Active Rain recently did a survey of thousands of agents. They determined that rich agents, those who make more than $100,000 year make their focus and invest in online lead generation and IDX systems. Rich agents spend ten times more on marketing, including six times more on technology. They spend 2.75% more on internet marketing than do poor agents.

Data provided by ActiveRain.com. Join 215,590 Real Estate Agents on the world’s largest Real Estate Social Network.

The survey also found that real estate agents saw very little results from Facebook, Trulia, and Zillow.

The average person thinks that real estate agents spend most of their time showing houses, writing up contracts, and cashing huge commission checks. Nobody likes paying 6% of their gross sales price when they sell a house. Sellers always think that real estate agents make a fortune.

Real Estate agents, at least the successful ones spend the majority of their time “prospecting” and working real estate leads. They spend their time trying to find business, and keeping track of past clients in order to get future business and referrals.

Once in a while there are agents who do spend most of their time showing homes and writing contracts. These are agents who have been in business for years, or who have a surplus of quality real estate leads. New agents rarely ever have this problem. It’s not uncommon for new real estate agents to have their licenses for months before they ever show a house.