Real Estate Agent Resume (Tips + Examples)

Contact Info:

Norma Bloomsbury
[email protected]
(313) 517-9926
Detroit, MI 48127
linkedin.com/normabloomsbury

Summary Statement:

Real Estate Agent: Michigan-licensed agent with 9 years of experience in marketing and selling commercial and residential properties in the Detroit metro area with a proven record of closing sales and high customer satisfaction. Proficient in market research, contract writing, negotiating, and MLS database management.

Key Accomplishments/Areas of Expertise

• MLS Database
• LoopNet
• CoStar
• Contract Drafting
• Marketing
• Local Market Research
• Customer Service
• Generating Business

Professional Experience:

Century21
Detroit, MI | Real Estate Agent | April 2015–Present

• Increased annual closed sales by 25% through strategic negotiations
• Developed successful strategies for engaging new customers
• Won the NAR’s REALTOR of the Year Award three years in a row

Rocket Homes
Detroit, MI | Real Estate Agent | August 2011–March 2015

• Secured exclusive sales contracts with several high-profile property developers
• Established successful referral network of brokers, developers, and customers
• Generated new business in slow sales territory, 35% in first year

Lakefront Homes
Cleveland, OH | Assistant Real Estate Agent | August 2007–July 2011

• Expanded online marketing presence through social media engagement
• Drafted contracts and purchase agreements
• Cultivated and managed online database with thousands of property listings
• Developed detailed marketing strategies generating $5 million+ in sales

Education/Certifications

Bachelor of Arts in Marketing
Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
Class of 2007

Licensed Real Estate Agent – Michigan

First off, let’s talk about the basics.

You might have great experience and an excellent set of skills, but if the hiring manager can’t find your information (or doesn’t take the time to read it), all those details are pretty much useless.

That’s why correct formatting is absolutely critical in resume writing.

Did you know that the typical hiring manager will only look at a resume for an average of six seconds?

That means you need to make an impression — and fast.

To grab their attention right off the bat, you need to put your most recent, relevant work up top. For the majority of your resume, you’re going to use a format called reverse chronological order, where you put your most recent experience first and work backward.

Your real estate agent resume needs to be readable not only by human reviewers but also bots (more about this later), so use a simple font like Arial or Times New Roman. Utilize whitespace and line breaks to help guide the eye, and try not to use big blocks of text.

Always remember to proofread: Look for typos, spelling errors, hanging margins and odd spacing. Most importantly, don’t forget to include your contact information!

Remember that first impression we mentioned earlier?

The resume summary is your time to shine.

A resume summary is a short paragraph — about two to three sentences — at the top of the page that shares the experiences that you think are the most important to the role you are applying for. Think of this section as your “greatest hits”.

Try to be as specific as possible. Remember, you don’t have a lot of space, so avoid repeating yourself and only include your most impressive skills.

What does that look like?

Here are some examples:

What are the differences between these two examples?

The first summary is brief, while still being informative and descriptive. It gives specifics and inspires confidence that you are good at your job.

The second example does not really tell us anything meaningful about you. It doesn’t share what your skills are or tell us anything about your accomplishments. It also uses personal pronouns, which with very few exceptions, is not recommended in resume writing.

Now that you’re done with your real estate agent resume summary, it’s time to move on to your areas of expertise.

When it comes to your key accomplishments, it’s best to draft this section in a bulleted list.

Remember that your resume summary was in a paragraph format. By putting this section in a list, it gives busy hiring managers the option to do a quick scan of your skills to see if you’re a good fit before reading the rest of your resume.

What should you include here?

This is where you share the skills that set you apart from other applicants. Do you know how to use a certain kind of software? What about unique leadership experiences? Those are the kinds of things that can go in this section.

PRO TIP: Make sure that you read the job description carefully. It should list the exact kinds of skills the employer is looking for, so if those are skills you have, be sure to include them.

Example:

• Multiple Listing Services (MLS) Database
• LoopNet
• CoStar
• Contract Drafting and Negotiation
• Marketing
• Local Market Research
• Customer Service
• Generating Business Leads

As you can see in this sample, this list includes both hard skills and soft skills in this list.

Do you know the difference?

Hard skills are quantifiable, teachable skills that you can get better at with practice. Think of these as “technical skills,” like knowledge of a particular software program.

Soft skills are more subjective. Also called “people skills,” this category includes things like leadership or communication that generally aren’t taught.

As a real estate agent, you should include a mix of these two categories.

(See below for a helpful table of some suggested hard and soft skill ideas for real estate agents to get you started.)

With your resume summary and key accomplishments down, it’s time to move on to what will be the bulk of your real estate agent resume: your work experience.

You’ve gotten the attention of the hiring manager with your first two sections, so here’s where you prove that your experience makes you the best possible candidate for the job.

In most cases, the position you held the most recently will be the most relevant and impressive, so you want to make sure that it’s seen first. For this reason, it’s best to draft your job history in reverse chronological order. This means that you should start with your most recent, or current, position and work backward.

Be as specific as you can when describing each experience. You want to not only describe what you did but also what impact you had during your time in the role. Keep it brief, but informative: Three to five bullets should be enough for each position.

PRO TIP: Start each bullet point off with an action word to help highlight your achievements. Avoid repeating yourself and use strong language.

Here’s an example:

The Yes! example is specific and tells us not only what you did during this job, but also the impact you had during your time at this organization. It is specific, uses quantifiable information and starts each bullet point off with an action word.

What do you notice about the second example?

These descriptions are very general and just lay out some of the basic duties of a real estate agent. It does not utilize many action words and in the last bullet point, mentions skills rather than the responsibilities you had during this role.

PRO TIP: If you have any quantifiable information, like sales statistics or profit increases, be sure to use it in your descriptions. This kind of information makes it easier to understand the impact you had during your time in a role.

More About Bots

In the beginning of this article, we mentioned that your resume needs to be understood not only by human reviewers but also by bots. So what are bots?

The Internet makes it easy for employers to source resumes from many different platforms and from all over, meaning there are usually a lot of applicants for a particular position. Because there are often more resumes than the hiring manager can actually read, employers sometimes use a software program called an Applicant Tracking System (ATS).

An ATS can be programmed to look for certain phrases or keywords, generally from the job description, and pull resumes that contain those words. The applications that the program highlights are the ones that will actually get seen by the hiring manager.

We’ve talked about how to impress a hiring manager, but how can you impress a bot?

Carefully read the job description. The ATS will be looking for words pulled from the job posting, so you need to be sure to include key phrases in your resume.

You can be extremely qualified for a role, but if you don’t use keywords, you won’t get flagged by the ATS and your materials won’t make it in front of the hiring manager.

PRO TIP: Don’t use synonyms. Be sure to use the phrase exactly how it appears in the job description. For example, if the posting lists “proficient in Microsoft Office” and you write “experience with Word and PowerPoint,” the ATS will not recognize that the two are related and won’t flag your resume.

To get around the ATS program, some candidates will choose to write their work histories in paragraphs rather than bullet points, thinking that this format will allow them to use more keywords.

Let’s take a look at what that would look like:

Bullet list:

Century21 | Detroit, MI | Real Estate Agent | April 2015–Present

• Increased annual closed sales by 25% through strategic negotiations
• Developed successful strategies for engaging new customers and expanding sales territory
• Won the National Association of Realtors REALTOR of the Year Award three years in a row

Paragraph Format:

Century21 | Detroit, MI | Real Estate Agent | April 2015–Present
Increased annual closed sales by 25% through strategic negotiations. Developed successful strategies for engaging new customers and expanding sales territory. Won the National Association of Realtors REALTOR of the Year Award three years in a row.

As you can see, both formats utilize the same number of keywords. The difference here is that while the first example is a scannable list, the second is a big block of text. Remember that the hiring manager has a lot of resumes to get through and might not have time to read a full paragraph. This means they may miss some of your key details.

For this reason, at Big Interview, we recommend using the bulleted list because it’s both easy to read and keyword-rich.

Next up is the education section, where you can expand on your educational background and share any other certifications that show your background in the industry.

This section works a lot like your work history. Start with your highest degree first and work your way backwards. For example, if you have a master’s degree, you’re going to list that before a bachelor’s degree, and so on.

Remember to list where you attended, the field of study, and when you graduated.

If you are a recent graduate, you may choose to list a GPA. This will become less relevant the longer you’ve been in the workforce, so you will probably remove it from your resume down the road.

Example:

Bachelor of Arts in Marketing
Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
Class of 2007

This is also where you can include any other trainings, certifications or workshops that you’ve completed that you think are relevant.

Example:

•  Licensed Real Estate Agent, MI
• “Social Media for Marketers,” Workshop, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI

Other Sections

If you have other areas of interest that don’t necessarily go into these categories, or if you have some extra space, you can consider adding more sections.

Alternate sections you could include are:

• Awards and honors
• Publications
• Noteworthy Projects
• Social Media Influence
• Speaking Engagements
• Hobbies/Interests
• Volunteer Work

What if You Have No Experience?

Despite what you might think, it’s totally okay to apply for a job if you think that you have no experience.

What if you just graduated or are making a career change? The only way to get experience in the industry you want to be in is to get a job in that industry.

If you have limited experience, still start off your real estate agent resume with a strong resume summary. But next, instead of listing your work experience second, move your education section up so it comes after the summary.

Without experience, there are still ways to show you have knowledge of a particular industry. The thing is, you might have more experience than you realize — it just might not be in the form of paid work.

Have you done any internships or volunteer work that could be relevant? What about any summer jobs, relevant coursework, certifications, or workshops? All of these things can show that you’re qualified for a particular position.

PRO TIP: Don’t forget soft skills. There are plenty of soft skills that are critical to being a good real estate agent, so think about whether you’ve had experiences that could demonstrate those.

Be specific

Don’t be overly general or repetitive. You need to keep things brief, but informative, and make an impact quickly, so be sure to use strong language and action words. Use quantifiable information and statistics whenever you can.

Phone a friend

Don’t trust yourself to proofread your own work. After staring at one page for a few hours, it can be really easy to miss things like typos, spelling errors, and grammar mistakes. Find a friend with fresh eyes to look over your finished resume.

Show best work first

Reverse chronological order is your friend here. The hiring manager doesn’t have a lot of time, so you always want to list your best, most relevant work first to make sure that it gets seen.

Don’t include everything

With few exceptions, resumes should only be one page in length, so you don’t have a lot of space. You don’t have to include every single thing you’ve done — be selective and only choose your most impressive experiences.

Don’t skip the basics

This may seem obvious, but be sure you include your contact information like your email address and phone number. When you’re so focused on crafting the perfect descriptions of your experiences, it can be surprisingly easy to forget the details.

Avoid the first person

This might feel strange at first, but don’t use the words “I” and “me.” It doesn’t feel natural to describe yourself without using personal pronouns, but the first person really doesn’t have a place in resume writing.

(Below is a helpful table of power words to use to inspire your real estate agent resume.)

Real Estate Agent Power Words

• Managed
• Cultivated
• Increased
• Determined
• Developed
• Initiated
• Maintained
• Completed
• Established
• Finalized
• Generated
• Drove
• Drafted
• Designed
• Expanded
• Coordinated

Real Estate Agent Resume Skills List