Honestly speaking, an estate agent is a mixture of a marketing person, a sales agent, and a private real estate counselor. This is a person who needs to have wild marketing skills, selling abilities and a thriving love for social interaction because an estate agent is the one person who can maximize the sale value of your house or property by advertising it in the best possible ways to the potential buyers.
An agent uses his/her sales skills to attract profitable buyers and negotiate a deal that is good for you.
Once a deal is done, the agent becomes an administrator and handles all the legal proceedings and money transactions for the concerned property. And if anything goes out of the plan, the agent works as the counsellor to get things back on track.
Types of Estate Agent
In real estate there are several types of estate agents specializing in different kinds of skills. Generally, the agents are divided into three main types, namely:
- Corporate Agents
- Independent Agents
- Internet Agents
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Corporate Agent
These are the agents working with large corporations or financial institutions involved in the real estate business either governmental or private. These agents trade under different brands and work as the target employees of a corporation. This is the major type of corporate agents in the UK and the USA.
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Independent Agents
These are the private agents who run a small network or a local branch of a real estate network. These are generally very well experienced people who have an estate agency for a long time and hence have the skills required to come out the best.
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Internet Based Agents
These are the types of agents working through the internet, and mostly relying on technology to give you better consultation. You can find a mix of experience in this type from well-experienced to just-starting-out agents.
The question is, do you, as a buyer or a seller, need to use a real estate agent?
It depends.
The answer is ‘no’, if you think you are capable enough to buy or sell a house privately and can do the marketing, sales, advertising and the legal proceedings of the whole process. However, this can be done only you think you have the time to organize and conduct viewings, to check the best-selling offers, to negotiate deals with the other party.
However, the more practical approach will be to use an estate agent because without one you would not be able to advertise your property well over the web or in newspapers. An estate agent will be able to save you from all the unnecessary research in this niche, extra waste of time, unrealistic buying or selling offers and negotiations and all the fuss of the legal work.
As it is rightfully said, ‘every man to his own’. It is better to consult the professionals and invest some money in them to save yourself time and hassle, and to also get a good profitable deal.
