Highlights
Real estate agents, also known as sales agents and brokers, facilitate or negotiate the sale or purchase of any property, most frequently a home. An agent is usually the person managing a specific deal; a broker is usually the person running a firm that hires the agent. "Realtor" is the common name for an agent, although it is actually the formal title for a member of the National Association of Realtors, a trade organization that requires adherence to a code of ethics. The law does not require buyers and sellers hire an agent and a recent trend is a deal handled primarily between the two parties.
Because transactions are often complicated, every state requires agents and brokers be...
Because transactions are often complicated, every state requires agents and brokers be...
Real estate agents, also known as sales agents and brokers, facilitate or negotiate the sale or purchase of any property, most frequently a home. An agent is usually the person managing a specific deal; a broker is usually the person running a firm that hires the agent. "Realtor" is the common name for an agent, although it is actually the formal title for a member of the National Association of Realtors, a trade organization that requires adherence to a code of ethics. The law does not require buyers and sellers hire an agent and a recent trend is a deal handled primarily between the two parties.
Because transactions are often complicated, every state requires agents and brokers be licensed. They must be high school graduates and pass a written test on basic transactions and laws. Most states require classroom instruction, training and, for some advanced positions, some experience selling property. Licenses usually must be renewed every few years and some states require continuing education credits to remain licensed. Agents can work for a buyer or the property owner. They usually are self-employed people providing services as a contractor to a broker's firm. They locate houses to be sold, advertise the property, locate buyers, match buyers to properties that fit their needs, negotiate a price, prepare the paperwork, arrange financing and numerous other tasks. In 2004, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated about 460,000 people worked in the industry. Many worked part time, combining their real estate activities with other careers, because two sales can be days or months apart. The median annual earnings of salaried real estate sales agents, including commissions, were $35,670 in May 2004. Commissions on sales are the main source of earnings, usually a percentage of the sale price. The money is usually split between the agent who listed the property and agent who made the sale to a buyer. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics warns that getting a job is easy, but competition is stiff from experienced agents and is dependent on the volatile swings of the housing market. The job has been made easier in recent decades because of computerization, which allows potential buyers to screen out scores of possible homes with online virtual tours.
Because transactions are often complicated, every state requires agents and brokers be licensed. They must be high school graduates and pass a written test on basic transactions and laws. Most states require classroom instruction, training and, for some advanced positions, some experience selling property. Licenses usually must be renewed every few years and some states require continuing education credits to remain licensed. Agents can work for a buyer or the property owner. They usually are self-employed people providing services as a contractor to a broker's firm. They locate houses to be sold, advertise the property, locate buyers, match buyers to properties that fit their needs, negotiate a price, prepare the paperwork, arrange financing and numerous other tasks. In 2004, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated about 460,000 people worked in the industry. Many worked part time, combining their real estate activities with other careers, because two sales can be days or months apart. The median annual earnings of salaried real estate sales agents, including commissions, were $35,670 in May 2004. Commissions on sales are the main source of earnings, usually a percentage of the sale price. The money is usually split between the agent who listed the property and agent who made the sale to a buyer. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics warns that getting a job is easy, but competition is stiff from experienced agents and is dependent on the volatile swings of the housing market. The job has been made easier in recent decades because of computerization, which allows potential buyers to screen out scores of possible homes with online virtual tours.
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Vick wants to sell Georgia home at auction
Associated PressMichael Vick is asking a bankruptcy judge to allow him to sell his eight-bedroom home in the Atlanta suburb of Duluth at auction. The house has been on the market for more than a year and is listed at $4.1 million. The imprisoned former NFL star...Tags: Newport News (Newport News, Virginia), National Football League, Auction Service, Michael Vick, Real Estate Buyers
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Vick seeks bankruptcy court's permission to auction Ga. home after price drop, year on market
Associated Press WriterRICHMOND, Va. (AP) — After more than a year on the market and a $400,000 price reduction, Michael Vick's eight-bedroom home in the Atlanta area will go on the auction block if a bankruptcy judge agrees to the move. The imprisoned former NFL star...Tags: Justice System, Football, Internal Revenue Service, Financially Distressed Companies, Court Administration
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British historian Christopher Hibbert, who wrote on Revolutionary War, dies at 84
LONDON (AP) — British historian Christopher Hibbert, whose popular books covered subjects from the medieval Battle of Agincourt to the American Revolutionary War, has died. He was 84. Hibbert died Dec. 21 in Henley-on-Thames, west of London,...Tags: History, Elizabeth I, American Revolutionary War, Venice, World War II
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Chicago real estate executive kills himself, police say
Tribune reportersA Chicago commercial real estate broker committed suicide in a Kane County wildlife preserve, police said Monday. A maintenance worker discovered the body of Steven L. Good, 52, of Highland Park, Monday morning behind the wheel of his Jaguar parked in...Tags: Crimes, Suicide, Police Investigations, Injuries, Police
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Roadblocks to real estate deals on the rise
In a word, it's been dead. True, it's usually dead in residential real estate offices during the holidays. But this December gave new meaning to "dead." Existing-home sales? Dead. New-home sales? Dead. Real estate prices? Dead. Yet just when you...Tags: Sales, Real Estate Sellers, Chicago Real Estate, Homes, Real Estate
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9 Tips for Selling in 2009
Special to The Morning CallWhat can you do to speed the sale of your home in a down market? We asked more than two dozen real estate agents and home builders in the Lehigh Valley for their best tips. Here's what they said: Price appropriately. The market has changed. You have to...Tags: Coopersburg, Real Estate Sellers, House Building, Furniture, Inventories
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selling tip
"Before putting your house on the market, take a few digital pictures. If you don't like what you see, chances are the buyer won't, either. Correct the problem before the pictures hit the Internet." - Angel LoBello, All Star Real Estate Brokers,...Tags: Real Estate Sellers
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Grieving over a garden: Moving away from your home garden can be difficult
Wanda Teays calls it "gardening grief": the experience of saying goodbye to a landscape you've tended with loving care, a landscape to which you've become so emotionally attached, you can't help but go back and see how new owners have maintained it --...Tags: Real Estate Sellers, Therapies, Separation Anxiety, Behavioral Conditions, Easter
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For rent
So with hotels across the region booked for this month's inauguration, you've decided to make a few bucks by renting out your home for the first time.
And now that you've got someone lined up as a renter, you're wondering what to do before you hand...Tags: Rentals, Contracts, Vacation and Timeshares, Google Inc., Trips and Vacations
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A little bit of Mayberry in Md.
Overshadowed by the government, historic and Naval Academy features of Maryland's capital city are intertwined communities that lie along Weems Creek. The development of the West Annapolis area dates to Elizabeth and Catherine Giddings, each of whom...Tags: Rivers, Banking, National Government, Dining and Drinking, Stock Broking
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Recycling with panache
With their restored 1918 loft and their 1946 Chevy pickup, the thrift-shop chairs they sit on and the vintage clothes they wear, fashion designer Elizabeth Kramer and real estate agent Robert Heller celebrate giving old things new life. Entering the...Tags: San Fernando, Furniture, Metal and Mineral, Boyle Heights, General Electric Company
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Managing deer populations durting hunting season
jennifer.smith@newsday.comOn a recent Sunday, a steady trickle of mud-spattered vehicles pulled in and out of parking spots for hunters using state-owned woodlands at nearby Rocky Point and Otis Pike Preserve in Calverton. The nearby Ridge check station is part hunter hangout,...Tags: Game, Mike Clark, Biology, Hunting, Long Island
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