Meet the “Happiest Agents on the Block”

A Study of Agent Happiness

The happiness of real estate professionals is a surprisingly under-discussed topic. Industry-focused real estate publications tend to harp on things like lead generation methods, email marketing best practices, and the importance of social media while sadly rarely touching on what agents can do to become more happy. Google searches for the term “real estate happiness” returns approximately five times less results than the terms “real estate leads” and 11 times less results than “real estate social media.”

Market Leader sought to correct this when it created the “Happiest Agent on the Block” survey. Over 3,000 real estate agents shared how happy they are with their real estate careers, incomes, tasks they complete on a day-to-day basis, and their lives in general. Respondents also shared details about various life and career-related habits and traits, including their age, gender, commission split, and work group type. 

The survey results revealed something we were hoping to find - real estate agents are incredibly happy people! While we’re aware that many agents have sunny dispositions, we were not expecting to learn that a whopping 84 percent of agents are happy with their careers, making them 58 percent more likely to be happy than the average American. Furthermore, over half (53 percent) of agents say they are very happy with their lives, 60 percent more than the average American.

So What Makes Agents Happy?

Here are some quick facts about agent happiness:

• When it comes to consumer electronics, agents who use iPads, iPhones and Mac computers - all of which are Apple products - are most likely to be happy!
• As unbelievable as this may seem, the more an agent works, the more likely they are to be happy. Agents who work 60 or more hours a week are the most likely to be happy.
• Married agents are more likely to be happy than single agents. The happiest agents are those in their first marriage, while the least happy are those who are single and have never married.
• Agents from the South are most likely to be happy while agents from the Western U.S. are the least likely to be happy. 

You can learn more interesting and educational facts about agent happiness by reading the below infographic. The MarketLeader.com blog post this infographic was published on also summarizes how agents’ happiness is affected by the close to two dozen characteristics and habits the survey touched on.

A Big Thanks to ActiveRain

I would like to express my gratitude to the ActiveRain community for participating in the “Happiest Agent on the Block” survey (not to mention the many other surveys Market Leader has conducted with your help over the past couple of years). More than 1,600 ActiveRain members took part in the “Happiest Agent on the Block” survey. I mean it when I say this survey would not have been a success were it not for you!

The "Happiest Agent on the Block" Infographic

Click here to read more findings about agent happiness!