Virginia can be a picturesque place to live, which makes it a great state to start your real estate career in.
And with over 8 million people populating the state, there are a lot of opportunities for a real estate agent to make a great living and help people find their dream homes.
But, how many real estate agents are actually practicing in Virginia?
Real estate has become an extremely desirable career path over the past decade or so. No matter where you go you’re likely to see a real estate agent’s face on a bench or bus advertisement. Real estate agent offices are popping up all over the place, and Virginia is no exception.
Because of the high number of practicing real estate agents, it’s hard to get an exact number of how many there are. The numbers are also continually fluctuating, so there’s no way to be exact.
That being said, recent data collected from HomeLight shows there are over 2 million active real estate agents in the U.S.
And there are subsets within that 2 million. Out of the 2 million real estate agents in the U.S., about 1.4 million of them are licensed Realtors. The rest of the number consists of real estate agents, leasing agents, and other jobs that allow you to help sell or lease property in the U.S.
It is much easier to calculate the exact number of Realtors in a state because, in order to be a licensed Realtor, you must be a member of and registered with the National Association of Realtors (NAR). According to the NAR, there are currently 34,000 registered Realtors in the state of Virginia.
But, as we said, that is only a portion of the number of active real estate agents in Virginia because there are many other real estate careers other than being a Realtor.
So, how can we know how many real estate agents total are in Virginia?
On the Real Estate News website, the state of Virginia has about 700 different cities listed with links to different agents in the area. The number of agents varies depending on the size of the town. For example, Arlington has about 4,700 active real estate agents while Winchester only has approximately 1,000 active agents. And some of the smaller towns have even less than that.
From a sample list of about 16 cities on the Homelight website, the number of real estate agents totaled about 16,000. With that number so high, it can easily be said that there are over 50,000 real estate agents in the state of Virginia.
There are probably closer to around 100,00 or so real estate agents in Virginia when all is said and done, but as we said, it’s difficult to pinpoint an exact number.
That means if you are looking into starting a real estate career in Virginia, you might need some tips and hints to stand out above the crowd. Statistics show that Virginians prefer to work with real estate agents that they know or have a connection with. In this way, the cities in Virginia function more like small towns.
Even if you’re not from Virginia, you still have hopes to become a successful real estate agent there. Think of any type of connection you could have to a potential city: friends from college who live there, extended family, or even a large group of people who may share a common interest as you. While you are starting to build your career in real estate, get connected with a well-known group or club that can help you get those connections you need.
Another thing that can give you a step up in a competitive field is taking continuing education real estate courses. All licensed real estate agents have to take their pre-licensure courses and then pass the exam, but not everyone invests in their career by continuing to educate themselves in real estate. Certain details about specific parts of the job such as inspections, appraisals, and financing are not covered in the real estate pre-licensure courses.