EBATES = Cash Back !

Real Estate industry accommodates more professionals than you’d have imagined. Normally, we can think of only real estate agents or brokers when talking about careers associated with that sector. In reality, there are numerous careers stemming from this industry, some of them quite lucrative. Any profession that helps people in construction, buying, selling or renting properties will be termed as real estate profession. Good thing about most of these professions is that you are mostly working on your own (even when you are affiliated with another brokerage firm). Your income depends entirely on your efforts, which means, at the end of the day one can go home with considerable earning instead of those petty wages one gets from most of those salary based jobs. If you’ve got the basic requisites like determination, salesmanship and high ambitions, than you may try your luck in any of these professions. Getting some relevant degree or education will significantly increase your chances of success.

Let’s have a look at different types of real estate careers or professions you can embark upon.

Real Estate Agent:

One of the most commonly adapted careers is to work as an agent on behalf of real estate buyers or sellers. As an agent, you are working as a middle man between buyers and sellers, getting the commission whenever some deal is finalized. These days gents are further categorized under residential real estate agent (dealing with homes, apartments, bungalows) or commercial real estate agents (dealing with offices, retail stores, shopping malls), depending on their expertise and experience.

Home Inspection & Property Appraisals:

A buyer doesn’t necessarily need the services of home inspectors. However, most of them prefer to hire some specialists to secure the huge amount they are going to spend. A home inspector examines a property, looking for the defects, and warning you of potential vulnerabilities that may arise in near future. Both of these jobs are specialist jobs though, requiring some technical knowledge and skills.

Developers & Contractors:

Another career in real estate is to undertake the job of contractor or developer. A developer looks after all of the aspects of construction, from site selection to designing and supervising the construction work. The development company ought to have huge funds, complete understanding of labor laws, property laws, cost control and marketing skills.

Property Management:

Mostly commercial properties like shopping complex, condominiums, housing societies, etc are administered by professional property managers who are good at marketing, maintenance and financial issues. Another similar job is to work as a counselor, the nature of counseling can vary from expert advice on buying or selling a property to arranging the finance.

Ponds-and-Waterfalls

Ask just about any traditional real estate agent what he / she thinks about giving back part of their commission to their home buying clients in the form of a real estate rebate and you just put a stick in a hornet’s nest. Most Big Brand Name Real Estate companies continue to do business the traditional way and get away with out offering real estate rebates to their home-buying clients.

One of the biggest reasons traditional agents get away with not offering rebates is because most homebuyers are not very well informed about buyer rebates. How they work, where the money comes from, will a rebate affect the price they may pay for that next home or are they even legal in the first place? While there is no law on the books in any state that says real estate agents must offer a rebate. Homebuyers should at least know they exist and have some basic knowledge about how rebates work so they may make an informed decision when it comes to using an agent that offers a rebate or one that does not.

To be honest, just the word rebate sounds cheap. For me it congers up images of my dad mailing in a rebate form so he can get two bucks back on a case of Pennzoil. And, there is nothing wrong with that. A penny saved is a penny earned.

But, rebates provide homebuyers with far more than just a couple of bucks back. A good homebuyers rebate can add up to thousands of dollars off the price of your next home purchase. Rebates to homebuyers can range from one half of one percent to as much as two percent of the homes purchase price. The rebate my company offers (New Market Realty, Inc.) is 1.5%. So, on the purchase of a $300,000 home my buyer clients will receive a check and lower the price of their new home by $4,500. Now that’s money any homebuyer should want to get back!

But, it’s been very slow going for real estate companies offering rebates. Even with Nontraditional real estate companies advertising heavily online they still represent just a fraction of the $61 billion in commissions that were paid out last year in the U.S. real estate market. Discounting transactions totaled just 2 percent of home sales, according to results of a study issued this summer (2005) by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

The controversy surrounding rebates has The National Association Of Realtors taking a buyer-beware attitude. Mr. Stevens, current president of the NAR has been quoted as saying “In some senses, you get what you pay for.” Mr. Stevens has also been quoted, as saying home buying is “too big a transaction not to work with an expert.” Well, Mr. Stevens I personally don’t feel we, as Realtors should be trying to scare homebuyers back into the dark ages of traditional real estate. I also would like my readers to note that I am a dues paying, member in good standing, licensed Realtor

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