Estate Agents fees v Solicitors fees

Ewarwoowar2

Conveyancing dept's of law firms work on very small margins. A residential prop solicitor is perhaps the lowest earning type of solicitor, after legal aid and criminal work.

A_Nice_Englishman

Why do/would people bother going to Uni , getting law degrees and becoming solicitors when they could leave school at 16 with no qualifications, work as estate agents and earn more?

bukup

A_Nice_Englishman wrote: »

Why do/would people bother going to Uni , getting law degrees and becoming solicitors when they could leave school at 16 with no qualifications, work as estate agents and earn more?

OH MY GOD how many times have I asked myself the same question!! All I can say is if I had my time again I would set up an estage agency ! and if you are young enough to follow my advice then do it, for god knows it is a profitable profession. GOOD LUCK

m00m00

because generally being an estate agent is a fairly short lived career only really suitable in the long run for people suited to high pressure sales jobs.

getting a law degree and qualifying fully, sets you up in a high paying career for life.

bukup

m00m00 wrote: »

because generally being an estate agent is a fairly short lived career only really suitable in the long run for people suited to high pressure sales jobs.

getting a law degree and qualifying fully, sets you up in a high paying career for life.

I beg to differ - they only move on because they have no idea what the hell they are talking about - only the good ones ever stay still and those who do stay still I have the most respect for. I can count on one hand how many agents know what they are talking about !!!

PasturesNew

Estate agents usually have a shop window on the High Street, which isn't cheap. A solicitor could easily work out of offices round the back.

Estate agents have to advertise the property - pay for advertising in the local papers. Solictors don't have the cost of advertising full pages in colour every week in 2-4 papers.

Estate agents have to produce copies of the house details, in colour. That photocopying isn't cheap.

I will admit that I don't think it is a "fair" way of charging now that house prices have risen so much, yet estate agents didn't have to do any more work for that. And they did have it easy as all they had to do was be available to show people round properties. No real selling skills involved there. Let's see how they perform in this new emerging marketplace.

A_Nice_Englishman

bukup wrote: »

OH MY GOD how many times have I asked myself the same question!! All I can say is if I had my time again I would set up an estage agency ! and if you are young enough to follow my advice then do it, for god knows it is a profitable profession. GOOD LUCK

I'm not sure I would class estate agency as a profession. To me a professional is one who has achieved certain qualifications and is a member oif a professional body. Lawyers, Doctors, Teachers and those few estate agents who are members of the RICS are. Other estate agents are not.


I'm very happy in my present carrer, but if I wasn't I would love to set up an estate agency that was run efficiently, where the staff knew and complied with the law and code of practice and cared about their customers. I think I could undercut the traditional agents but still return a decent profit.

bukup

PasturesNew wrote: »

Estate agents usually have a shop window on the High Street, which isn't cheap. A solicitor could easily work out of offices round the back.

Estate agents have to advertise the property - pay for advertising in the local papers. Solictors don't have the cost of advertising full pages in colour every week in 2-4 papers.

Estate agents have to produce copies of the house details, in colour. That photocopying isn't cheap.

I will admit that I don't think it is a "fair" way of charging now that house prices have risen so much, yet estate agents didn't have to do any more work for that. And they did have it easy as all they had to do was be available to show people round properties. No real selling skills involved there. Let's see how they perform in this new emerging marketplace.

what you say is quite correct in that their biggest expense is the advertising but dont forget in turn solicitors have to advertise too !! and that is never cheap !! What I will say is that agents will recommend solicitors who they know are good and capable of doing a quick turn around which in turn only benefits them in the long run as their commission is produced quicker. Many many occasions estate agents do make the error though of advising clients incorrectly which in turn creates havoc in a chain. If only agents knew the protcol solicitors have to go through, then perhaps they may be more careful when advising and charging their clients.

bukup

A_Nice_Englishman wrote: »

I'm not sure I would class estate agency as a profession. To me a professional is one who has achieved certain qualifications and is a member oif a professional body. Lawyers, Doctors, Teachers and those few estate agents who are members of the RICS are. Other estate agents are not.


I'm very happy in my present carrer, but if I wasn't I would love to set up an estate agency that was run efficiently, where the staff knew and complied with the law and code of practice and cared about their customers. I think I could undercut the traditional agents but still return a decent profit.

Of course estage agency is a profession for those that are any good at it - to be honest all it takes its a good sense of awareness, guts and determination and the contact of a good solicitor !!

A_Nice_Englishman

bukup, are you familiar with the Ombudsman for Estate Agents Code of Practice?

Would you agree that if estate agents complied with it sales would proceed more smoothly?