Self-employment method
Real Estate Property Managers
252,918 people filed as a nonemployer business under this industry code in 2022 — no payroll, no employees, just them. These are gross receipts reported to the IRS, before any expense is taken out.
Median GROSS RECEIPTS for the year — money in, before rent, materials, fuel, insurance or tax. This is not take-home pay.
Share who grossed under $10,000 for the whole year — before expenses.
The middle half, in gross receipts. A quarter of filers took less than the lower figure.
Source: US Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics 2022 · view
How often it does not work out
Of the 252,918 people who filed under this code in 2022, 24.91% grossed under $10,000 for the entire year — before a single expense was deducted.
That is a floor, not an estimate. Census publishes GROSS RECEIPTS, not net income. Everyone inside that share earned less than the figure suggests once rent, materials, mileage, insurance and self-employment tax came out — and filers who grossed well above the threshold may still have netted nothing. The true share of people who earn nothing meaningful from this is higher than the number above, never lower.
Denominator: establishments_total = 252,918 · US Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics 2022 · view
Every filer, by what they grossed
The full distribution Census publishes. The median above is interpolated inside the band that holds the 50th percentile.
| Gross receipts for the year | Filers | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Under $5,000 | 31,631 | 12.5% |
| $5,000 to $9,999 | 31,377 | 12.4% |
| $10,000 to $24,999 | 58,658 | 23.2% |
| $25,000 to $49,999 | 45,202 | 17.9% |
| $50,000 to $99,999 | 37,557 | 14.8% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 30,908 | 12.2% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | 11,661 | 4.6% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 5,914 | 2.3% |
| $1,000,000 to $2,499,999 | 10 | 0.0% |
Who this suits
The median filer grossed $27,651, or $2,304 a month before expenses. That is an operating business at part-time scale: enough revenue to be worth running properly, not enough to be the only thing in the household.
252,918 filings make this a crowded field. Crowding is not automatically bad, but it does mean the price of the work is set by whoever will do it cheapest.
19.2% of filers grossed $100,000 or more, which is high for this dataset. A substantial share of this field is running an actual business rather than an occasional one.
Independent real estate work suits people with enough runway to survive a transaction cycle, since income arrives in irregular lumps rather than monthly.
There is no qualification, licence or minimum to appear in this data — you file and you are counted. Read the receipts distribution as the price of that: no barrier at the door means no filter before the numbers.
Who should not do this
Bottom quarter under $10,057, top quarter over $80,381: 8.0x, or $5,860 a month. At this stretch the label has stopped describing one occupation, and every summary statistic about it — including the midpoint — should be treated with suspicion.
The bottom quarter of Real Estate Property Managers earns under $10,057 — $39,963 below the $50,020 a typical American job pays. Entering at the bottom and waiting is a live risk here, not a theoretical one, and some people never leave that quarter.
Do not start this if you need monthly income; commissions arrive months apart and the first one is the slowest.
63,001 of the 252,918 people filing in 2022 grossed under $10,000 across twelve months — 24.9% of the field. A quarter or more of everyone in Real Estate Property Managers took in less revenue than a part-time job would have paid in wages.
Take it as a floor, not an estimate. The $10,000 threshold is measured on money received, before materials, rent, fuel, insurance and self-employment tax, so the true share of filers who ended the year with no income is higher than the figure shown — we simply cannot say how much higher.
What the spread tells you
A ratio of 8.0x between the quarters is the signature of a winner-take-most distribution. $27,651 is a real number about a real population, but nobody entering Real Estate Property Managers should plan around it.
The middle half of this field earns between $10,057 and $80,381. That is $70,324 of range, with $27,651 sitting inside it as the point half the field is above and half below.
The 75th percentile is $80,381. Reaching it from the $27,651 midpoint is $52,730 a year; reaching it from the $10,057 that the bottom quarter of Real Estate Property Managers earn is $70,324.
The top quarter of Real Estate Property Managers begins $52,730 above the $27,651 midpoint, while the bottom quarter starts only $17,594 below it. A range stretched that far in one direction is the signature of a field where a small group earns a great deal more than the middle does.
Per hour of a full-time year, the middle of Real Estate Property Managers takes $13.29 in revenue — $4.83 at the bottom quarter and $38.64 at the top. Costs have not been deducted from any of those figures, so none of them is an hourly wage.
The raw counts, before anyone interprets them: under $5,000, 31,631 filers. $5,000 to $9,999, 31,377. $10,000 to $24,999, 58,658. Over $100,000, 48,493 — and 17,585 over $250,000.
What these figures are, and what they are not
These are GROSS RECEIPTS: everything that came in, before expenses. Rent, stock, fuel, insurance and self-employment tax all come out of the $27,651 midpoint before anyone eats, so it is not comparable with a $27,651 wage and should never be read as one.
The hourly number on this page is $27,651 divided by a 2,080-hour year and nothing more. We hold no unpaid-hours or cost data for Real Estate Property Managers, so it is arithmetic rather than an effective rate.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else