Apprentice estate agents work with clients, attorneys, and other property experts to negotiate the sale and renting of residential and commercial properties.
As an estate agent, you will often specialise in selling or renting residential or commercial properties, businesses, or land on behalf of your clients. You will appraise and advertise properties to get the best possible price for your customer.
Throughout transactions, you will be in frequent touch with banks, building societies, mortgage brokers, surveyors, solicitors, and other estate agencies. Of course, you can be in charge of auction sales as well.
Responsibilities
Throughout your apprenticeship, you may help:
- value properties
- contact people looking to buy or rent about potentially suitable properties
- arrange viewing appointments and show clients around properties
- get feedback on viewings
- negotiate between buyers and sellers
- generate sales leads for mortgages and conveyancing
- call, email or meet with solicitors, financial advisers and surveyors
- manage auction sales
- work to meet sales targets
- update computer records.
Salary
- Starting salaries for an apprentice estate agent is in the region of £14,000 to £20,000 on-target earnings (OTE) for trainee posts.
- With experience, salaries can rise to £25,000 to £60,000, plus commission.
- At the higher end of the scale, in certain management positions, and particularly if you’re in a high-end London agency, you could be earning up to £100,000.
Working hours
You’ll typically work 35 to 40 hours per week, although this may be extended if you complete customer transactions. Working hours are often unsocial, such as occasional evening and weekend labour.
Working for yourself or as a freelancer is an option; with experience, you can create your own company. The economic health of the real estate market determines success. Part-time employment is prevalent.
Working environment
You could work in an office, at a store, at a client’s business or at a client’s home.
Qualifications
Qualifications you can achieve as an apprentice estate agent include:
- Level 2 Junior Estate Agent – Entry requirements for this level include some GCSEs, usually including English and maths, or equivalent, for an intermediate apprenticeship. This qualification will take 12 months to complete.
Skills
On an estate agent apprenticeship, you’ll learn:
- customer service skills
- the ability to sell products and services
- the ability to work on your own
- to be thorough and pay attention to detail
- persistence and determination
- patience and the ability to remain calm in stressful situations
- the ability to accept criticism and work well under pressure
- excellent verbal communication skills
- to be able to use a computer and the main software packages competently.
Employers
The vast majority of estate brokers work in private, independent firms. These enterprises range from small one-branch operations to large conglomerates with several sites.
Larger organisations may include specialist sections in commercial, rural, corporate, or residential property, planning, surveying, and property investment.
The entry competition level fluctuates according to the economy’s status, particularly in the real estate market. In good times, it is relatively easy to find vacancies; moreover, opportunities are only sometimes announced, so you may need to make broad queries on an informal basis.
Professional development
Starting as a trainee or assistant sales or lettings negotiator, you may advance to senior sales or lettings negotiator. In this role, you would build on your experience selling and renting other houses and land and working with higher-value properties.
You’ll go through an in-house induction, which will last one or two weeks and give you an overview of how the business functions and the legislation that governs estate agency employment.
CPD (continuous professional development) is promoted, and professional degrees are available. NAEA Propertymark, the UK’s largest professional estate agency organisation, offers several short courses in estate agency training and credentials.
Some vocations will also need qualifications and RICS membership.
Career prospects
A common route to progression is to become a senior sales negotiator and, subsequently, branch manager of a small office with more experience. You would oversee employees, conduct senior-level sales or lettings talks, and train junior sales negotiators as a branch manager.
With enough experience, you can progress to the area manager position, where you would be in charge of many branches.
Consider starting your own firm as a partner or sole entrepreneur.
Professional progress requires mobility since it may be necessary to move divisions or enterprises to advance to a senior level.
The rising popularity of low-cost online estate brokers threatens to undermine traditional high-street agents who demand far higher fees. However, due to the required labour, the DIY options will only be suitable for some people and unlikely to replace their more traditional counterparts completely.