Guerin Consulting

A real estate broker refers to a person or entity who serves as an intermediary, or middleman, between sellers and buyers of real estate, and is the person who initiates or attempts to find property sellers and buyers.

In the US housing market, a real estate broker and his accompanying sales team, assists sellers in promoting and selling their property, usually negotiating for the highest price or rate possible, and under the best terms. In the United States, it is standard practice that a person is required to obtain a license first in order to receive compensation or a commission for services rendered as a licensed real estate broker.

Unlicensed real estate activity is considered illegal, but buyers and sellers who act as principals in the sale or purchase of real estate are not required to be licensed. But in some states, the lawyers are allowed to handle real estate sales and are paid fees and commissions without the need to be licensed as brokers or agents.

Marketing their home for sale by themselves and also carrying the weight of the work on the side of the buyer is something that quite a few buyers as well as sellers are comfortable doing. What unrepresented buyers or seller would do is an equal amount of work as agents or licensed brokers.

An unrepresented seller more than often approaches a listing agent for a property they represent. It is not as if the listing agent is not going to be picking up the slack for the work the seller does not do or is inexperienced in doing at in case there is a time the home seller convinces the agent to give back the "buyer's agent share" to him.

The unrepresented seller is at most, directly offering his/her property to a buyer by negotiating deals directly and haggling over the best possible price and payment method. There is good news with dealing with direct buyers over brokers or agents and would be the fact that a home owner would not have to cut profits with established brokers agents, and would not find the need to dole over a substantial amount of commission to the agent.

Should a home or property owner decide to sell his asset on his own and not avail the services of a licensed broker, he/she should be ready to prepare all necessary papers describing the property for advertising, pamphlets, open houses, and others. Most of the time, advertising a property is considered as the biggest outside expense in listing a property and a home seller should readily shoulder the expense for this.

In some aspects, holding an open house to show the property would be a rather inexpensive venue for the home seller to show off his property. Being a contact person would mean that the seller should always be available to answer any questions about the property and to schedule showing appointments to prospective buyers.