After a landmark ruling, real estate agents are left wondering, “What next?”

What exactly does a real estate agent do?

When Moya Skillman, a real estate agent at Compass in Seattle, goes out with friends, they often talk about the latest episode of Bravo’s “Million Dollar Listing.” franchise and part of a genre of reality TV shows that turns real estate agents into slick, fast-talking designer clothes with sharks on them.

“Everyone knows reality TV isn’t real, right?” Ms. Skillman said, but she didn’t sound convinced. “Right? You don’t just negotiate a deal over the loudspeaker and suddenly collect $500,000.

Mr. del Rosario of New York put it more bluntly. Real estate “is seen as a shady business,” he said. “We are there with the used car seller.”

Mrs. Skillman rattled off her list of tasks and expenses. To market a home, she often meets with a seller a year or more before the home goes on the market, offering advice on repairs and improvements. To get a property ready for sale, she pays for staging, photography, videography and marketing materials, costs she won’t recoup if the house doesn’t sell and can cost as much as $20,000 for a luxury listing. As a buyer’s agent, she can spend dozens of hours and countless tanks of gas showing properties, on weekends and holidays, and making offers, with no guarantee that a buyer will find a home. She then negotiates the offers, drafts contracts, and reads and synthesizes disclosure statements.

Agents also pay fees for licensing, insurance and renting a desk from a brokerage. And once a deal is closed, the brokerage takes a percentage of the commission, a fee that can vary wildly depending on the company and the broker’s experience. A few give up nothing, many pay about 20 percent and some give up as much as half of their earnings, Mr. Brobeck said.