How to Write an Attention-Grabbing Real Estate Agent Resume

As a real estate agent, you already know the art of selling to customers, understanding their needs, and pitching them something that gives them exactly what they are looking for. It would be best to approach your real estate agent resume similarly. 

Think of your resume like a well-crafted sales pitch outlining why you are perfect for the role you’re applying for. As a real estate agent, you know how to sell a property by tailoring it to the customer’s needs, highlighting the strongest points. With your real estate agent resume, you are looking to tailor your skills and experience to the role, carefully matching your expertise to the job ad and giving examples to back this up. 

How to format a real estate agent resume

Presentation is an essential element to a great resume, and how you format it can mean the difference between a prospective employer giving you a call for an interview or your resume getting lost in the pile. That’s why using clear, clean, and professional formatting is essential. It should be easy to read, with lots of white space and a clear font in sizes 10 to 12. 

Many experts recommend opening with a summary section detailing your compelling successes and statistics and using chronological (sometimes called “reverse chronological”) formatting in the experience section. This popular format includes your recent experience first and works its way back. 

What should be included in a real estate agent's resume? 

As with any resume, potential employers expect essential sections and information, including contact details, a summary or objective, professional experience, education, and skills. You may also add volunteer work and memberships. It’s also critical to highlight any licenses you hold. 

Contact information 

Your name, phone number, and email are essential details recruiters must contact you if they want to speak to you or invite you to interview. Therefore, it’s good practice to include your telephone number, email address, and anything else at the top of the document, such as a LinkedIn profile, address, or city you live in.

Summary or objective 

Underneath your contact details is where you write your summary or objective. Here, you outline in a few sentences who you are, your significant achievements and skills, and what you’re looking to do next. You can be as creative as you like here as long as you remain professional and meet the aim of summarizing why you are ideal for the position. Tailor this section to the role you’re applying for so that all the information you include is relevant, and use it to highlight your professional style and achievements. 

If you have real estate experience, mention it here to tailor your resume to the job description. If not, focus on your sales and customer service skills and any relevant qualifications.

Experience 

This area offers you the opportunity to go into more detail. It’s the section where you show off your previous roles and all you have achieved. Begin the list with your latest job and work your way backward. List each job using your title, the company name you worked for, and the dates you started and left. Remember that you gain experience while engaging in paid or unpaid work. You can also include internships and volunteer work if they are relevant. 

When detailing your experience, focus on your achievements. A recruiter wants to know what you have accomplished that makes you stand out above other candidates. To do this, consider including specific, measurable results, such as percentages of referrals and volume of sales.

If your experience isn’t in real estate, draw out all the relevant aspects of your work, such as sales, customer service, client relations, marketing, and organizational skills.

Education

List your college degree in this section if you have one or your highest qualification. A degree is helpful, but employers don’t always require it. Note what the job listing and job description indicate to ensure you have the expected credentials. You can include professional development here, too, so any additional courses, workshops, or studies relevant to real estate are good to mention.

Licenses and certifications

You can include licenses and certifications in your education section or give them their own section to make them stand out. Real estate licensing varies from state to state, but a license is always needed, so it’s important to note that you are officially allowed to work in the field. 

Skills

The job description and job listing offer two great places to start when writing your skills section. From there, you’ll learn the skills the recruiter seeks. Make sure you list all the relevant skills you have that the employer mentioned in the job listing, detailing technical and workplace skills.

Memberships and internships

You may have relevant internships or memberships to professional bodies that will make your resume stand out. If they warrant it, these can have their own section, or you can include them in other areas. List your internships in the experience section if you need more professional experience, or you may have a separate section if you want to make them stand out as particularly relevant. 

Volunteer activities 

Like internships, your volunteer work can go in your experience section if it’s highly relevant. If you have lots of paid real estate work experience, you might use a separate volunteer activities section lower down your resume. 

Should I use a template?

You can use a template to create your resume or create your own following the sections outlined above. You may also consider finding a project-centered course like How to Write a Resume, delivered by The State University of New York on Coursera, which walks you through completing each section. 

Writing the perfect cover letter

Your real estate cover letter should complement your resume without repeating information. Instead, use it to elaborate on details in your resume, providing real-life examples that address the essential criteria for the role. Aim to introduce yourself and give the necessary information to entice recruiters to continue reading the resume, detailing what motivates you, why you would be a good fit for the culture, and your outstanding achievements. 

Address the letter with the recruiter’s name if known.

Ideally, you can address the cover letter directly to the hiring manager. Doing so not only makes it more personal, it means it’s more likely to reach the right person. If you don’t have a name, do some research. Look on the company website, check LinkedIn or other professional directories, or call the company to obtain the hiring manager’s name. Doing this shows initiative and that you’ve taken the time to find out who you need to contact, showing attention to detail. You can use a generic greeting if you can’t find a name. For example, you might address it, “Dear Hiring Manager.”

Open with a greeting and why you want to work for the company.

The opening section of your real estate cover letter introduces you and outlines why you are writing. Focus on a short introduction detailing what you are applying for, why you would like to work for the company in this role, and a little summary of why you are the ideal person. Demonstrate you’ve researched the company by being very specific about why you chose this particular job opening. Doing so provides a tailored approach, eliminating the feel of a generic letter that will make less of an impression. 

Summarize your major accomplishments. 

Dedicate the body of the cover letter to providing examples of your accomplishments. Make this very specific to real estate by elaborating on the points you’ve mentioned on your resume and providing more detail. It’s important to give actual examples and weave a story rather than just listing skills and achievements like you have already done on your resume. 

If you’re writing an entry-level real estate cover letter, and you don’t have much real estate experience, draw on other experiences where you have demonstrated the skills needed for a career in real estate and on any relevant personal projects or courses you’ve taken. 

Explain why you’re the right person for the job.

It might seem obvious from the examples you provide, but it’s still compelling to spell out exactly why you are perfect for the job. Sum up your best points, relay your enthusiasm, and outline clearly why a real estate team should pick you for the role. 

Close with a call to action.

A call to action (CTA) provides an effective way to end a cover letter. Just as you would close a sale in real estate, using a CTA prompts hiring managers to contact you for an interview. 

Learn more on Coursera. 

Working in real estate means you already understand the nature of marketing and sales, and with your resume, you extend these talents to sell yourself and your skills in relation to the job. Having the appropriate sections, highlighting your skills, experience, and credentials, and writing a solid cover letter are all essential parts of the application process.

If you are ready to start writing your real estate resume, why not begin with the University of Maryland’s Writing Winning Resumes and Cover Letters course that's part of the Interviewing and Resume Writing in English Specialization? If you’re new to real estate and want to build your skills to enhance your resume, you’ll find courses like Successful Negotiation: Essential Strategies and Skills from the University of Michigan listed on Coursera.