Insight on that question can be found in the 2008 National Association of REALTORS® Member Profile. If you are looking to catch up on some reading this holiday season,  add this report to the stack on your bedside table.

Here are some of the highlights I found interesting:

• The typical REALTOR® has been in the business for 8 years.  That means they have never lived through a down market. The landscape of the business when they started looked very different than the view today. They need our help.
• Email is used nearly as often as cell phones by REALTORS®.
• The typical residential specialist completed 8 transactions in 2007, down from 10 in 2006. This is expected to be lower in 2008. Ouch!
• 4 out of 5 sales agents had a percentage commission split compensation arrangement in 2007.
• The median 2007 gross income among all REALTORS® was $42,600.
• The median age of a REALTOR® is 52. This number has remained basically unchanged for a number of years in spite of all the talk of attracting Gen X and Gen Y agents to the industry.
• 73{0a8e414e4f0423ce9f97e7209435b0fa449e6cffaf599cce0c556757c159a30c} of agents reported they had an office in their home for business. This supports the position of a change in the physical space of a real estate office.
• The amount of REALTORS® using blogs doubled over the previous year to 8{0a8e414e4f0423ce9f97e7209435b0fa449e6cffaf599cce0c556757c159a30c}.
• Nearly half of sales agents reported working less than 40 hours per week.
• 60{0a8e414e4f0423ce9f97e7209435b0fa449e6cffaf599cce0c556757c159a30c} of REALTORS® are female. You go ladies! No offense, gentleman.

I haven’t even touched on the income and expense or business activity sections. It would be interesting to overlap the report’s findings in these areas with your own office statistics to see where the similarities and differences lie. This would make an interesting sales meeting in the New Year. The outcome could really help your agents focus on making changes to how they do business and/or staying focused on doing the right things.