REAL ESTATE BROKERAGE
Forms of specialization 
Skills and knowledge
Most newly licensed practitioners choose to begin their real estate careers in residential brokerage.
Primary real estate brokerage activities involve performance of one or more of the following tasks:
locating a buyer for a seller
locating a seller for a buyer
locating a tenant for a landlord
locating a landlord for a tenant
A seller, buyer, landlord or tenant hires a broker to procure the opposite party to the sale or lease transaction. To help get the job done, the broker hires licensed agents as assistants. The brokerage company, in its simplest form, consists of a broker and the broker’s agents, who together work to locate buyers, sellers, tenants and landlords for the broker’s clients.
Forms of specialization In the modern brokerage environment, brokers and agents specialize along the following lines:
property type
geographical area
type of transaction
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type of client
type of relationship
One’s choice of specialization is influenced by competitive factors in the market and by perceived opportunities.
Property type. Since different properties have different features and potential buyers, brokers commonly choose to specialize in a property type. Thus there are:
residential agents
commercial agents (office, retail)
industrial agents
land agents
Geographical area. Brokers and agents must maintain current, accurate data on properties. It is not possible to keep track of every property in larger markets. Therefore, one must create an area of geographical specialization. One’s area may be defined by natural barriers; by streets and highways; or by a certain set of subdivisions.
Type of transaction. The principal types of transaction are sales, leases and subleases, exchanges, and options.
Each form of transaction involves particular legal documents and considerations. As a result, many agents, particularly commercial agents, specialize in a type of transaction. For example, in an urban commercial property market, agents generally specialize in either leases or sales.
Type of client. Brokers increasingly represent buyers and tenants as well as sellers and landlords. Since conflicts of interest may be involved, many brokers restrict their business to representing either buyers and tenants or sellers and landlords exclusively.
Some brokers and agents also specialize according to the type of business their clients are in or their motivations for the transaction. Thus one finds brokers who focus exclusively on hospitals, or fast food chains, or executive relocations.
Type of relationship. In recent years, many brokers have specialized in providing advisory services to clients instead of the traditional transaction-based, commission-compensated services. In the advisory relationship, the broker works on identified real estate tasks or projects in exchange for a fee, salary, or retainer. The fee advisor may or may not focus on completing a transaction.
Some of the individual brokerage services that one might perform for a pre-set fee are:
comparative price analysis
database search
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prospect screening
site analysis
Skills and knowledge Professionals in the brokerage business must have a broad range of real estate knowledge and skills. Agents must develop a thorough awareness of their local market and the properties within it. In addition, agents must develop a proficiency with the economics of real estate: prices, financing, closing costs, and so forth. Equally important are “people” skills: communicating with clients and responding to their needs
