04/19/2026
Diary of a real estate agent, entry 2
Why are so many people in the industry so scummy?
I'll preface this by saying that I've met a handful of genuinely good people in this industry. They do exist, and I'm struggling mightily to stay aligned with my moral code as I navigate these waters, myself.
We first need to look at the beginning.
Let's talk about the hidden expenses of being a real estate agent. There's a common saying in the industry that if you want to make money in real estate, you need to sell something to agents.
To be an agent, you must first accept that YOU are the consumer paying for the privilege of making money in one of America's most lucrative industries. Here's what I mean...
So you want to be a real estate agent. You'll probably go online and search for how to do it. You'll learn that each state has different licensing requirements and tests. You'll learn that you need to take a class, pass a test and boom. You're in. In Washington, the class you need comes out to about $400. That's not too bad for a whole new career!
Then you need to pay to take the tests (oh, was it not clear? There are actually two classes and two tests!). Don't fail, because each retake costs that same amount. Oh, but half of the material in the second test was NOT in the classwork AT ALL, and nobody told you that the only location for that information is found on the WA State government website, in the actual laws. You had to dig through reddit posts to find a single comment to learn THAT. The law pages are of course, annoying to navigate and the website is needlessly convoluted.
Statistically, most folk end up paying twice for that second test. So, testing came out to $420. Annoying that this was so unnecessarily opaque, but there's no way this is an indicator of tomfoolery to come, right?
Now that you've passed, you can finally pay the admin fees to register your test results with the state, because that was definitely not what the testing fees were for. That costs about $275.
So NOW, you can start looking for a firm to work for-- and they're all going to be a bit different. Do you want a big name company or a local one? Lots of mentorship, or to be left alone? It is at this time that you'll probably learn for the very first time that most firms charge YOU for the honor of working there.
"Well you see, our monthly desk fees give you access to use the office, isn't that so helpful? :) and also, you can use our office supplies! And even use the company website, and sometimes you'll even get your own company email address, so cool and professional right?"
Now I'll stop here for just a moment to say that not all firms are created equal. Some actually do offer useful classes and training with the desk fees (and some of them ostensibly offer classes which are, in fact, useless).
So your monthly fees will range from $0-350+ per month (and zero is rare). I'm not kidding. You're paying to be allowed to work. But I'm not done yet!
Most firms will also require that you join the Association of Realtors, because somehow paying them money every year makes you more ethical 🤔 oh, and once you pay, you'll be allowed to use the word "realtor" for yourself. That privilege costs about $800 a year.
Phew, now we can start doing open houses and showing homes... Right? Well actually you need the software on your device to search for and look at listings, and that requires a $500/ year fee.
But! The software to actually USE the lock boxes is different! And that's a different monthly fee of $50. What are we even sitting at now...? (~$1,100 plus at *least* $160/ month)
Let's say all these fees haven't destroyed you yet. And you finally make a sale! (That's it's own post, folks). Well, depending on your firm, you owe them a cut of your hard-earned commission. 50% is pretty average, especially for newer agents. I sure hope your firm has been offering you any kind of services to justify that amount of pay...
Oh also, be sure to set aside like 30% of whatever is left for taxes and the mandatory continuing education because fu¢k you, that's why :) I haven't even talked about all of the paid extras you're offered, outings and events you're pressured into paying for... And I know that agents reading this have already thought of other crap that I forgot.
If you go to the real estate subreddits, one of the most common posts are by newer agents who feel blindsided by how much it actually costs to be an agent. They all generally get the same callous responses; a collective shrug. "You have to spend money to make money", and ,"maybe you should have learned about that before you got your license".
Much like how military basic training desensitizes a soldier to violence, the initiation for real estate agents is designed to desensitize you to exploitation and make you desperate. You're shown that being exploited is normal, it's actually just business! So exploiting others seems a lot less messed up now, doesn't it?
Hurt people hurt people, and all too often exploitation leads to more of the same. But as I'm sitting here trying to figure out where to go from here, all I'm left with is this: this system isn't part of the natural order-- humans built it. And we can change the rules to work better for more of us.
It occurs to me that agents are in a unique position to facilitate this change. We're literally the faces of the entire industry. So much money flows upwards from our hard work. We're all damned good networkers, and familiar with public outreach. That's kinda what I'm doing here: talking about problems I see as a first step.
Anyhow, this is long. Hopefully, this was interesting and even educational. Drink some water you beautiful creatures, and touch some grass today. It's lovely outside.
And as always, no gen AI was used or ever will be used to write for me. I care enough to write my own thoughts.
