What Should I Include in My Real Estate Agent Business Plan?

A one-year agent business plan needs five parts: an income goal converted into a transaction count at a real average sale price, a lead generation budget you can actually fund, time blocked for dollar-productive work, quarterly checkpoints, and a short list of numbers you review every month. The benchmarks to build it against are published: the median gross income earned from real estate activities was $59,200 in 2025, up from $58,100 in 2024, the typical REALTOR® completed nine transaction sides in 2025 with a median sales volume of $2.7 million among brokerage specialists, and median business expenses were $9,530 in 2025, up from $8,010 in 2024. In Arizona, the median sale price was $428,217 in August 2026, down 0.88% compared with a year earlier, which is the price you plug into the math if you sell here.

What a one-year agent business plan actually is

A one-year agent business plan is a short written document that states the gross commission income you intend to earn, the number of closed transaction sides required to produce it at your market's average sale price, the money and hours you will spend generating those transactions, and the dates you will check whether you are on pace. It is a production math exercise with a calendar attached. Everything else in the document is decoration.

Agents who have been licensed a while are doing this against a real baseline. The median years of experience among REALTORS® was 13 years in 2025, up from 12 in 2024, and the median age of a REALTOR® member is 57.

Start with the income goal and work backward to transaction count

Write the gross commission income number first, then divide by your average commission per closed side to get the count. The count is the plan. The income figure is just the reason for it.

Anchor the average price input to your market, not to a national figure. In Arizona, homes sold for a median price of $428,217 in August 2026, down 0.88% compared with a year earlier. In Phoenix, the median sale price was $455,000 over the three months ending August 2026, up 1.0% year over year, meaning compared with the same period a year earlier.

Then sanity-check your transaction count against what production actually looks like. The typical REALTOR® completed nine transaction sides in 2025, with a median sales volume of $2.7 million among brokerage specialists. Agents with six or more years of experience reported a median of 10 transaction sides and about $3 million in sales volume for 2025. The typical REALTOR® sales volume was $2.5 million in 2024, unchanged from the previous year.

Income tracks experience more than it tracks effort. REALTORS® with 16 years or more of experience earned a median gross income of $88,500 in 2025, up from $78,900 the previous year, while those with two years or less earned a median of $8,000. If you are in your first two years, write a plan whose transaction count you can defend out loud, and build your expense budget around the possibility that income lands closer to the low end of that range than the high end.

Commission income is self-employment income reported on Schedule C, subject to self-employment tax plus federal tax and Arizona's flat state income tax. Your plan needs a gross number and a net number, and you should coordinate the tax side with your own tax professional rather than guessing at it.

Budget lead generation around repeat and referral business first

Two channels carry the typical agent's year. In 2025, the typical REALTOR® earned 28% of their business from repeat clients and customers, and another 22% through referrals from past clients and customers. Fund database contact, past client follow-up and sphere events before you fund anything else, because that is where the business already comes from.

Budget the whole thing against a realistic expense line. Median business expenses increased in 2025 to $9,530, up from $8,010 in 2024, with vehicle costs remaining the biggest expense. Typical vehicle costs were $1,580, the largest single expense category. Those two numbers set the scale of what a normal agent spends in a year, and a plan that assumes several times that in paid marketing is a plan that needs a funding source written next to it.

Continuing education is a fixed line item, not a surprise. Arizona salespersons and associate brokers must complete 24 hours of continuing education every two-year renewal cycle. Effective January 1, 2025, that is 21 mandatory hours and 3 elective hours, with 3 hours each in Agency Law, Contract Law, Commissioner's Standards, Disclosure, Fair Housing, and Real Estate Legal Issues, plus 1 hour each on Firewise, Deed Fraud, and Arizona Water. Designated brokers must complete 30 hours of approved continuing education every two years. Put the course cost and the hours in the plan in the quarter you intend to take them.

What the data does support is the order: the 28% repeat and 22% referral shares are the largest identified sources of a typical REALTOR®'s business in 2025, and your budget should reflect that ranking.

Block time for dollar-productive work before administrative work

REALTORS® reported working a median of 35 hours per week in 2025, unchanged from the prior year. Sales agents reported a median of 30 hours per week, and brokers and managers who sell reported 40 to 45 hours per week. Build your week inside that number rather than inside an aspirational one.

Dollar-productive work is lead generation, appointments with buyers and sellers, negotiation and contract-to-close problem solving. Everything else, including file organization, compliance paperwork, marketing production and transaction coordination, is necessary work that does not itself create a closing. In a 30-hour week, the administrative block will expand to fill whatever space you leave it. Block the lead generation hours first, on the calendar, with start and end times, and schedule the administrative block after.

Time blocking is also where a compliance failure gets prevented. Agents working with buyers must have a signed written buyer-broker agreement before touring homes, spelling out what they will be paid and who pays it, under the rules following the August 2024 National Association of Realtors settlement. Listing agents can no longer advertise buyer-agent compensation on Arizona's ARMLS system, and Arizona sellers can still offer to cover the buyer's agent fee as a seller concession in the purchase contract. Put the buyer consultation, where that agreement gets signed and explained, inside your appointment block rather than treating it as paperwork you catch up on later.

Set quarterly checkpoints against a market that moves slowly

Four checkpoints a year, on dates you write into the plan now. At each one you compare closed sides year to date, sides under contract, and appointments set against the pace your annual count requires.

Judge pace against how long a transaction actually takes to mature here. The median days on market in Arizona, the median time from listing to going under contract, was 66 days in August 2026, down 4 days year over year. In Phoenix, homes sold after 57 days on market over the three months ending August 2026, compared with 60 days a year earlier. A listing you take in the last weeks of a quarter is unlikely to be a closing inside that quarter, so measure listings taken and contracts written at the checkpoint, not just closings.

Inventory conditions frame what a course correction can realistically achieve. In August 2026 there were 48,440 homes for sale in Arizona and 10,765 newly listed homes, with an average of 5 months of supply, meaning it would take about five months to sell every home currently listed at the current pace. A six-month supply is generally considered a balanced market between buyers and sellers. There were 8,207 homes sold in Arizona in August 2026, down from 8,296 homes sold in August 2025.

If your checkpoint shows you behind, the correction is almost always in appointments set, because that is the input closest to your control and the one that shows up in closings 57 to 66 days later depending on whether you are working Phoenix or the broader state.

Forecast figures belong in the plan as context, clearly labeled as forecasts. Build your plan on the numbers you can measure at each checkpoint and treat the forecast as a scenario, not an assumption.

Track a short list of numbers every month

A monthly review should fit on one page.

Days on market and months of supply are market conditions rather than personal KPIs, but review them monthly because they set expectations. Arizona's median days on market was 66 days in August 2026, and average months of supply was 5 months, unchanged year over year.

One compliance date belongs with the fact. Arizona real estate licenses are issued for a two-year term, and renewal must occur on or before the last day of the month in which the license was originally issued. If a licensee misses the continuing education deadline and the license expires, there is up to one year to renew after the expiration date, and after more than one year the license may be terminated. Only nine continuing education hours can be credited in a single 24-hour period, as required by the Arizona Department of Real Estate, so the hours cannot be compressed into a weekend at the deadline.

The Bottom Line

The benchmarks are public. The median gross income earned from real estate activities was $59,200 in 2025, the typical REALTOR® completed nine transaction sides, and median business expenses were $9,530, so you can see exactly where your plan sits against the middle of the profession before the year starts. Arizona gives you the price input: a median sale price of $428,217 statewide in August 2026 and $455,000 in Phoenix over the three months ending August 2026.

If you want a second set of eyes on your numbers and the compliance calendar behind them, reach out to our team and we will walk through your plan with you.

Written by Laurie Johnson, part of the Kristan Cole Network team.

Sources

Pages read on September 28, 2026.

• Redfin: Arizona Housing Market: House Prices & Trends
• Redfin: 2026 Phoenix Housing Market: House Prices & Trends as of August
• National Association of Realtors: The Feature Sheet: 2026 Member Profile
• National Association of Realtors: Even in a Tougher Market, REALTORS® Are Holding Their Ground
• National Association of Realtors: Income Steady, Even as Market Slows: 2025 Member Trends
• National Association of Realtors: Experienced REALTORS® Anchor the Industry as Housing Affordability Remains Top Hurdle, New NAR Report Finds
• Bureau of Labor Statistics: Real Estate Brokers and Sales Agents : Occupational Outlook Handbook: : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics