A Day in the Life of an Estate Agent
Park up that flashy company car, enter the office just before nine in the morning, stick on the coffee machine, catch up on the voicemails and emails and then simply sit back and wait for the phone calls from buyers wanting to view your listings and valuation requests from sellers. Sounds about right, no?
Lots of consumers feel that it is quite an easy ride when it comes to estate agency, in fact when it comes to paying the commission the usual question occurs of ‘what did you do to deserve that money as you only needed to do a few phone calls and stick my house on Rightmove‘?
There are quite a few engaging and certainly educational videos that have been done by estate agency professionals encompassing what a day in the life of an estate agent is really like with some actually capturing clips during the day in a diary style format to give people an appreciation to what goes on during their working hours.
I myself, going back some years now, did work briefly within this sector as a negotiator / junior valuer and though this was before mobile phones and a computer per desk, though I feel it was still relatively similar to the responsibilities we see today, just that a lot more work required then IMHO due to lack of #proptech inventions.
- Early morning start, usually around 8:30/45 am arrive at office.
- Team meeting over tea / coffee to discuss what the day agenda is for everyone, achievements of the day before / week so far, reviews any offers received and any valuations / potential valuations.
- 9am will be each person starting their days agenda mostly catching up on emails and and voicemails to include replying to urgent requests. Here the well oiled machine, the team, gets in to action and each to their own assignments.
- Valuations will likely be mid morning on wards.
- Depending on size of office / department, mid afternoon meetings can take place especially with updates on new valuations / sales.
- Later afternoon will be catching up on emails and confirming any appointments for the next day.
Of course we are missing out plenty of actions that take place within an estate agency and we must also remember that natural footfall from the public can be quite extensive for high street estate agencies. Without question, any professional estate agency will tell you that it is the team which is the important part of the operation and how well organised and connected everyone is. Each team member will have their own roles to perform so to facilitate all processes from valuations to listing them on Rightmove to offers and completions of sales / key exchange. Varied skills are required for each role. The smaller the office and team then the more responsibilities each person has to adopt.
Roles that you have within estate agency include:
- Senior Sales Negotiator
- Negotiator
- Valuer
- Letting Agent
- Mortgage Advisor
- Marketing / Listings
- IT / HR (usually remote)
- Admin
If you search through YouTube and also TikTok you will find many examples of a day in the life of an estate agent videos of which many are quite accurate and factual, some less so and merely a vanity exercise focusing more on the glam side of things. TikTok video example.
You May Also Enjoy
Understanding House Value in the UK: A Simple Guide
What does latent defects insurance cover?
Breaking Property News – 24/04/24
An average rate of 6% for the first time since November – Rightmove’s weekly mortgage tracker
Understanding Property Valuation: A Simple Guide