Estate agents.

[Starlightstarbright1]

My son has decided this is the career he wants.

Can I ask any estate agents about qualifications they need and what route they took to become an Estate agents.

Bumping for you.
I've wondered this before

Anyone ?

Ive worked in agency in the past. I dont think you need any qualifications but need to be smart and well spoken to work in the better or higher end ones. You can do some training on the job and a good Agent would want a trainee to do that eventually. Obviously now isnt a good time to go into it but agents are always looking for part time and saturday staff so their full timers dont have to work 6/7 days a week so he could try to get a job like this to get an idea about what it is like.

My background was office admin/pa work and i started doing saturdays when the kids were small.

It can be difficult to rise through the ranks as most offices are quite small and managers and senior staff tend to stay for a long time! The last place i worked staff had been at the same jobs for over 20 years!

Its not very well paid at the bottom - Often £14k plus some commission which Wont Be good in a slow market. Only senior negotiators and managers/directors make £40k plus as far as i know and this would also depend on how the market is.

Agents will make more in a busy market like london but will also work long hours - sometimes 0800-2000 - and may need to work saturdays and sundays!

I would look to see if there are any well respected family firms in your area - Although there arent many left these days! Some of the large national ones can be crap to work for and very pushy with targets all over the place which can be difficult to adhere to when the market is slow.

Thank you that is really helpful.he is 13 at the moment .

We have been talking about careers with options not that far away. He did talk about going for work experience. .

Often the bigger estate agency firms have other departments such as lettings, surveying, property management etc. Estate Agent is a sales role with targets and commission so you need the gift of the gab. If he isn’t sales inclined he might be interested in one of the other roles which would still involve visiting properties.
You can get degrees in subjects such as real estate management which would help if he wanted to pursue surveying. He could also think about if he wants to go down a residential or commercial route.

He can get his NAEA qualification, but you dont need it. Long hours and 6 day weeks but I managed it for nearly 10 years. A chain would offer better career structure than an independent but the atmosphere is v. Different.

Top three-

Emotional detachment
Creativity
Good at reading, writing and maths

My friend is an estate agent. She started out in an administrative position and worked her way up.

I started as a Saturday girl and worked my way up to branch manager. It’s one of those jobs where you either love it or hate it, and I think most people underestimate how hard you have to work and the amount of shitty, rude people you have to deal with! I love it though, been doing it 15 years now.

You don’t need any qualifications at the moment but by the time he is looking to start he probably will as the government have passed some legislation last year which will require all agents to have a minimum qualification. How this will work is yet to be determined but it’s certainly on the horizon.

There are estate agency apprenticeships available in some firms which might be an option but most people train on the job and just learn as they go. A driving licence is absolutely essential and lots of firms want you to have your own vehicle. I would say any interest in video/photography would be a massive bonus as well, lots of agents are working with drones now which you need a licence for. If he’s thinking he would like to go to uni then I personally would go for surveying as it gives lots of options and is much better paid than estate agency!

Get him to look into an RICS accredited Estate Management degree.

If he'd consider commercial property rather than residential the career path is much broader and the pay is generally much better!

Emotional detachment
Creativity
Good at reading, writing and maths

Not sure where you got this from, but I don't a agree with emotional detachment or creativity (DH was an EA for years, had his own successful business and I wouldn't say he's either of these)

I've noticed quite a few EAs admit to being dyslexic. Maybe they need to tell colleagues because writing presented to clinents needs to be spot on, and they need to ask for support, where as in other jobs it could be brushed over? My DD is dyslexic and I was really nervous about her going to work experience at an independent firm- when we mentioned to them that she was dyslexic they said she'd fit right in, as half of them were too! They also offered her a Saturday job once she's turned 16.

You do need have the gift of the gab, and be able to sell snow to Eskimos. People say if someone doesn't want to buy a house they won't, but DH seems to be quite good at convincing people to buy things they're not sure about.

The hours are long though, and include weekends. Because it's sales driven (often with a very low basic salary) people are happy to work long hours to make money.

If he can get his foot in the door with a weekend job, and leaves school with decent GCSEs/any old Alevel's he'll be fine. I think a lot of EAs start work after not doing very well at Alevels, although not because they're weren't bright enough.