What Does an Estate Agent Do?

The real estate market is a multibillion-pound industry and involves the renting, buying, and selling of properties, homes & houses. It is a very competitive market. The real estate agent is the point of contact between the buyer and the seller. They guide both parties and make sure that the transaction is smooth and profitable for both ends.

This article will look at the different tasks and responsibilities of a real estate agent job and how they can help you.

Real Estate Broker vs. Real Estate Agent

Real estate agents and real estate brokers are licensed to facilitate real estate transactions. While they must take the same licensing exam, they perform different roles in the buying and selling of property.

One way to differentiate between a real estate agent and a broker is by expertise. In general, a broker has more education and training than an agent. Brokers are best equipped to handle complex transactions and receive higher compensation for the work that they do.

Real Estate Broker:

A real estate broker or realtor is a person who represents sellers & buyers of real estate, houses or property, a perfect example is Newry Property Sales. While a broker may work independently, an agent usually works under a licensed broker to represent clients. Brokers and agents are licensed by the state to negotiate sales agreements and manage the documentation required for closing real estate transactions.

Real Estate Agent:

A real estate agent is an individual who has completed all of the requirements to qualify for a real estate license, which typically includes taking a number of courses in real estate law and practice. Under the supervision of a licensed broker, the agent may assist in negotiating the sale or lease of property on behalf of their clients. The agent may also show properties that are listed with other brokers or agents.

First Step to Buying a House Includes: Meetings and Tours

As an independent contractor, a real estate agent has to be great at time management and skillfully handling many tasks simultaneously. Real estate agents who are successful at their jobs tend to be extremely organized while being able to deal with the unexpected. Most real estate agents work alone, so they need to know how to do everything that’s involved in running a business, from writing blog posts and marketing their services to updating their database of clients and staying on top of their own finances.

Estate agents need to have strong written and verbal communication skills—especially when dealing with difficult situations—and should be able to negotiate with confidence.

They must also build a network of other professionals in the industry and beyond: mortgage lenders, building contractors, home inspectors, attorneys, architects, cleaning services—you name it!

Preparing and Listing the Property

  • Prepare the home for showings
  • Show the home to prospective buyers
  • Handle negotiations with buyers
  • Advise clients on market conditions
  • Make sure all paperwork is filled out correctly

Preparing and listing the property is the core task of any real estate agent. The agent will ask for a listing agreement from the seller. This is a legally binding contract between the seller and the agent that clearly states what services the agent will provide, how long they will try to sell your property and at what price.

After you sign this document, the agent will take pictures of your property to include in their marketing materials and on their website. They may also walk through your property with you to make suggestions about how to prepare it for sale by advising on topics such as decluttering and getting rid of old furniture or outdated wallpaper or paint colours.

Once all this is done, the agent will write up a description of your property that includes information such as its location, the price that you are asking, unique selling points (such as new windows or an updated kitchen) and local amenities (such as nearness to public transportation or schools).

Estate Agents Handle Property Lease & Sales

  • Real estate agents work for brokers
  • Must be qualified & have a valid license 
  • They work with both home buyers and sellers
  • Overall real estate agents act as a fiduciary

Estate agents are the professionals you call when you’re thinking about buying, selling or renting a house. They have all the answers to your questions about real estate. No one could possibly understand best about your needs than an expert with a degree in real estate who can negotiate for you and offer up advice on how to get what you want in a property transaction.

Estate Agents’ Salary in UK:

Depending on the location, real estate agents are typically paid by commission. This means their salary is determined largely by how many sales they close. A real estate agent in Newry, Northern Ireland stated the average annual salary for estate agent in UK & Northern Ireland is around £30,500.

Where in the USA the average is around £60,000 plus commission

Real estate commissions are vary from 5 to 20 percent of the house sale price, depending on location

  • This is negotiable for the seller
  • The commission is split between the listing agent and the selling agent
  • Sometime the selling agent’s share is typically 50% of the commission

The commission is usually a percentage of the selling price of a property and is negotiable. Typically, it’s 15 to 20 per cent of the sales price, but this number can vary depending on where you’re selling.

The listing agent and selling agent each get half of the total commission, but the selling agent’s share is often greater than 50% because he or she does most of the work.

Once a House is on the Market for Sale or Rent

The role of estate agents in working with sellers

  • Meeting with and understanding the needs of sellers when listing new properties.
  • Prove your ability to market, negotiate, and demonstrate your market knowledge.
  • Establish an asking price based on an analysis of the current local market and comparable properties.
  • Provide the property with relevant listing services.
  • To prepare a listing presentation and advertising collateral, take photos of the property, including the interior and exterior.
  • When you conduct open houses, stage the home properly to make it look perfect.

The Role of Estate Agents with Buyers

  • Meeting, interviewing, understanding, and qualifying prospective buyers.
  • Look up potential properties that match the needs of your clients on listing services.
  • Set up showing appointments for prospective buyers based on their schedules.
  • Show buyers properties and explain details you learned during research or when talking to other real estate experts (home inspectors, appraisers, etc.).
  • Demonstrate negotiation skillset and  them know details about the property you learned from your research or from

Conclusion:-

Estate agents are all about helping their clients find the place that is most suitable for them. Whether they specialize in buying, selling, or renting, real estate agents serve a critical purpose within the last step of the real estate process.

How To Find Affordable Housing in Manchester?

Why not to move to the MOST LIEVABLE CITY IN THE UK ??

A recent global liveability survey surely says it’s worth ever penny!

Over the last couple of years, the real estate prospects in Manchester has seen quite an upgrade, making it one of the most favorable cities to move to in Northwest England. This in turn, boosted employment opportunities and eventually, the living costs of that area. Today Manchester, also known as the ‘ first industrialized city in the world ‘ as come a long way in terms of not just finding a suitable housing, but employment and entertainment parameters too! This brings us to one simple question-

How affordable is the Manchester housing market? Before you get on the phone with your estate agents Manchester, here are a couple of things we want you to consider.

Handpicking Your Area of Choice

If you’re moving to Manchester without a clear area in mind, we strongly suggest diving into the dynamics first before making the move. There are a lot of cool areas in Manchester, but breaking down your requirement and selecting the area of your choice is crucial. For example, if you’re looking for a premium school district, Sale is the place to be. If you’re more interested in temporary residence or renting someplace quiet, castlefield has the best possible lofts overlooking the quaint cobblestone streets and picturesque suburbs.

Bolting Down on Proper Budgeting

So, you have a place in mind, but you’re finances are still a little all over the place. We understand, moving is never as smooth as it should be. But that’s no reason to ignore your budget breakdowns before you make the move. Manchester today is thriving which is all the more reason why you need to calculate living costs and relocation costs too. If you’re struggling to finalize a budget plan, you can always rely on your Manchester estate agents to help you with the necessary details.

Creating your Moving to Manchester Checklist

This point goes hand in hand with the budget planning. This is where you consider living possibilities in Manchester. For example, you know where to live in Manchester, but are you aware of the best schools in and around the area? Do you know about their fee? Do you already have a job in place or are you entitled to student benefits? Discuss these in length beforehand.

Seeking Professional Assistance

Now if you’ve never been to Manchester before, or you have no ties in this city, shifting alone can be quite taxing. Imagine having to do so much in so little time and that too without proper knowledge. This is why we recommend connecting with a local real estate agent who knows the ins and outs of the place. Now, here’s our second important question- Where can you find a trustworthy realty agent? We at Top10PropertyAgents have the largest director of top-notch letting agents Manchester. All you have to do is visit our official website and search our listings for the best agent in Manchester.

Search, compare, and connect with your suitable real estate agent by browsing through our index of acclaimed real estate agents in Manchester today.

How to Find a Flat in London?

A Complete Guide to securing the best flats in London for yourself

It can be the soaring real estate market or the growing need to find yourself more than just a “decent enough” accommodation, finding a flat in London is no episode of DIY SOS. You won’t have professional home-building crews buzzing your doorbell anytime soon, but what you can have is a meticulous theory to hunting down the perfect flat for yourself. London real estate is considered to be one of the most ballooning industries of all time with the steep rent often discouraging many a hard-worker from investing ample time or effort into digging up the right dirt. However, we have researched some of the most successful ways people have hunted down the perfect abode for themselves, and if you find yourself in the middle of a similar quest, this streamlined piece is a must-read for you.

Don’t Budge from your Budget

Your budget for the entire ordeal is quite possibly the very first thing you should consider when it comes to finding the perfect flat. London’s real estate has never been any steeper and it shows. However, that does not mean you can’t get to live in a dream flat. The key to budget control is to have a clear idea of exactly how much you are willing to spend on your flat. You can be looking for a permanent solution to a luxurious stay or simply look at renting options that seem feasible enough, but either way going out of your budget always seems to be a bad idea. You wouldn’t want your sporadic decisions of the present projecting tough times for you in the future. Experts reveal, housing costs in London can be as high as 50% of your net take home and that’s why a strict budget range can save you a good deal of your time. Select your budget range and keep that in the forefront always as you go about selecting your preferred flat.

Itsy Bitsy Indulgences

While you may have a fixed budget that you don’t want to budge from, you need to consider all the other miscellaneous expenses you might incur during the flat finding process. In fact, these small expenses continue even after you’ve secured the flat for yourself and hence, some rainy day money on the side would be good for you. You wouldn’t want to miss out on the deal of a lifetime.

Homework Time

Take your homework seriously before you head out. We are not talking about having a brief overview of the housing market, but an elaborate portion of knowledge on ‘where and how much’. The first thing to consider when you’re looking for a flat is the competitive price range that is currently trending in the market. Some peeps end up paying £640 with additional £80-100 on bills while some settle for £500-550. However, these are strictly based on the area you want to inhabit and that brings us to the second part of our Homework Time. Your primary research should be encircling two broad questions- the place you want to stay and the number of people you’ll be accommodating with you. These two variable factors can change how you look at budgeting and areas. To give you a head start on the factors people frequent when they are looking for a flat, we have rounded up a few factors in our next point that you might want to consider.

Lifestyle Choices

Keep your way of living in mind before settling down for a flat. The first thing to consider when looking for a flat is the ease of convenience and that includes not just grocery stores and chemists in and around the area, but also distance from a place you frequent, readily available mode of transport, and more. Start by choosing the Zone of your choice. Usually, zone 1 to 4 is pretty conveniently located close to the Central London Tube Stations but the further you go from zone 1, the less feasible transportation seems. Once you finalize your preferred zone, you can zero in on the area to inhabit. Parallel to this should be your consideration of the number of flat sharers you would want to live with. Just remember, with the flat prices and the rents soaring higher and higher, the more the merrier seems just about right, but don’t over-cramp your flat with that given thought. Find out the fine line between flat-sharing and finding your own space and settle down for that.

Now, we move on to the most important question of the hour, with all the research and budgeting at your fingertips, how will you go about the flat finding part?

Flat Finding at the Least Stressful Way Ever
  • Try Property Websites- Modern problems call for modern solutions and hence when it comes to hunting down the perfect flat in today’s world, the World Wide Web has the answer to your queries. You can often find innumerable online platforms that have a diverse range of flats ready for you to move in. However, there’s a catch. Online is often misleading and we don’t want you putting your efforts in the wrong direction. Hence, we request you to always have a crisp and clear brief about the website you’re frequenting.
  • Try the local daily- You can even make yourself a regular at the local newsstand where the dailies list up a bunch of available options for you to surf from. With the internet sometimes playing the careless cousin, we would often want to put our faith on something more traditional and concrete, and the local daily could not have been a better place.
  • Don’t shy away from word of mouth- Sometimes a jewel of a place can just be a stone’s throw away, only if you speak to the right person at the right time. Even though it may sound superfluous or unreliable, often someone close to you may have the answer to what you’re searching for. All we are saying is, don’t dismiss an opportunity of finding out from your friends and acquaintances whether they know of a sudden flat landlord looking for a keen tenant.
  • Get yourself a Real Estate Agent- Even after everything, if you’re still not satisfied with the place of your choice, we suggest getting in touch with a real estate agent who likes you. Yes! This is important. We have all had our fair share of animosity towards real estate agents but the truth is, whenever a property gets listed on the market, it’s your real estate agent who gets the first dirt on how and what. Even if you don’t like them much, you need to make sure you are one of the first applicants they call before putting the property out on the market once again.

Once you’ve found the flat that you’ve been looking for, there are a few other integral procedures you should complete. This includes checking the place for termites, signs of dilapidation, and so on to make sure you don’t find yourself going over the whole process once again in a few months. If the place you’ve chosen comes with a few existing tenants, make sure you converse with them before saying yes to the place to make sure harmony prevails even after you move in. Apart from there are paperwork and more to be kept in mind, but with the right preparation, this whole process won’t seem so tedious.

Can a Residential Real Estate Agent Sell Commercial Property?

Residential real estate agents and commercial property agents hail from the same field. The one obvious similarity is that both agents deal with property. The distinguishing factor becomes the type of property each specializes in. Residential property agents deal with the buying, selling and renting of property for one’s personal use. A good example of residential agents is Reeds rain and Premier residential lettings in Manchester.

Commercial property agents, on the other hand, handle business or investment use of real estates. These agents represent investors who wish to buy and sell a property by advising them on risk matters and ensuring they get ROI. They also find new spaces for client businesses and carry out leasing of properties. An excellent example is Knight Frank commercial property agents Manchester, London etc.

Now, to expound other differences, we would have to consider several factors. For starters what skillsets do they have? What type of transaction do they deal with and what is the nature of the property they deal with etc.

Skillset.

Let’s begin with the most basic component that determines a residential agent ability to sell commercial properties.  Selling a property requires certain skills that both agents; residential or commercial must possess. Agents are expected to be patient, courageous and able to communicate effectively. However, these skills are not enough, selling commercial properties require an in-depth understanding of economic matters. Commercial agents deal with properties that necessitate them to have knowledge on aspects such as gross rent multiplier, cap rate, Internal rate return, etc., concepts residential agent might not be familiar with.  Nonetheless, in instances where residential agents are conversant with commercial property components, commercial transactions can be made. Take for example a residential agent with vast knowledge on cash flow analysis, rent rolls, cap, and internal rates. These skillsets put him/her in a position to transact commercially.

It is important to note that there are agencies that are both residential agents and commercial property agents. An example is Candrproperties.co.uk commercial property agents Manchester. It is a top-rated agency in Manchester that specializes in both real estate and commercial property. Their agents/ property consultants are trained in all aspects of the business to provide an innovative and personal service to all their customers and clients whether they are buying, selling, renting or want advice on property investments.

Nature of property.

The nature of property is another key determinant. It addresses aspects such as the number of dwelling units, type of building, size etc. If you wish to sell or buy a property with more than four dwelling units, you might need a commercial property agent. To secure such kind of deals one needs to secure commercial real estate loans which have restrictive processes and technicalities that might be difficult to be carried out by a residential agent. Contrastingly, deals that do not require deep commercial knowledge can be successfully carried out by residential agents. For example, a residential agent in Manchester can value a small commercial property using comps. Assigning this type o transaction to a residential agent would benefit an investor because of the attention it would be awarded by the agent.  A commercial property agents Manchester who is equipped with handling bigger transaction might arguably not award small deals the seriousness it deserves

Partnering with a commercial agent

A residential estate agent can sell commercial property by working hand in hand with a commercial agent. Working with a  commercial agent not only offers independent analysis but also helps achieve the highest possible rates for the client.

A drawback for qualified residential agents is the issue of databases. Most commercial companies keep their own database of available lease spaces.  Therefore, a residential agent who is qualified might not have access to this “private” mls of lease spaces.

Wrap up

In conclusion, it is evident that there are instances where residential agents can sell commercial properties. However, it is advisable to choose a skilled agent depending on the type of property you are dealing with. If you are dealing with property for personal use, then go with a residential agent while commercial agents are best suited for commercial property. Working with an expert gives you value for money and service.