what's a typical broker's salary?

that's like asking the same question for stock brokers. average means nothing and the range is huge.

Nationwide, brokers make around $40-$50K per year. I've never seen state or city stats.

ali r.
DG Neary Realty

it's still legitimate data. if anyone could estimate a range and average (and possibly even a median!) then i'd get a good grasp of the data. i'm guessing the range is from 30k to 1-2m?

e, I tell this story over and over again (and I might have told it in my book, in which case, forgive me):

When I was the real estate editor of the Post -- this is five years ago now -- a lot of brokers told me that I should make the career switch and that I would like it. So I asked a top agent at one of the big firms what the #50 agent at his firm made. (I was thinking, I don't have the personality or the desire to get to #5, but hey, I could get to #50).

His answer -- and remember this was a boom year -- was "$150,000."

Now I have no way of knowing if this was true -- I never asked the firm itself -- but if it was true you could assume maybe 200-400 people in Manhattan made more than that -- and I'd think in some cases way more, it's tough for me to imagine the top townhouse broker doesn't make ten times your top of range guess -- and everybody else made less. Does that help?

ali r.
DG Neary Realty

Fun question. I'll try to tackle it from various angles.

In terms if "what do the top brokers make", that one is pretty easy. You can find lists like these that show the volume done by top brokers or broker teams:

http://online.wsj.com/ad/top100individualvolume.html

The list of course misses in terms of covering all NYC brokers, but you clearly get the sense that there are a few dozen people (or heads of group) that gross in the range of $50-100M in sales annually. You gotta also remember that these lists tend to show brokers in their better years as their sales fluctuate. Regardless, they probably take 1-2% of what they gross, so I think there are maybe 20-30 or so that regularly take $1-2M. I think the very top (say Dolly Lenz) averages around $5M (top-grossing year was $700M, saw another at $500M, but she seems to have a team to pay as well).

On second thought, maybe 20-30 regularly above $1M is too aggressive based on that list, maybe more like a dozen?

In terms of "average", we know about 10K apts in Manhattan are sold annually at an average price of $1M, so $10B dollars. Of this, I imagine that around 2-3% makes it to brokers: about half of the 6% goes to the firm / marketing / etc. Let's call it 2.5%, or $250M. For rentals, I remember reading that CitiHabitats handled 13K rentals last year. There are around 180K market-rate rental units in Manhattan, so I'll gander that around 30K units were brokered by an agent (maybe 40-50K turned over, but many go unbrokered because of onside people, etc.). At an average of $3000 a rental and just over a month's rent, that works out to $100M a year, maybe $150M.

So all-in-all, about $350M a year for the industry. But over how many brokers? Inquiring minds want to know...

Now for the real kicker. According to this article, there are 27K brokers in Manhattan:

http://www.cooperator.com/articles/1257/1/New-York-Citys-Real-Estate-Brokers/Page1.html

Works out to $13K a year per broker. Of course, not all these 27K brokers are really working full-time at it, which makes the word "average" difficult to pin down...

In terms of "serious" brokers, this gives a sense of numbers at top firms:

http://www.bestrealestateinnewyorkcity.com/

Note that this includes Hamptons and whatnot, but Halstead claims $1.3B in sales over 450 brokers in 2003; Corcoran claims $11.9B over 2000 brokers in 2005; PDE claims $12B over 3300 brokers (year unknown). Works out to $3M at one end and $6M at the other end on a per-broker basis. Let's call it $4M a year per broker at a top firm where all the brokers are probably "serious".

Remembering that these are one-sided quotes, assuming the broker gets 1.5% on average, that works out to around $60K per broker at a top firm. Rentals maybe give a small increment here, but probably not much, given the smaller overall pie for rental fees and the tiny role these firms play in those. Probably well within the error bounds of the other estimates made.

And in case it wasn't clear, there is probably a huge skew in way brokers make at these top firms. So if the average is $60K, I'm guessing the median is more like $30K. E.g., Dolly Lenz alone probably eats away around $2000 out of each PDE brokers' share of that $60K average.

Will this ever end?

huntersberg- we could very ask the same re: your trolling.

Will what ever end? Sensible analysis and inference that shed light on an interesting question and save the rest of us from doing the work ourselves? God forbid that we'd have any of that on SE. Troll

sidelinsitter, matson, look inward.

I do - that's precisely why I don't troll.

Great

sidelinesitter/Wbottom, what about you?

6%.

steve - haven't seen you 'round these boards for quite a while.... hope all is OK.

nada, for God's sake can't you CONDENSE your stream of conciensce nonsense into one consise paragraph and be done with it?

and here i thought for sure that the second avenue bus had finally taken care of you. damn.

"nada, for God's sake can't you CONDENSE your stream of conciensce nonsense into one consise paragraph and be done with it?"

Sorry, I understand that's too complex for the broker personality of the troll. So let me try to condense it for you.

Brokers, in aggregate, make a pathetic amount of money. The average across Manhattan is about the same as the per-capita GDP of Uruguay, which includes children, elderly, stay-at-home wives, and whatnot. Even the average at a top firm is a modest sum. The importance and respect placed by some on the profession is strange given such numbers.

very interesting inonda. quite shocking for me to discover.thanks for the detailed info. so why are they (in my experience) so pretentious?

same reason that garbagemen love to hold up traffic.

love it.or firefighters

ha, funny. and true.

or cops.

2 minutes ago
ignore this person
report abuse I think it is rediculous that the people always think that the broker doesn't work and is overpaid. In many countries the commissions have been standardized. A good broker knows his job and can make your life simple. Why don't you start to question the salary of the MTA employees or many doctors or lawyer? Contrary to many of your thoughts many brokers show and show apartments, prepare for appointments only to make NOTHING when people decide not to buy....or just not to show up for an appointment. Many agents also spend a lot of ther OWN money on clients. But that is never discussed. Walk a mile in an agents shoes before you sit there and "whine" about how they are compensated

I think it is rediculous that the people always think that the broker doesn't work and is overpaid. In many countries the commissions have been standardized. A good broker knows his job and can make your life simple. Why don't you start to question the salary of the MTA employees or many doctors or lawyer? Contrary to many of your thoughts many brokers show and show apartments, prepare for appointments only to make NOTHING when people decide not to buy....or just not to show up for an appointment. Many agents also spend a lot of ther OWN money on clients. But that is never discussed. Walk a mile in an agents shoes before you sit there and "whine" about how they are compensated

From what I've read, the average NYC real estate agent/broker grosses about $40,000/year, which
in the case of brokers like Jim Hones is barely enough to cover the cost of the condoms needed
to solicit new business.

I don't see how people think that a NYC agent/broker only makes like 40,000 per year... Just for Manhattan the average condo is about $500,000. 3% of that would be 15,000 for one sale alone. Now you're probably looking at a split of 70/30 or 80/20 with your broker. I'm on 80/20 so let's assume that... That's 12,000 for your avg listing either being a seller or buyer's agent. Sometimes you get lucky and double broker for 24,000... But remember there are many many apartments/condos that are for sell for 5-10M, so you are looking at a few 100k for one commission.

Now leasing, typically we get 1/2 to a full months rent for doing a lease, which is much quicker and you usually get paid within 2 weeks of move in. Range in Manhattan for an apartment is about 2000-100,000/month. With the average at around 4000-5000.
There's about 1.5 million people there, assume you can get just 10 leases a month at 50% com, 10*4000*.5= 20,000/month.

Hmm... i'm no longer a full time broker because I decided to pursue a career as a mental health provider... but last year I worked a total of 30 hours for the year, sold two apartments and made about 95k.

This year... i've worked about a total of 25 hours in real estate. sold a 4M apartment and made about $110k. Nice extra income.

But i'm experienced... it's about working smart, not working hard... all the hard work comes in the first 5 years of your real estate careers... memorizing buildings, architecture, amenities, apartment layouts... and of course networking and doing a damn good job and being honest and hard working so that referrals come to you for the rest of your life ! :)

I think if i actually broke down to an hourly wage, I would be making minimum wage :), but it's a pretty rewarding job all in all.

An experienced rental agent is making between $8- 15k a month. That spread covers slow months in winter and spring.

The answer is here - http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes419022.htm

Thanks Jazzman, that is definitely not enough money for Aboutready to trade in life of leisure.

So true.

Hey aboutready, how was your vacation? You getting ready to send the kids to school?

The average salary of broker is $45k per year. But the salary depends not only on experience, but also on neighborhood. Thus, the highest salary receive brokers, who live in Queens Village.