Becoming a real estate agent can be full of new experiences and a successful career choice if done right. It needs a great deal of practice and skillsets to become a successful real estate agent.
Working as a real estate agent provides a wide range of opportunities. You won’t be doing the same thing every day with various clients and properties coming at hand. You get to meet and work with a wide variety of people. Additionally, you will be your boss. You will get the pleasure of assisting buyers and sellers to go through a significant decision of their life.
If you are enthusiastic about the property market and want to build a career as a real estate agent, you have come to the right place. This guide will help you learn about how to become a successful estate agent in the most convenient way.
What is an Estate Agent?
Estate agents are professionals who help people find different properties. They have to earn a licence to manage property for their client. They assist people in buying or renting the most suitable property according to their price range. A real estate agent works in close connection with the property seller or property buyer. They help people find the right property for the exact purpose.
There are three types of real estate:
1. Dealing with residential properties like private homes and property management.
2. Commercial properties like industrial, official and retail space.
3. Land and estate management.
Real estate agents work on behalf of either seller or buyer. They specialise in dealing with commercial properties or residential properties.
The estate agents that work for sellers are called listing agents. They are responsible for advising their clients on pricing their property and preparing the property for sale.
Buyers Agents are real estate agents who work for property buyers. They search properties similar to their client’s need. Furthermore, the estate agent studies the value of the properties. They try to negotiate and crack a deal with the seller on behalf of the buyer.
A day in the life of a real estate agent may look like this:
- A real estate agent deals with customer enquiries.
- They check and taking pictures of different properties.
- Do pricing for properties.
- They give clients valuable advice.
- Advertising properties.
- Touring the properties with clients.
- They negotiate with the buyer or seller to agree on the best price.
- They contribute to managing the property.
How Much Does an Estate Agent Earn?
In your first three months as an entry-level estate agent, you may expect to earn around £15,000 and £25,000. After three months of experience, a real estate agent’s income in the UK may reduce. You are also expected to collect a commission for each sale you make. If you succeed in sales, you can expect to earn between £18,000 and £25,000 per month in your first year.
Estate agents make money by charging a percentage of the agreed-upon sale price to the seller. This percentage can range from less than 1% to 3.5% of the sale.
Generally, the higher your basic salary, the lower your commission. So you may get asked to be okay with a lower wage, don’t ignore the positions. This is because if you’re flourishing, a higher commission will make up for a monthly shortfall. Furthermore, as there will be lots of driving and travelling, many companies offer car or monthly travelling expenses.
Salary and commission may vary from place to place, but here are the typical salary of estate agents at different position:
- Trainee Estate Agents – £14,000 to £20,000, plus commission
- Experienced Estate Agents – £25,000 to £60,000, plus commission
- Managerial and high-end agency positions – up to £100,000
How to be an Estate Agent?
One of the most major financial activities in a person’s lives is buying or selling a home or property. The system is hard to buy or sell a property. So people seek the help of real estate agents when purchasing or selling property.
However, real estate is not the quick and easy money-making job everyone thinks it to be. But this career has the potential to give you a high-income and exciting lifestyle. In order to start your journey as an estate agent, below are the steps you can consider taking.
1. Understand if Estate Agent is the Right Career for You
Working as an estate agent is a dream job for many people. This is because of the income, flexibility of hours and the quick process required to become a real estate agent.
However, you must understand before starting a new career that your real estate success can be hard to achieve. Firstly, it depends on the ups and downs of the local economy. Secondly, it also depends on good business awareness and the desire to engage with customers and other professionals. Present your real estate business using an attractive real estate presentation and explain every vital point to gain customer engagement.
To successfully become a real estate agent acquiring the licence is not enough. You need to have a great understanding of the market, the ability to communicate properly. Moreover, you have to guide clients to find their suitable property. In the end, you have to negotiate sales and also need to have good decision-making skill.
A career in real estate needs a unique business plan. It requires:
- promoting yourself,
- generating and tracking leads,
- doing complex paperwork,
- giving customer service
- lots of other additional work before and after a sale.
2. Meet The Required Age and Educational Level
To enter into the real estate world and start taking over the career, you must be eighteen to nineteen years old. You must be a citizen of the state you live in. You must have a complete understanding of the geography and economy of the place to become a good estate agent.
Furthermore, you do not need a bachelor’s degree holder to become an estate agent. Instead, you can have a high-school or college degree to start your career as an estate agent. Many colleges offer courses to become real estate agents. They sometimes ask for a high school diploma or equal education level.
3. Take Real Estate Education
Doing a bachelors and masters in real estate will give you an upper hand in the real estate industry. However, estate agents don’t need to go to university. But having a degree in real estate will show your future employers and clients that you have gone through professional education and training to deal with properties.
In fact, a certificate course program is necessary if you do not want to go through university education. Before applying as a real estate agent, most states require candidates to have forty hours to three hundred hours of classroom or online courses. Besides, these courses may take three to four months, and different community colleges also offer real estate training courses.
4. Take the Estate Agent Licence Exam
Soon after you have completed your real estate courses, you can sit for your estate agent’s test. Your pre-licensing courses should all lead to a Real Estate Licensing test. Moreover, it involves collaborating with customers, negotiating, forming a deal, and following real estate law. The process of taking the exam varies from state to state. For more details, contact your state’s real estate regulatory agency. Some state requires identity verification and background checks. To be safe, the application and paperwork process should be done before registering for the licence exam.
However, passing the real estate exam can be challenging. It needs lots of preparation, and you may want to take classes to prepare yourself for the real estate exam. For a lot of candidates, it takes more than two attempts to pass the exam.
Our Estate Agent course will help you get started with real estate training and enrich your real estate knowledge to develop in your career. This course looks into depth in every aspect of becoming a successful real estate agent.
The course hours will also prepare you for the real estate licence exams and give you hours of training.
5. Work with a Licenced Real Estate Company
In most places, they do not give you a licence immediately. Meanwhile, you can work in a real estate company. You can gain lots of experience by working under a real estate company. Working with a licenced company will help you gather knowledge about the industry. You can work as a trainee estate agent and work under experienced real estate agents.
In this way, you will learn what it takes to be a successful estate agent. Moreover, you can seek advice and tips from them. Real estate agents of Sheldon Bosley Knight In Leamington Spa are doing all-around estate services. They could be one of the best people you can talk
to if you are still learning.
There is a wide variety of employment option for who wants to become an estate agent. You can work individually or as part of a team under an experienced estate agent. You can gain more knowledge about the real estate transaction process and at the same time work on a salary.
This can be a good time for you to explore different real estate agencies like residential, rental, or commercial. Some agency maybe specialises in all types other specialises in one kind. Apprenticeship or training differs from company to company, giving you the opportunity to find what you are good at.
Furthermore, it is essential to gain experience, knowledge and skills. If you work at a company at the start, you will get all this, and you do not have to be entirely on your own. Being a part of a company will teach you the required communication, marketing and business skills that you will need to deal with clients and seller.
When you are confident enough, you can start your own real estate agency and showcase your experience.
6. Understand your Personal and Business Expense
Owning your own real estate firm can be a hassle. You need to have a backup fund upon which you can fall. You will not have a fixed income, and funding can be tight sometimes as you will be working on the commission. If you are confident about your skills and connections, then you can start your own business. You will be responsible for paying taxes, licencing your business, and taking responsibilities for any employees you hire. Hence, you cannot expect to profit right away. You have to be patient enough to wait and close a few deals with clients before you can see the actual profit.
Staying inside a company and getting promoted as estate agents can also be very profitable. While you can earn a decent salary, you will also get a commission. Working for a company relief you from all the headache that comes from running a business alone.
A partnership can also help you start a real estate business. This will help you divide some workloads that come with owning a business and also help in establishing a successful real estate agency.
What Skills Estate Agents Need?
An estate agent must be very communicative, smart, and analytical and need to handle the clients with charms and calmly. There are a few skills that an estate agent must have. Having the following skills can lead you to a successful career as an estate agent.
1. Communication and Interpersonal Skills
Communication skill is without any doubt what an estate agent must-have. They need to deal with clients of different personalities every day. From listening to them to understanding, needs are compulsory for an estate agent. An estate agent must enjoy talking to people face to face. You have to be available during your regular working hours, and also you must reply to your emails, messages and calls on time.
3. Sales
Basic sales skill is important in the real estate industry. Sale skill is just not about getting your clients the best offers possible. It also depends on negotiating, making clients understand your strategies to get the most suitable property, picking up a new business, and finding ways to limit expenses for your company.
4. Customer Service
Customer service means that you keep your clients in your circle and clarify the process. In addition, a good estate agent keep in regular touch with the client throughout and after the transaction. Moreover, this skill will strengthen your interaction with your clients in the process and help drive sales through referrals from previous clients.
People and relationships are more important in real estate than the properties alone. More business can come through word-of-mouth referrals and positive personal experiences. Regardless of your experience as a real estate agent, you should continue to keep educating yourself. This keeps you up to date with any improvements to the law of real estate. Staying up to date with real estate trend informs you about new ways to improve your real estate business.
FAQs
1. How do you become an estate agent?
Becoming an estate agent involves obtaining relevant qualifications, such as a license or certification, through accredited training programs. Afterward, aspiring agents typically seek employment with a real estate agency or brokerage firm, where they receive further training and guidance from experienced professionals to develop their skills and build their client base.