Land, homes and buildings: buying, selling, valuing, managing and building the places we live and work.
Top pay: highest pay, longest training
Real Estate Developer: Turns empty land or old buildings into new apartments, offices or shopping centers, raising the money and taking the risk. Typical pay $150k.
Commercial Real Estate Broker: Helps businesses buy, sell or lease offices, warehouses and shopping centers. Typical pay $110k.
Real Estate Asset Manager: Manages a portfolio of buildings for investors, deciding when to renovate, raise rents, refinance or sell. Typical pay $135k.
Corporate Real Estate Manager: Manages all the offices, stores or factories a big company owns or rents. Typical pay $130k.
Site Selection Consultant: Helps companies pick the best city or town to build a new factory, data center or headquarters. Typical pay $130k.
Mid pay: solid pay, degree or apprenticeship
Real Estate Broker: A licensed real estate pro who can run their own office and supervise agents, in addition to selling homes. Typical pay $72k.
Real Estate Agent: Helps people buy and sell homes, from showing houses to negotiating offers. Typical pay $56k.
Property Manager: Runs apartment buildings, offices or shopping centers: collecting rent, handling repairs and keeping tenants happy. Typical pay $66k.
Real Estate Appraiser: Estimates what homes and buildings are worth, usually for banks deciding on mortgages. Typical pay $67k.
Property Tax Assessor: Sets the official value of every property in a town or county so property taxes can be calculated. Typical pay $66k.
Landman: Negotiates with landowners for the rights to drill for oil, build wind farms, solar fields or pipelines on their land. Typical pay $95k.
Home Inspector: Checks houses for problems (roof, wiring, plumbing, foundation) before someone buys them. Typical pay $62k.
Real Estate Acquisitions Analyst: Analyzes buildings that an investment firm might buy, building models to decide if a deal makes sense. Typical pay $90k.
Title Examiner: Researches property records to confirm who legally owns a property and whether there are any debts or claims on it. Typical pay $55k.
Escrow Officer: Holds the money and documents in a home sale and makes sure everything is signed and paid before the keys change hands. Typical pay $55k.
Lease Administrator: Tracks every rule, date and payment in a company's building leases so nothing gets missed. Typical pay $70k.
Rental Property Investor: Buys homes or apartments and rents them out, earning income from rent and rising property values. Typical pay $60k.
Land & Ranch Broker: Sells farmland, ranches, hunting land and timberland. Typical pay $90k.
CAM Reconciliation Analyst: Splits the cost of running a shopping mall or office building, like snow plowing, security and taxes, among tenants according to their leases. Typical pay $72k.
Wireless Site Acquisition Specialist: Finds and leases the land, rooftops and water towers where cell towers and 5G antennas go, then guides them through zoning approval. Typical pay $80k.
Billboard Real Estate Manager: Finds land for new billboards, negotiates ground leases with landowners and handles the permits and rules for an outdoor advertising company. Typical pay $90k.
Starter: fastest way in
Leasing Consultant: Shows apartments, signs up new renters and helps keep current tenants happy. Typical pay $40k.
HOA Community Manager: Manages homeowners associations and condo buildings: budgets, rule enforcement, repairs and board meetings. Typical pay $54k.
Short-Term Rental Manager: Runs vacation rentals on Airbnb and Vrbo for owners: listings, guests, cleaners and pricing. Typical pay $48k.
Real Estate Wholesaler: Finds homes owners want to sell fast, puts them under contract and sells that contract to an investor for a fee. Typical pay $45k.
Real Estate Showing Agent: A licensed agent who tours homes with buyers on behalf of a busier agent, paid per showing. Typical pay $40k.
Property Preservation Specialist: Secures and maintains empty foreclosed houses for banks: changing locks, winterizing pipes, mowing, cleaning out and taking photos. Typical pay $42k.
Manufactured Home Community Manager: Runs a mobile home or manufactured home community: collecting lot rent, enforcing rules, selling homes and keeping roads, water and sewer working. Typical pay $50k.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.