What does a real estate agent do?

Determination of the sales value of the property

What does a real estate agent do for the seller and for the buyer? Determining the sales value of a property is certainly one of the greatest challenges when selling a house. Thus, it is necessary to set a price that takes into account the condition of the property and its immediate surroundings, and also to balance the price expectations of the owner and potential buyers. The latter in particular often poses a challenge for owners, as they have a completely different relationship to their property than prospective buyers. Owners of a property tend to overestimate the selling price due to the emotional attachment to their own home. The consequence: The property remains on the market longer, which can reduce its attractiveness for prospective buyers significantly. Buyers, however, look at a property with completely different eyes: They ask themselves how much it would cost to renovate the basement, convert the attic or how energy efficient it is.

Determining a realistic selling price is therefore one of the first important tasks of the real estate agent. As neutral observers, the experts from Engel & Völkers can not only assess the condition of your property, but also determine its realistic selling price based on similar properties from our exclusive and extensive portfolio.

In this initial phase, however, many owners are toying with the idea of determining the selling price using online software or even by themselves. However, this is not advisable for several reasons. On the one hand, most of the property valuation tools available online are based on admittedly extensive databases. But the selling prices determined here can serve at best as estimates, since they illustrate only a cross section of the property market. Furthermore, software is not able to take into account the charm, the homeliness and details such as the view, the lovingly tended garden or the historical wood panelling of a property in the calculation, all of which can have a considerable impact on the value of the property.

Dealing with authorities

A large number of different documents are required for the sale. While some documents are only required for the sale of certain types of property, others are mandatory for every house sale. Acting negligently here may incur you substantial fines. Marketing a property without an energy certificate, for example, can be punished with a fine of up to 15,000 euros. But even when it is clear which documents are required for the sale of your property, going to the relevant authorities and offices is still a time-consuming and sometimes nerve-racking task. This is what a real estate agent does for you: They also take care of the administrative formalities when selling a house. This saves you a lot of time and nerves and you can be sure that documents such as the land register, energy certificate and floor plans are available on time and in the correct form.

Marketing

What else does a real estate broker do? There are countless channels for marketing a property. But not all of them are always useful. Property buyers who are looking for a stately home usually exhibit a different search behaviour than young families looking for a property in the countryside. The sales approach and the property marketing channels should be tailored to the target group. This is what the real estate agent does for you.

The contents for exposés, advertisements and flyers also need to be created carefully. Here it is not only a matter of determining basic data such as the number of rooms or the living space. Rather, the exposé should serve to showcase the property and give potential buyers a first impression of the charm and homeliness of your property. These include in particular professionally created and perfectly illuminated images or even the creation of a virtual property viewings 3D photos. We at Engel & Völkers are experts in marketing your property perfectly: thanks to innovative tools such as our property buyer app, proven advertising measures such as our high-quality print exposés and, last but not least, our global Engel & Völkers network, through which we make your property accessible to millions of potential buyers around the world.

A real estate agent always carries out all these tasks with the desired target group in mind. This gives owners the certainty that only potential buyers who have a serious interest in buying the property will contact the real estate agent.

Arrangement of viewing appointments

Once a pre-selection of suitable prospects has been made, it is time to personally show the property to potential buyers. The scheduling, organisation and execution of viewings is also part of what a real estate agent does. The challenge of such a property viewing is not only to present the property from the best side, but also to be able to answer essential questions about the property and its surroundings.

This is another reason why the help of our estate agents is indispensable. Many questions from interested parties do not concern the property as such: What structural measures is the city planning for the residential area? How will property prices in the area change in the future? Will the view from the balcony remain unobstructed in the future? What our real estate agents do is to easily answer these and other questions thanks to their knowledge of the market, urban planning and in-depth study of your property.

Regular reports

Of course, as an owner, you are aware that what a real estate agent does is also managing and brokering other properties in addition to yours. This makes it all the more important to have transparency as to how much time the real estate agent invests in marketing your property. This means that you as the owner are always in the picture about the sales process of your property and what our real estate agent does for you. Proactive feedback to the owner is also one of the real estate agent's tasks. He will contact you at regular intervals to inform you about the sales status of the property.

Contractual negotiations

Once a buyer has been found, the contractual negotiations begin. Especially in this phase, it is important to have someone dealing with the potential buyer who is neutral and well-trained in order to conclude the sale successfully. This is also part of what our real estate agents do for you. The agent will not only ensure the legality of the sale, but also check the buyer's creditworthiness. With Engel & Völkers, you will thus always sell your property fairly and securely.

Drawing up the sales contract

If our real estate agent was able to successfully mediate between buyer and seller, the drafting of a sales contract is one of the next tasks in selling a house. For this purpose, the real estate agent, in collaboration with the notary required for the sale of the house, prepares an appropriate document that takes into account the legal regulations and the interests of both buyer and seller. What the real estate agent does in this case is to send the draft contract to both parties before the signing of the deed at the notary appointment.

Notary appointment accompaniment

Our real estate agent will also be present at the signing of the notarial contract and assist you in every way. After all, even in this final phase of the house sale, both the buyer or seller may still have questions that require mediation by a neutral party. This ensures that you are on the safe side, even shortly before the sale, and that you are prepared for any surprises.

Handover of property

Once the sale of the property has been legally finalised by the signing of the sales contract, the handover of the property can be arranged. The real estate agent is also present at the handover of the keys. Alternatively, they can also handle the handover on behalf of the previous owner in his absence.

After-sales support

Sometimes questions arise with one or the other contracting party after the sale. Therefore what the real estate agent does is to remain the point of contact for the buyer and seller even after the successful completion of the sale.

Looking for professional real estate agents?

Here you will find the right real estate agents in Berlin or a list of all real estate agents in Hamburg.

Engel & Völkers scores with competent real estate agencies throughout Germany and beyond.