by Amanda Ines

Created on: September 07, 2010

If the lay person on the street knew how much an estate agent has to work before they sell a property, or rather have the luck of selling a property and so earn their commission they would think twice before they accused them of making easy money.   And of course all of this is doubly hard nowadays during the great housing slump that we are going through.

A good estate agent is usually very knowledgeable of the area where he is selling. He knows all the properties inside and out, the pros and cons of the property and most important he knows the owners and has a good rapport with them. His aim is to try and sell the property but as he hopes to be in the business for a long time his aim is also to gain a good reputation both with owners and buyers and to keep this in tact.

He must listen to his buyer clients, understand and find what they are looking for and if he sees that they are not very sure themselves what they want, try and steer them in the right direction. It really is a question of having the experience to be able to marry the right property with the right buyer. Just as they say that in the world there is a right woman for the right man well the same goes in properties. A good estate agent, and one that wants to be recommended on to others by his happy and satisfied clients must never lie in order to sell a property because there is no need to do so.

Let us look at the following example to explain why a estate agent need never be anything but honest. There are buyers for everything in the world. There is the newly wed couple who want a brand new home right from the start and then there is the middle aged couple who have had experience in DIY and renovating homes. You have on your books a really old cottage in need of reforming and a brand new apartment in a high rise block. So there is no need to even show the young couple the cottage because you know it is not for them, it is reserved for the middle aged couple who no doubt will eventually come to you one day. You will show the young couple the new apartment and know that that is exactly what they are looking for.

A real estate agent has the responsibility of making sure that any property which he takes on is free of debts or problems and that it will be able to be sold all above board and legally. He will be in close liaison with the lawyers that deal with the property and be able to provide the interested buyer with all the information that he might need. He will also be there from the beginning to the end to try and smooth out any problems or misunderstandings that may occur between the owner and the buyer. He will do this because it is in his interest that the sale goes through and it is also in his interest because he wants to be able to provide a good service and wants both the owner and the buyer to trust in him. This part also comes under the heading of 'job satisfaction' which is doing your job to the best of your ability and getting pleasure from doing so.

Some sales can take place within four weeks of viewing the property and other sales take as long as a year to come to fruition, so real estate agents also need to be donned with the gift of lots of patience!

But at the end of the day, being an estate agent myself!, I have to admit and hope that you agree that we are worth the money, and especially when you think that to sell one property we at times may have had to show it to more than a hundred prospective clients and with each new client we have shown the same enthusiasm for the property as we showed with the previous client. It's easy to be enthusiastic with a perfect property but one can also be enthusiastic with a property that has the potential to be perfect with a little renovation work!.

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