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Estate agents sell and rent out commercial and residential property, acting as negotiators between buyers and sellers.
You could work: weekends; on a rota
You may:
You could work in an office, at a store, at a client's business or at a client's home.
You can get into this job through:
It's not essential to go to university to do this job but you may have an advantage with a foundation degree, higher national diploma or degree.
Particularly relevant subjects include:
You'll usually need:
Some estate agents offer an intermediate apprenticeship as a junior estate agent.
You'll usually need:
You may be able to start as a trainee sales negotiator and learn on the job.
You could also start as an administrator in an estate agents or lettings company and work your way up.
Local knowledge of the area where you'll be working would be an advantage.
You could take a course through an industry body like Propertymark.
There are courses for people looking to take their first steps into the industry as well as professional development courses for people with experience.
You'll need to:
Estate agents often work on commission. This means that you have a basic salary and also earn a percentage of the sale or rental price of any property you sell or rent. You might start on a guaranteed salary for a few months and then move to a commission based salary.
You may also have the chance to add to your earnings through bonuses linked to meeting individual or company sales targets.
You can find our more about working as an estate agent from Propertymark.
You may specialise in residential or commercial properties.
With experience and a good sales record, you could be promoted from sales negotiator to senior negotiator and then branch manager.
Larger chains of estate agents may offer more opportunities for promotion than smaller companies.
You could also become self-employed as a partner in a firm or set up your own agency.