What are Real Estate Agents and Their Duties
What Is a Real Estate Agent?
People turn to real estate agents for assistance when purchasing, selling, or renting homes, land, and other types of properties. Since there is no such thing as a national real estate licence, agents are required to satisfy the licencing requirements of their respective states.
Aspiring real estate agents, regardless of the state in which they wish to work, are required to complete a pre-licensing course at a real estate school that has been granted accreditation, take and pass their state exam, join a real estate brokerage, and activate their licence.
This final point is essential to understand. Agents are required to work for and be supervised by a licenced broker, who is responsible for ensuring that all of the agents in the office adhere to the laws and regulations governing the real estate industry.
Some real estate agents go on to become brokers, which is a more advanced role that requires both more education and more experience. Brokers typically have a greater number of responsibilities, the ability to work independently, and the ability to employ agents as employees.
Who Is a Realtor?
Although the terms Realtor, broker, and real estate agent all mean slightly different things, many people use them interchangeably. Brokers are the only ones who can legally operate on their own, as agents are required to work under the supervision of a broker.
However, in order to use the title Realtor, either an agent or a broker must be an active member of the National Association of Realtors (NAR), which is a requirement for using the title.
One of the most significant differences between a real estate agent or broker and a Realtor is that Realtors are required to be members of the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and adhere to the NAR’s stringent Code of Ethics. 1
If you deal through luxury realtors, you can make much better deals.
Duties of a Real Estate Agent
The question now is, what does an ordinary day in the life of a real estate agent look like?
Agents are tasked with a wide variety of duties and responsibilities on a daily basis, ranging from the generation of leads and marketing to open houses and the closing of properties.
However, the majority of agents begin their days by catching up on some form of administrative work, so they could:
- Immediately attend to incoming messages, emails, and calls.
- Perform processing on documents pertaining to real estate, including lease records and agreements.
- Appointments, open houses, showings, and meetings all need to be coordinated.
- Flyers, newsletters, listings, and other types of promotional materials should be created and distributed.
- Establish monthly, quarterly, and annual spending plans for your operations.
- Develop marketing plans for listings
- Update client databases
- Conduct research on available listings in order to compile comparative market analysis (CMA) reports.
- Maintaining one’s online presence by way of social media and websites
Many real estate agents hire an assistant to take care of their day-to-day administrative responsibilities because these tasks can consume a significant amount of their time. Because of this, the agent is able to make better use of their time and, as a result, achieve greater levels of productivity.
