Write a Resume for a Real Estate Job

Your resume is one of your best marketing tools, especially when you are seeking employment or want to highlight your skills and experience. As a real estate professional, your resume should reflect your knowledge of the real estate market and provide relevant, updated information on your career accomplishments and achievements. Use specific examples and clear formatting to ensure your qualifications stand out to prospective employers and recruiters.

Steps

Highlighting Relevant Information

  1. Use your professional profile to highlight your experience and skills. Traditionally, resumes have included an "objective" detailing your hopes for your job search. Today, recruiters recommend providing a professional profile or "career summary" instead. This profile will immediately follow your contact information on your resume. Your goal is to powerfully demonstrate that you are the one to meet your prospective employer's needs.
    • Specifically state your licensing qualifications and experience. In addition, you should include a summary of information including the areas you service (by cities, counties, postal codes, and states), your total years of experience, and whether you do commercial and/or residential work.
    • Mention the type of real estate with which you're most experienced. This allows both you and recruiters to avoid poor "fit" -- if you're a skilled home seller, for example, you would be wasted in industrial property sales.
    • Add information about something you do exceptionally well, any additional complementary skills, and any impressive achievements or awards.
    • Use hard numbers to showcase your skills and achievements.
    • A sample professional profile might begin, "Licensed real estate agent with 12 years of residential sales experience at both local and national real estate firms." Bullet points can then highlight that you are an expert in developing new business, increasing your last agency's client base by 18 percent in two years; highly skilled in conducting market research; and hold an Accredited Buyer's Designation from the National Association of REALTORS®.
  2. Quantify your accomplishments whenever possible. Provide percentages, dollar figures, number of employees, and training classes to demonstrate the range and success of your past enterprises.
    • For example, you might state that you advised sellers on how to make their homes more appealing to potential buyers, increasing average selling prices by 15 percent over initial appraisal values.
    • Avoid referring to yourself as a "consultant" unless you can quantify your consulting duties. Employers and recruiters are wary of vague job descriptions. If you do opt to use the term "consultant," provide concrete specifics on how your consulting activities produced results: increased sales using specific numbers and percentages, or process improvements detailing before-and-after information and money saved.
  3. Prioritize your last ten years of employment. Ensure your experience is presented as relevant to today's market, especially if you've been involved in the industry for some years.
    • That said, cite dates of employment for each position you list. Missing dates are a red flag to recruiters that there may be a gap in your employment history.
  4. Employ active verbs. Use a variety of action-oriented terminology to emphasise your energy and skills: accompany, advise, close, conduct, evaluate, examine, generate, interview, introduce, maintain, negotiate, prepare, promote, schedule, or sell.
  5. Cite additional skills that illustrate your usefulness. Computer skills are a must in this day and age; be specific about how you can use computer technology to positively impact an organization (social media successes, for example). Other in-demand skills in the real estate industry include negotiation and interpersonal communication skills, math skills, marketing knowledge, understanding of federal and local real estate laws, trustworthiness, customer service, flexibility, resourcefulness, and the ability to network. Provide an example whenever possible.
    • You might, for example, list that you've established a Facebook page to post your firm's key listings, with highlighted properties receiving an average of 15 "shares." This demonstrates you know how to use social media to substantially increase the visibility of your listings.
  6. Mention industry-related clubs or organizations of which you are a member. This lets your prospective employer know that you're up to date and involved in your industry.
    • Include special training or continuing education classes when relevant. For example, if you are looking for a position with a condominium developer, noting your Homeowners Association training could be quite useful.

Composing a Resume as a Recent Graduate

  1. Include your grade point average. Any resume-writer may opt to include GPA in the education section of his or her resume, but this is especially important advice for a recent graduate. This helps you demonstrate your aptitude as a student and show that you took your education seriously.
    • If your cumulative GPA is less than 3.0, consider calculating and including your major GPA. Only do so, however, if it works out to an average above 3.0.[1]
  2. Highlight relevant experience gained from internships or co-curricular activities. Describe your accomplishments using industry-specific terms. Quantify your accomplishments where relevant.[2]
    • For example, you might mention that in your service as advertising manager for the student newspaper, you increased ad sales by 23 percent and successfully "negotiated" higher advertising rates for full-page ads.
  3. List college leadership positions and/or activities. You'll show recruiters you did more at university than simply attend classes -- an important demonstration of enthusiasm in an industry that thrives on networking. Again, use industry language and provide numbers where possible.
    • Note that recruiters rank teamwork and communication skills (both written and verbal) as their top-priority skills. Demonstrate your aptitude in these areas, but also pay close attention to the job description. It may reveal other soft skills that recruiters are seeking.[3]
    • For example, you might highlight your successful introduction of a dormitory website as a resident assistant that increased participation in dorm activities by 32 percent.

Formatting Your Resume

  1. Start with your contact information. Like all resumes, your real estate resume should feature your name, address, phone numbers and email address on the top of the page.
    • Provide your license number, if you have one, and list the state(s) in which you are licensed.
  2. Include the important resume elements. In addition to contact information, your resume should include a professional profile, experience, education, and additional skills and credentials. If you are a recent graduate, consider listing your education before your experience.
  3. Use clean, clear formatting that recruiters can easily scan. Wide margins, clear 10- to 12-point type, clear headings, a logical format, wise use of bold and italic typefaces, and well-placed bullet points will help your information transmit clearly to readers. Real estate resumes should be fairly conservative; avoid using color or creative flourishes. Your priority is legibility.
    • Limit your resume to one page in length.
    • Refrain from including a photo on your resume. While these are often used by real estate agents on marketing tools, they are considered unprofessional on resumes.
    • Keep your resume focused on your professional qualifications; refrain from including personal activities and hobbies.
  4. Proofread, proofread, and proofread some more. Your resume needs to be grammatically perfect and free of typographical errors. Ask a friend or family member to read through your resume and point out errors -- sometimes it can become difficult to see them yourself after reviewing a document multiple times.[4]

Tips

  • Use your resume to network. Have a copy with you at all times, post it on LinkedIn and other online sites and keep it easily accessible so you can email or print it for anyone who requests it.
  • Plan a cover letter that will complement your resume. If you are sending your resume out for a specific job opening, the cover letter should highlight and summarize the information on your resume while focusing on the real estate position for which you are applying.

Related Articles

References

  1. ↑ http://ugstudents.smeal.psu.edu/careers/resources/documents/UGCCCResumeGuidelinesRE13.pdf
  2. ↑ http://ugstudents.smeal.psu.edu/careers/resources/documents/UGCCCResumeGuidelinesRE13.pdf
  3. ↑ http://ugstudents.smeal.psu.edu/careers/resources/documents/UGCCCResumeGuidelinesRE13.pdf
  4. ↑ http://ugstudents.smeal.psu.edu/careers/resources/documents/UGCCCResumeGuidelinesRE13.pdf
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