It's important to note that the average real estate agent in New York only makes 2-3 transactions per year. That roughly coincides with the previous data.
A real estate commission
is a fee charged by a brokerage agency for helping a buyer buy a property or list of sellers and sell a property. Most first-year real estate agents make very little in the beginning, mainly because they struggle to learn everything while building a client base.As an agent gains more experience and has more previous clients, they become more valuable to the brokerage and their division generally increases. In addition to a fee of a few hundred dollars, sellers only pay the commission for the buyer's agent (the co-broke). Each real estate office sets its own standards for major producers, but it's probably safe to say that a major producer would have to sell at least one home a month to qualify. There are, of course, high-flying agents from the Upper East Side and SoHo who are celebrities in their own right.
The typical agent spends more than 90% of their time doing jobs they don't get compensated for, from generating leads to working with leads who don't end up closing. The current paradigm in which agents are paid on a commission basis generates high costs for customers of a few agents. In addition, an agent would need five transactions, or “parties,” to earn the average income of a typical New York City real estate agent. Finally, the sense of accomplishment that many real estate agents get when they close a deal is rewarding.
This means that, at the end of the transaction, the sales agent and the buyer's agent split the total commission of the sale. With reality shows glamorizing the real estate brokerage industry, it would be fair to think that real estate agents make tons of money. Therefore, the average salary of a real estate agent in New York City depends on the sales price of the homes they work in. Many agents love being their bosses, not having to work full time or even part time, and having flexible schedules.
Real estate agents charge a commission for every home that successfully sells their home, and that commission is generally around 5-6% of the sale price.
