INFOGRAPHIC: HOW MALE AND FEMALE REAL ESTATE AGENTS DIFFER WHEN CLOSING BIG REAL ESTATE SALES

Nicolas Cage's $9.5 million mansion in Las Vegas went into bank foreclosure in 2010 and sold for $4.2 million

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No one believes that men and women are the same. And a fascinating data set reveals how they might approach real estate deals differently.

We all know that men and women approach most everything in life slightly differently--and sometimes, wildly differently. How does this affect the way they each do business?

Rarely do you get a data set that reveals much about that question, but here's a remarkable one from the data-viz wizards over at Trulia, the real estate listings website. They took a look at the gender balance between real estate agents across the country, and the results are pretty remarkable.

The first thing to note is that real estate, in general, is a woman-dominated field; on average, in every state in the country, the ration of men to women approaches 2:1. Now, you can hypothesize about all sorts of reasons why that is; for example, perhaps women come off as more trustworthy to women and less threatening to men, each of which can make all the difference in a life-defining purchase such as a home. Or perhaps women, with their edge in intuition and empathy, simply make better sales people. Or perhaps the dominance of women is about sociological pressures: Real estate, historically, might have been a more amendable profession to the demands of balancing worklife and child rearing, and one avenue where women never had their career advancement limited by their sex, since the profession is filled with free agents.

All of these are worth keeping in mind as we get into the data. Because the fascinating thing is that while women dominate the field, men tend to put up a greater number of houses for sale, while women put more expensive houses for sale. Here is what the state-by-state breakdown looks like for numbers of houses put up by men vs. women:

Click To View Interactive Map

As the chart shows, in most states across the U.S., the average male real estate agent puts up at least 5-14% more houses for sale than his female counterpart; in many states, such as Nevada, Oregon, and Minnesota, male real estate agents usually put over 25% more houses on the market.

Meanwhile, here is what the chart looks like when you look at the average prices of homes listed by women vs. men:

Click To View Interactive Map

The relationship is totally flipped. Women tend to sell houses that are markedly more expensive than those sold by men, and the trend is, in fact, even more intense across all states.

This is amazing data, and it's fun to think about what's driving it. Perhaps it takes a "high-touch" selling approach to sell more expensive homes--one which suits women more. And perhaps men adjust to their lower commissions simply by increasing the volume of their sales. Men may be great in increasing the volume of sales simply because they sell differently: Emphasizing relative prices and the market and data, perhaps. A more analytical approach, of course, would probably yield a quicker sale, since it's less about getting people to stretch a little for a more perfect home and more about a very straightforward comparison of data. (For anyone who wants to accuse me of sexism or gender stereotyping, I can list many, many studies that show that men, for example, make more buying decisions based on data while women emphasize personal connections.)

At the very least, you can surmise that the differences you see above are unlikely to be accidents. Whatever is driving them, they're more likely a function of men and women using their different strengths to approach sales differently.

COMMENTARY:   Its not too difficult why female real estate brokers would book listings with higher prices than males.  First, they outnumber the males.   Second, they know how to flirt with more affluent male sellers to get that listing.  Female sellers, are more likely to trust a female broker than a male.   Still, you need the interpersonal skills and knowledge of real estate to close a new listing and sell the home.  

Courtesy of an article dated October 25, 2011 appearing in Fast Company Design

Comments

[Brandon Carl]

Wow. from $9.5 mil to $4.2 mil. Just shows you how much he wants to sell the mansion.

[Guadalupe Campbell]

Men and women are never the same. In this case, men and women should never be compared. They have their own different ways on how to deal with clients and how t close a deal. It doesn’t matter who closes which one as long as they are doing their jobs.

[Wendy Nieves]

When no one believes that men and women are equal, I do don’t care on them.it is hard to force them that they are both created by God equally. When they believe that one is inferior than the other, they are stupid.

[Clorinda Altavilla]

In each person, there's a different personality, so when it comes to selling a real estate, they have their own ways to convince a potential buyer. But it's still best if both sexes work together to sell a property.

[real estate advices ontario]

Men and women work together, live together and navigate daily through a barrage of conflict, obstacles and sometimes life-altering situations that test the strongest of male and female egos. In spite of the obvious gender differences, couples work things out and usually come to some form of mutual agreement.Thank you so much.

[Pinky03]

Hi all, The housing market in Toronto is mostly based on census, as there has been an increase of over one thousand people to the Higher Greater Area during the last several years, and there is still a huge need of houses for these new citizens. Furthermore, the industry turmoil in the US has many home buyers thinking if this will impact the houses marketplaces in North america, which started out the entrance for rumours on the North america industry. Thank you

Homes for Sale Toronto

[Toronto Homes for Sale]

My opinion about the same is that male real estate agents have more listings than female agents, while female real estate agents list their properties for sale at higher prices.

[Toronto condos for sale]

My opinion about the same is that male real estate agents have more listings than female agents, while female real estate agents list their properties for sale at higher prices.

[Frank Damon]

Is that a palace or a castle? LOL. Sold for $4.2 million? I must say, that's cheap for a Nicolas Cage house. It's an honor to live in a place where Nicolas Cage has lived.

[Toronto luxury home]

This article have been helped to make my work easier while purchasing for a property.