The truth can be good, bad and surprising. But one thing’s certain: the truth always comes out eventually.

For our second annual “Truth About Agents” issue, we sent out a survey to gather information about you, our readers, to try to uncover how people in the industry really feel about the market, their business and other agents, among other things. We asked some tough questions that compared some hard-to-swallow data from 2009 to 2010, such as the percentage of agents who experienced a drop in income, what agents’ average marketing budgets are and the current splits for dissatisfied agents.

But the truth isn’t always scary – our survey results highlight several good things agents are experiencing. You may be surprised by what Chicago Agent found out. For example, the average income of agents has increased by 8.5 percent since 2009. It seems like all we hear about the industry is how bad the housing market is and how this is a bad time to be an agent, but really, the truth is that’s not the case. In addition, there seems to have been a move from 50/50 commissions to 100 percent plus desk fee deals. These types of deals jumped from 11 percent in 2009 to 23 percent in 2010.

As always, you don’t have to wait for us to send you a survey for you to voice what you think about Chicago Agent. Send an email to Stephanie@chicago.staging312.com any time, and let me know what you really think about the magazine. Go ahead – we can handle the truth. Can you? Click Here and find out.