokers is not yet verified for any state: check the state licensing board before planning.
Limits
- Distributions show what current workers or occupational experts report, not legal minimums.
- Requirements vary by employer and state; time to qualify is not estimated.
Source: O*NET 31.0 Database (USDOL/ETA, CC BY 4.0); BLS Employment Projections · dataset 2026.10.8 · method e3-qualification-1.0.0
Work environment
How the typical conditions of this occupation compare with 911 occupations in O*NET (very low = the lowest fifth).
Levels are relative. Most occupations involve a lot of contact with people, for example, so “very low” can still mean regular contact; the last column shows what workers actually reported.
| Condition | Level | Compared with other occupations | Most common answer (O*NET survey) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contact with others | Very high | Higher on contact with others than 83% of occupations compared | 78% of surveyed respondents chose “Constant contact with others” |
| Dealing with the public | Very high | Higher on dealing with the public than 91% of occupations compared | 65% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely important” |
| Teamwork | Very low | Lower on teamwork than 88% of occupations compared | — |
| Freedom to make decisions | Very high | Higher on freedom to make decisions than 97% of occupations compared | 87% of surveyed respondents chose “A lot of freedom” |
| Time pressure | High | Higher on time pressure than 64% of occupations compared | 47% of surveyed respondents chose “Once a week or more but not every day” |
| Conflict situations | High | Higher on conflict situations than 61% of occupations compared | — |
| Dealing with unpleasant or angry people | Low | Lower on dealing with unpleasant or angry people than 77% of occupations compared | 45% of surveyed respondents chose “Once a month or more but not every week” |
| Consequence of error | Very low | Lower on consequence of error than 86% of occupations compared | 49% of surveyed respondents chose “Fairly serious” |
Work-pressure profile
- Time pressure: high
- Conflict situations: high
- Dealing with unpleasant or angry people: low
- Consequence of error: very low
Each part is shown on its own. There is no combined stress score, and conditions vary by employer and role.
Full answer distributions
Contact with others
- No contact with others: 0%
- Occasional contact with others: 0%
- Contact with others about half the time: 0%
- Contact with others most of the time: 22.26%
- Constant contact with others: 77.74%
n = 15, Incumbent 08/2026
Dealing with the public
- Not important at all: 0%
- Fairly important: 4.66%
- Important: 3.84%
- Very important: 26.37%
- Extremely important: 65.12%
n = 15, Incumbent 08/2026
Teamwork
- Not important at all: 17.6%
- Fairly important: 4.66%
- Important: 23.02%
- Very important: 11.83%
- Extremely important: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
n = 15, Incumbent 08/2026
Freedom to make decisions
- No freedom: 0%
- Very little freedom: 0%
- Limited freedom: 0%
- Some freedom: 13.15%
- A lot of freedom: 86.85%
n = 15, Incumbent 08/2026
Time pressure
- Never: 0%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 4.11%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 19.11%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 46.54%
- Every day: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
n = 15, Incumbent 08/2026
Conflict situations
- Never: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
- Once a year or more but not every month: 8.77%
- Once a month or more but not every week: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
- Once a week or more but not every day: 9.57%
- Every day: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
n = 14, Incumbent 08/2026
Dealing with unpleasant or angry people
- Never: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
- Once a year or more but not every month: 33.6%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 45.48%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 3.32%
- Every day: 0%
n = 15, Incumbent 08/2026
Consequence of error
- Not serious at all: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
- Fairly serious: 49.13%
- Serious: 23.02%
- Very serious: 7.99%
- Extremely serious: 0%
n = 15, Incumbent 08/2026
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O*NET-SOC 41-9021.00 · SOC 41-9021 (exact, high confidence) · dataset 2026.10.8