Paralegals assist lawyers in researching cases, reviewing files, and preparing legal documents. A real estate paralegal assists real estate lawyers. They work on cases that involve property sales, purchases, or construction. Paralegals may also be responsible for answering phone calls, scheduling appointments, conducting legal research, preparing for court sessions, and maintaining files.
The day-to-day activities of paralegals depend on the lawyer's current cases. They may attend meetings, prepare for court sessions, conduct research, and review a land's legal description. Depending on experience, paralegals may be limited to filing and answering phones or taking on more responsibility, like drafting contracts.
A part of paralegal work is learning on the job. But they need basic skills like organizational skills, attention to detail, and a strong understanding of contract law. Paralegals need an associate or bachelor's degree and a certificate in related programs like legal assistant and paralegal studies.
Real Estate Paralegal Overview
Real Estate Paralegal Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a real estate paralegal. For example, did you know that they make an average of $28.33 an hour? That's $58,921 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 12% and produce 39,000 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Real Estate Paralegal Do
There are certain skills that many real estate paralegals have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed communication skills, computer skills and research skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a real estate paralegal, we found that a lot of resumes listed 12.8% of real estate paralegals included law firm, while 12.0% of resumes included real estate, and 9.8% of resumes included title companies. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the real estate paralegal job title. But what industry to start with? Most real estate paralegals actually find jobs in the professional and retail industries.
How To Become a Real Estate Paralegal
If you're interested in becoming a real estate paralegal, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 35.2% of real estate paralegals have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 7.4% of real estate paralegals have master's degrees. Even though some real estate paralegals have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a real estate paralegal. When we researched the most common majors for a real estate paralegal, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or associate degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on real estate paralegal resumes include master's degree degrees or doctoral degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a real estate paralegal. In fact, many real estate paralegal jobs require experience in a role such as paralegal. Meanwhile, many real estate paralegals also have previous career experience in roles such as legal assistant or legal secretary.
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Real Estate Paralegal Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of litigation paralegal you might progress to a role such as case manager eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title managing director.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for a Real Estate Paralegal
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Jimerson Birr Closing Coordinator/Real Estate Paralegal Closing Coordinator/Real Estate Paralegal | Jimerson Birr Jimerson Birr | 01/30/2021 01/30/2021 | $20,00001/30/2021 $20,000 |
Robert Half Estate Administration Paralegal Estate Administration Paralegal | Robert Half Robert Half | 01/26/2021 01/26/2021 | $46,50001/26/2021 $46,500 |
Relevante, Inc. Real Estate Paralegal Real Estate Paralegal | Relevante, Inc. Relevante, Inc. | 01/26/2021 01/26/2021 | $75,00001/26/2021 $75,000 |
CNY Outsourcing Real Estate/Mortgage Paralegal-Buffalo, NY Area Real Estate/Mortgage Paralegal-Buffalo, NY Area | CNY Outsourcing CNY Outsourcing | 01/20/2021 01/20/2021 | $50,00001/20/2021 $50,000 |
Robert Half Commercial Real Estate Paralegal or Attorney Commercial Real Estate Paralegal or Attorney | Robert Half Robert Half | 01/15/2021 01/15/2021 | $52,17501/15/2021 $52,175 |
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Real Estate Paralegal Resumes
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming a Real Estate Paralegal. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write a Real Estate Paralegal Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Real Estate Paralegal resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationTop Colleges for Real Estate Paralegals
1. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
2. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
3. Texas Wesleyan University
Fort Worth, TX • Private
4. Ball State University
Muncie, IN • Public
5. Mount St. Joseph University
Cincinnati, OH • Private
6. Webster University
Saint Louis, MO • Private
7. Cedar Crest College
Allentown, PA • Private
8. Hamline University
Saint Paul, MN • Private
9. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
10. Bentley University
Waltham, MA • Private
Top Skills For a Real Estate Paralegal
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 12.8% of real estate paralegals listed law firm on their resume, but soft skills such as communication skills and computer skills are important as well.
- Law Firm, 12.8%
- Real Estate, 12.0%
- Title Companies, 9.8%
- Legal Documents, 8.0%
- Due Diligence, 7.6%
- Other Skills, 49.8% See All Real Estate Paralegal Skills
Best States For a Real Estate Paralegal
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a real estate paralegal. The best states for people in this position are California, Washington, Oregon, and Alaska. Real estate paralegals make the most in California with an average salary of $81,606. Whereas in Washington and Oregon, they would average $76,387 and $70,672, respectively. While real estate paralegals would only make an average of $69,569 in Alaska, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Massachusetts
$67,033
Avg. Salary
2. California
$81,606
Avg. Salary
3. Rhode Island
$61,285
Avg. Salary
How Do Real Estate Paralegal Rate Their Jobs?
Top Real Estate Paralegal Employers
We've made finding a great employer to work for easy by doing the hard work for you. We looked into employers that employ real estate paralegals and discovered their number of real estate paralegal opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that Robert Half International was the best, especially with an average salary of $58,132. The Weitz Company follows up with an average salary of $66,321, and then comes Randstad USA with an average of $51,735. In addition, we know most people would rather work from home. So instead of having to change careers, we identified the best employers for remote work as a real estate paralegal. The employers include CVS Health, Winter Wyman & Co, and Tristarr
Real Estate Paralegal Videos
