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How to Become an Estate Agent in UK

Becoming an estate agent in the United Kingdom is a great choice for many people as it doesn’t require any license or specific educational degrees to start with.

Besides, there are people who don’t just go after real estate professionals only for earnings, rather they love it to meet different people with their dream properties.

Like any other profession, you need to gain sufficient knowledge and skills to become successful as an estate agent.

Today in this article I will share with you a step by step in-depth guide on how to become an Estate Agent in UK.  I will, also share major estate agent types, estate agent’s duties, and how to set up an estate agent agency in UK.

What Does an Estate Agent Do?

What Does an Estate Agent Do?
9 Things A Real Estate Agent Do on Daily Basis

An estate agent meets different people with their desired property, and helps them with the rental process. They do this on behalf of clients or independently.

The revenue an estate agent generates is from the fees and commission. The fees vary on the types of services and the clients.

You will usually be paid a pretty good amount of money if you can handle everything properly and deal with clients better.

Though the better payments come for the prize of your hard work, creativity, negotiation skills and dedication to the work. So you shouldn’t expect anything huge at the beginning of your career in this field to avoid any unusual frustration.

What you need to do is stay focused on your work, continuously try to develop skills and work hard. That way you will be able to reach to a pretty good position in the real estate industry.

Estate Agent Types

Types of Estate Agent

There are mainly two types of estate agents working in the UK market. They are residential estate agents and commercial estate agents.

A residential estate agent’s job is to list properties, accompany clients to viewings, and eventually help both the property owner and the buyer get the best deal possible.

An estate agent works as a middle man in selling the properties to the customer. The estate agent needs to make sure that the deal ends in a way where the property owner and the buyer both find themselves in a win-win situation after the deal.

Property management is normally needed in residential lettings. You’ll need to position properties on the market, select landlords, and schedule viewings. Then you must manage continuing contact with tenants as well as any property-related issues.

Commercial estate agents typically sell and rent out unused properties that are usually used by companies for a variety of purposes.

What happens in case of commercial estate is that there are many houses that aren’t used by the owner anymore. A commercial estate agent deals with the house owner and then sell or rent these houses to other parties in a good deal.

Commercial property covers stores, offices, and warehouses, but it may also include land and specialized areas such as forestry and caverns.

A Step By Step Guide To Become An Estate Agent In UK

Earn A Degree Property and Estate Management Degree

Although to become an estate agent in the UK you don’t need any specific degree or certification but still, it’s always recommended to get a degree.

A degree will build you a strong foundation to get started as an estate agent professional. It will teach you the fundamental skills you need to excel in your job.

Moreover, when you apply to any company for the estate agent position you will get an edge over others. The employer will surely give extra value to your degree.

There are many universities that offer Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in real estate in the UK. Find out one that suits you best and get enrolled there.

Enrol In Any Certificate Program In Real Estate

I understand it’s not possible for everyone to put 3-4 years of effort to earn a Bachelor’s degree. But fortunately, there is another option available that will give you the knowledge, skills and certification to get started.

There are some certification courses available in Estate Management offered by different organizations. You can enrol one of them and earn a certification upon completion of the course.

What is interesting is that many of these certificate courses will teach you the core skills in several months, usually 3-6 months.

After taking the course you can straight away apply the knowledge in real life and showcase the certificate to employers when you are in search of jobs.

At LIBM, we have a comprehensive Real Estate Agent certificate training course to teach you fundamental knowledge and skills to kick start your career. Have a look at it. Who knows it might be the ticket to your career as a real estate agent.

Master Negotiation Skills

To bring your customers the best deal possible, you’ll need to negotiate with sellers, buyers, and other parties on regular basis.

Your negotiation skills will help you to set the best possible price for your client and bring the best outcomes.

Learn how to set, increase and decrease the price at the right moment so that the deal is done finally with the best results.

Keep in mind that despite giving your best shot you may miss some opportunities and just don’t take it too seriously as it happens sometimes.

When negotiating with different parties dont just take it personally, rather think that it’s a part of the business.

Improve Your Communication Skills

As an estate agent professional, you have to regularly communicate with different types of people regarding different issues.

A good ability to communicate with others will help you build a healthy relationship with different parties and bring out the best deal.

The ability to communicate clear, concise and to the point will create a positive impression about you to the people you are talking to.

So put some effort into developing your communication skills. You can enrol in any short courses on communication skills if you can’t figure out where to start with.

You can check out this Communication Skills Training from Training Express if you are considering to enrol in any courses.

Improve Your Interpersonal Skill

When working as a real estate agent interpersonal skill is one of the most crucial skills you need to become successful.

It is essential to develop positive relationships with prospects and existing tenants, as well as applicants and landlords.

That way you will be able to get the best out of your job. And one of the skills you will need most to perform these tasks is great a set of interpersonal skills.

Gain Knowledge in Sales and Business

At this point, you might be wondering why a real estate agent requires knowledge in business and sales.

The answer is simple. As a real state agent, you will need need to sell properties to customers. With sales knowledge and skills in your pocket, you will be able to do this quite easily and conveniently.

And when you are in search of a job you can convince the employer that you have got the necessary sales skills to convince customers.

And real estate is a real business that requires tasks to do regularly that other types of businesses also need to do. So without good business knowledge, it will be difficult for you to stay in the field and become successful.

So invest in developing your sales and business knowledge and skills to become successful as a real estate agent. You can enrol in our premium Sales and Marketing Course to gain comprehensive knowledge and skills in sales and marketing.

Work as an Apprentice in a Real Estate Agency

Now that you have built a good foundation in real estate, it’s time to gain practical experience in the industry.

While working as an apprentice you will be able to directly work with expert real estate agents, learn from them directly and share your opinions and queries with them. They will teach you what it takes to become a successful estate agent.

While working with agencies, you will be able to explore the different agency types like commercial, rental and residential. You will get to know how different types of agencies work to produce the best outcomes.

You can contact local real estate agencies for apprenticeship opportunities. You may go through the formal process to join one of them as every business organization have its rules and regulation in recruiting someone.

Create a Killer CV

Now that you have gained some hands-on experience in real estate by working as an apprentice, it’s time to get the dream job you have been looking for.

First, you need to read the job description thoroughly, look for what they want most from a candidate and think of how you can approach them so that they hire you for the position.

Based on their requirements create a CV that stands out. Mention the skills you have related to the job description. For example, they are looking for someone who has a certificate in real estate and if you have one then mention it in the CV.

You should use power words that are related to the real state agency skills in your CV to grab the attention of the employer. For example using words like ‘’great interpersonal skill’’, ‘’good at working with people’’, ‘’great in communicating with others’’,’’ good negotiation skills’’ etc.

If you are not sure of how should you can make a CV that attracts the employer and eventually helps to get the job then does some study online on it. You will find a lot of good resources. 

Alternatively, you can discuss the matter with one of your seniors in university or job who have good knowledge about creating a stunning CV.

Apply For Estate Agent Jobs

Now that you have everything in your pocket to kickstart a full-time job in real estate agency it’s time to apply to different companies for the job. 

There are many popular online job portals in the UK where you can search for jobs. Apart from that, you can talk with your professors in university or friends and seniors to get help you find a job.

You can also attend job fairs, talk with different companies and look whether any companies are looking to hire for estate agent positions.

Apply Directly In Existing Real Estate Business

If you have some experience in the real estate field and have a good degree, then you might consider directly applying for the estate agent position in the real estate businesses available in your area.

I know it’s a bit daunting to do, but if you have good skills and knowledge and confidence in performing great then you can give it a try.

Those who are completely new to the real estate business world shouldn’t apply this technique at all. Because the companies won’t give that much value to someone who is fresh and have no real-life experience in the real estate business.

Setting Up A Estate Agency

If you worked in the real estate industry for a while and gained a good level of skills and experience then it might be a good idea to launch a real estate agency. 

I understand many people don’t like it to go through the hassle of building a business from scratch and growing it. 

But the reality is if you can put in some extra hard work in building a business then you will see a significant boost in your earnings. 

Besides, there are people who don’t like it to work under others. Rather they want to be their own boss and manage everything according to their need.

In this portion of the article on how to become an estate agent in UK, I will share with you a step-by-step guide on how to set up an estate agency in UK. If you want to be your own boss in your career as an estate agent professional then this segment is for you.

Create A Business Plan

No matter what type of business you intend to do you always need to create a business plan at the beginning. And in the case of building an real estate agency, the principle is no different.

Write down everything you are gonna do in the coming days to grow your business and generate a healthy profit.

Decide how you will approach, how you will conduct your regular task, how the management system will go, how many employees you need and in what position you want to see the business after a certain time period.

Some people jump into the business world without any planning. In most cases eventually, they fail in the business and need to move on from the profession of business owner.

I personally urge every person to put on some extra effort behind developing a master business plan who wants to build real estate agency.

Choose Your Business Location

To run a business you need premises for your business. And you would definitely love to set your business where a good amount of people are interacting everyday.

But the problem with these types of locations is that they are quite expensive. And as a new business owner, you won’t like to put a big investment behind your business premises.

That’s why you need to take time and analyze the potential locations. Then search for the place where you will be able to run your business smoothly and the cost is reasonable too.  Yes, it will take some time and effort but the result you receive at the end is worth it.

Do Marketing For Your Agency

Without marketing your agency you won’t be able to create a presence of your business in your locality. Besides people won’t know about your agency and won’t be interested in taking services from you.

You can use different marketing channels like newspapers, leaflets, websites and online marketing to market your business.

For online marketing, you can show display ads to the targetted audience of your business area, social media marketing to the audience of your business area and promote your business on websites like Zoopla, RightMove etc.

Give people an overview of your business services, characteristics and good sides. Try to create trust among the people about your business.

Let the prospects know why you are different from others and try to create something positive about your business in the mind of the people that will last for a long period of time.

Throughout your agency’s business cycle,  you continuously need to put in Marketing effort to grow and create a place in the mind of the people about your business.

Consider Insurance

It’s crucial that you build trust in your clients and having insurance will help a lot in building trust for your business.

Consider different types of insurance like employer’s liability insurance, public liability insurance, business interruption insurance, professional indemnity insurance etc.

This insurance will create a sense of trust and reliability among the customers and help your business to grow faster.

How To Start An Online Estate Agency – The Fundamentals

For the last 10-15 years we have seen more and more people coming to the internet world. People now spend a pretty good amount of time on the internet. And it attracted many people and businesses to do marketing online and grow their business.

In the estate agency business, there is a lot of room to build a business on the internet. There are many estate agent agencies in the UK that are doing pretty good in their business.

One of the biggest benefits of building an online-based estate agency business is that you can minimize the cost a lot. You don’t need to pay office rent and other utility expenses in the office. All you need is a laptop, mobile and internet connection.

The first thing you need to build an estate agency business online is to create a website that is beautiful looking and user-friendly.

You can use different channels in online to market your business like social media marketing, display ad, paid search marketing and organic search marketing.

Of course to achieve great results from different online marketing techniques you need to have a good grasp of Digital Marketing.

In case you aren’t good at it, you can hire a part-time or freelance Digital Marketing employee for your business. It will cost some money but the amazing result you will receive is completely worth it.

While running your business online make sure that you respond to yo your prospects promptly on different platforms, and provide great customer supports to your customers. Try to make every process as much easy as possible for the customers.

When it comes to the point of how to become an estate agent in the UK and earn a pretty decent earning then building an online estate agency is one of the most cost-saving and profitable options to consider nowadays.

Estate Agent Earnings and Working Hours

The income varies a lot depending on your skills and experience. But usually, an estate agent’s income falls under  £25000-£40000 per year.

And if you are running a real estate agency then you can earn much higher depending on how much effort and dedication you put behind the business.

For working hours, an estate agent needs to work usually 35-40 hours a week which is the same as the typical working hours for most job holders in UK.

But if you run your own estate agent business then you might need to work extra working hours to produce great results from your business.

Final Words…

Building a great career as an estate agent professional in the UK is comparatively easy and highly rewarding since there is no formal degree required to work in this field.

But like many other professions, you need to have good knowledge and skills in real estate to have a successful career.

But with the abundance of resources available in this modern era, it’s not that much difficult to earn essential knowledge and skills. Our Property Management Bundle Course is a great option you can consider to grow your knowledge and skills in real estate and property management.

In this article on how to become an estate agent in UK I tried to cover everything you need to know to build a fantastic career in the real estate business. I hope the article will immensely help you to build a successful career.

Estate Agent Diploma Level 3
January 4, 2024