How to Start Up an Estate Agency

While many complain about estate agents, they are a vital part of buying a house. An estate agent is the representative of the person who is selling their house, and has a duty to get the best price for the owner. To set up an agency, you need to be able to convince someone to sell their house through you. This is much harder than it sounds, but worry not, as we’re here to help.

What Skills Do You Need?

Most estate agents don’t need any formal qualifications, but numeracy, literacy and organisational skills are a must. You must also have good communication skills, as you’ll need to assess a person and their needs.

Ideally, you need an understanding of property, consumer law and you will also need to be good at marketing and sales. You will need to market both yourself as a business, and your customers’ properties to potential buyers.

Qualifications from the National Federation of Property Professionals Awarding Body will boost your credentials and help you gain membership to the National Association of Estate Agents, which will help you gain trust later. You will also be required to know the Estate Agents Act and the Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Act.

Decide What Type of Estate Agents You Want To Be

The first thing that you need to take into account is which type of estate agents you want to be; high street or online.

A high street estate agent has physical premises, charges a percentage and often needs exclusivity and enforces a notice period. This type of estate agency has a large overhead, and you’re likely to have a lot of local competition.

An online estate agent, such as House Network, offers packages depending on your client’s budget, and operates solely online. You don’t do house tours, so you can sell property all over the UK. This type of agency has less of an overhead, but without physical premises, you may find it harder for sellers to trust you.

House Network are regulated by the Property Ombudsman scheme, which helps sellers to trust them, as well as being a legal requirement. As a start up you will also need to register with the Office of Fair Trading

Tips for Success

–          Have a safety net of a lot of investment, as estate agents can take a long time and a lot of money to set up.

–          Having a strong marketing strategy is important, whether you’re a traditional estate agent or an online one, so this is where you should invest your money first of all.