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Estate Agents Services

Estate agent is a United Kingdom term roughly synonymous in the United States with the term real estate broker, a business that arranges the selling, renting or management of homes, land and other buildings. However in many instances, estate agents are mainly engaged in the marketing of property available for sale and a solicitor is used to prepare and exchange contracts. In Scotland, however, many solicitors also act as estate agents, a practice that is rare in England and Wales.

It should be noted that, in Ireland, real estate is generally referred to simply as property.

Origin

The term originally referred to a person responsible for managing a landed estate, while those engaged in the buying and selling of homes were "house agents", and those selling land were "land agents". However, sometime during the 20th century "estate agent" started to be used as a generic term, perhaps because it was thought to sound more impressive.

Regulation

In the United Kingdom residential estate agents are largely unregulated (although legal provision exists to introduce regulation). Some estate agents are members of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), the principal body for UK real estate professionals. However, the vast majority of RICS members known as Chartered Surveyors who practice estate agency do so on commercial property.
For residential property a trade association, the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA), exists, but as a non-professional body it has limited scope for disciplining members when appropriate. The Ombudsman for Estate Agents Scheme, which obtained the British Government's Office of Fair Trading (OFT) approval for the Code of Practice for Residential Sales in 2005 and, as of November 2006, claims to have 2532 member agencies.
There is no legal requirement to belong to either organisation in order to trade as an estate agent. Due to the lack of effective regulation, dishonest and fraudulent practices may exist in the industry.

Selling fees

Estate agents selling residential property generally charge between 1/2% to 4% of the sales price plus VAT, depending on the contractual arrangement and whether an individual firm has sole rights to the sale.

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Horizon Properties helps to match you with ideal Canada real estate brokers to sell or buy houses in Canada or to move to Canada