Pros And Cons Of Becoming A Real Estate Agent In The UK

Pros And Cons Of Becoming A Real Estate Agent In The UK

A fact of life no matter what you do there will be things you like about your job and things you do not like about it. This is a common theme from street sweeper all the way up to being the president of a large corporation.

If you can ignore the negative aspects and focus on the positive ones then you stand to become a successful estate agent in London or the UK. Take some time to weigh the following pros and cons of being an estate agent.

Then make your decision if this is the career for you or not. Nothing is easy and estate agents face a lot of uphill challenges but the payoff is often worth the hassles.

How Become Real Estate Agent

The process is not hard and you usually will get trained on the job so that is one plus in favour of becoming an estate agent. But there are things you will need to help make this a successful career.

While there are no formal requirements to get a job as an estate agent, the broker you work for will require the following from you:

1. Customer service experience.
2. A sound knowledge and interest in the property.
3. A strong understanding of budgets and value.
4. Thorough knowledge of the local area.
5. Usually, a driver’s license will be required.

Then some additional requirements will be:

1. Excellent communication skills – both written and verbal.
2. A continuing enthusiasm and interest in the local property market.
3. Excellent negotiation skills.
4. Superb time management ability.
5. Selling skills and the ability to overcome buyer’s obstacles.
6. Maths and financial skills.
7. Strong administrative abilities.
8. Confidence and eagerness to achieve the best deals.
9. The ability to encourage others to think about alternative options.
10. Some employers may request that estate agents have a check through the Disclosure and Barring Service.

If you think you meet all of these requirements, then start looking for a good broker today. Once hired your broker will set you on a training schedule and make sure you get solid training.

If you learn your lessons well and employ those top and needed skills, then you should do fine.

Pros & Cons To Become An Estate Agent

Let’s start with the good news first. That way you won’t be overwhelmed by any of the negative aspects that are part of this industry:

1. Pros:

1. You get a salary and commission to start
2. You can create your own work schedule eventually
3. The opportunity to help people find their dream home is often and vast
4. Become an expert in valuation, property, and the area
5. Lots of hard work
6. Use your talents and skills
7. Learn a profession and work with professionals
8. Meet different people almost every week if not every day
9. Room for advancement, promotion, and opportunity to become a broker
10. Work with repeat clients, and get good recommendations

2. Cons:

1. Be the target for complaints
2. Long hours of hard work and study
3. Miss social events and family time
4. Lose a listing or sale
5. Few repeat clients
6. No safety net- emergencies can take you away from work
7. Have slow periods where you have no sales for a while
8. Ups and downs in business
9. Soft markets are not easy to endure

There are a lot of drawbacks to being an estate agent, but it can also be very rewarding work. Once you learn all the tricks of the trade, your career should even out and you should see better results.

The ley to being a good estate agent where you see more positives than negatives is patience and hard work. But work smart as well so you do not waste valuable time.

The Risks Involved In This Career

When you want to become an estate agent you need to see the whole picture. Not everything is as cheerful, rosy, or good in this industry. Aside from meeting some not-so-nice competitors and working too hard with long hours, there are other very real risks involved in this industry.

The Volatile Housing Market

This is expressed in many different ways. From a soft market where no one is buying or selling to it becoming a buyer’s market or a seller’s market. You never know what is going to happen.

Trying to stay on top of the market is a difficult job. Not only that but you also have clients who cannot make a decision, high-interest rates, different lending rules for real estate investors, and other issues that can make this career very frustrating.

Stress Levels

Because of the preceding issues, your stress levels can go up as you may not have any closings for several months. Or your selling clients are placing unrealistic expectations on you by valuing their property higher than its actual value.

Or you sold houses whose prices were very low. This affects your commissions and lowers your pay at the wrong time. Plus, you have lots of competition, that alone produces a lot of stress.

Legal Issues

A very big risk that is always possible. If you make a mistake, do not disclose a detail or two, or you fail to inform buyers of different and new details you could be sued.

You need to be accurate, disclose everything, and be fair and honest in valuing a house.

Your Safety

If you are not trained in self-defence, then your personal safety is at risk. Think about it, you are in a car or an empty house with strangers. You do not know what they will or can do.

Or the house is not in great shape and you trip and fall hurting more than your ego.

Some Final Words

When you want to become an estate agent contact us. Our firm has over 10 years of estate experience and we can help you handle all of these pros, cons, and safety issues. Take some time, give us a call and ask all your questions. We will be glad to answer them all.