You have seen the flash cars and shiny suits and think you could win the next apprentice, then estate agency could be for you!
Unlike other countries England and Wales currently do not require any qualifications for you to become an estate agent.
You can start as simply as applying for trainee roles for your local estate agents and hope to be the chosen one.
Things you will need;
Outgoing personality, you will have to be speaking to customers over the phone and face to face in a daily basis and have to present your paying customers biggest asset to likely buyers.
Driving license, most companies unless your are working somewhere like central London will require you to drive. Some companies over a company car with all expenses paid and others will give you a car allowance but you’ll have to have business insurance to use your own vehicle so worth checking out that cost.
Time, this is the big one whilst estate agency is very well paid for those who are successful you will have to give a lot of hours to make it work. Depending on who you work for of course some smaller independent companies are a bit more friendly. The big corporates of the world are going to want you to work sometimes 6 days a week and late into the evening.
Weekends, you almost certainly as a negotiator will have to give up if not all but some of your Saturdays. Saturday is deal day and the day things happen so it’s likely you’ll want to be there to seal the deal and get those much needed commissions.
Patience, if you want to work in the sales side of things then you’ll need bags of patience. Sales can take months on end to complete depending on the situation. So it will take some time to build your sales pipeline.
Lettings is much quicker and your able to impact your next pay slip pretty much straight away, however the prize isn’t as big so you’ll need to do a good volume of deals.
Some agency’s allow you to be dual so you will do a bit of both which is great as they each discipline can be slightly seasonal. However this is more likely in an independent company.
CV, make sure your CV is looking good and you are well presented and practised on your interview. There are a huge amount of people trying to enter the industry so continue to apply as much as you can.
Recruiters can be your best friend, if you haven’t been able to get any responses to your adverts then look for there help they can build a bridge between you and the employer and be a cheerleader for you. There are a number that just specialise in the property industry some featured on our site.
