Economists' Outlook

Housing stats and analysis from NAR's research experts.

Halloween 2019: The Uncommon Previous Careers of REALTORS®

Only 4% of REALTORS® stated that real estate was their first career in the 2019 Member Profile, down slightly from 5%t last year. Most commonly, members held previous full-time careers in management/business/financial sector (16%), and sales/retail (15%), followed by office/admin support (9%). Respondents are able to select from a list of options that best represents their previous career. For 20% of REALTORS®, they felt that their previous career fell into the “other” category. By taking a deeper look into this category, we can determine some of the unique and noteworthy previous careers of our members.

  • Respondents of the “other” category are able to describe their previous career. The most common previous careers included:
    • business owner/entrepreneur
    • finance/banking/accounting
    • food and beverage industry
    • sales
    • insurance
    • marketing/advertising
    • airline/aviation industry
    • human resources
  • Some of the more unique previous careers included:
    • air traffic controller
    • supervisory special agent
    • Spanish court interpreter
    • dairy farmer
    • school bus driver
    • pastor
    • law enforcement
    • PhD microbiologist
    • nuclear monitor
    • museum curator
    • model
    • professional athlete

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