A career in Estate Agency – is it for you?

Not the most important requirement for the job, although many of our clients are keen to recruit graduates as they very often have the ability to progress quickly within Estate Agency. Some clients offer specific fast-track graduate schemes towards management.

Estate Agency is a people industry, therefore, you need to be good with people from all walks of life. You should be confident without being arrogant, have the ability to remain calm under pressure, and possess excellent interpersonal skills. This is fundamentally a sales job, so it does help to have a persuasive but polite nature. Estate Agency is a dynamic, fast moving industry which requires a high degree of commitment and drive.

Estate Agency is a service industry, therefore you should be willing to provide one! This involves making yourself available to the public outside normal working hours. On average, the hours tend to be 8.30/9.00am through to 6.00/6.30pm Monday to Friday, with varying amounts of weekend work.

Salaries vary quite dramatically within Estate Agency, as what you earn will depend predominantly on how successful you are. When you start in the industry you might be given a guaranteed salary for your first three months; this figure will vary depending upon the employer concerned, the geographical location and how much they value you, but will probably be somewhere between £25,000 and £30,000. Once you come off this guarantee you can expect to earn a basic salary of somewhere between £18,000 and £22,000 (though this could be higher) with commission on top. This commission can either be based on your personal sales figures, or on the office sales figures, or on both. In total, you should earn somewhere between £25,000 and £35,000 in your first year, although many trainees have earned much more. Ultimately, you control how much you earn, as your sales ability will be reflected in your salary.

You will be dealing with the public on a day-to-day basis by phone, face to face or email. Your clients normally tend to fall into two categories; buyers (purchasers) and sellers (vendors). The vendors pay the estate agency fee for selling their property. This fee is usually based on a percentage of the property price i.e. if you have sold the property for £500,000 and you are charging the vendor 1%, your office will have made £5,000. Subsequently, if you are being paid 10% personal commission you will have personally made £500. Getting to this stage can often be a bumpy, unpredictable ride and this is where you will need to call on all your resources to make it as trouble free as possible for both your purchaser and your vendor.

The job of a negotiator is varied and is rarely desk bound. A negotiator’s day is divided between being in the office and out and about accompanying prospective buyers viewing properties. A negotiator may also be given a company car, but more often a car allowance. Some of our clients offer other incentives such as private health care, mobile phones, enhanced pension schemes and extended holiday entitlements. Many companies not only reward their high achievers with excellent bonuses and commissions, but with holidays abroad and other such prizes.