What does it take to succeed as an estate agent in 2016?

Our youngsters have just recently received confirmation of their GCSE and A-level results. This can mean excitement, happiness and a shed load of planning to decide which path to take next.

Anything is possible, we can achieve anything. Now the focus for many will be on getting into the workplace and forging a career for oneself. With so many career options available to all, what does it take to be a successful estate agent in 2016?

With the industry evolving at a constant rate, we have seen the ideal candidate shift from one which focused solely on the face to face skills to that of an all-rounder.

To succeed in selling property today, you must possess tech skills, social media skills, people skills. Long gone are the days where we would recruit based on whom made the best face to face sellers, sitting pretty in the branch dealing with the walk-in enquires to placing the print advertising. We now operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year online.

At any given moment of any hour of any day, the estate agent is open for business and buyers are seeking out your services from anywhere in the world. This change in demographic has clearly had an effect on the type of candidate suitable for the job.

The core requirements are still in place and are unlikely to change, not least for the time being:

Great personality it vitally important, ability to communicate in a clear and cohesive manner along with a genuine passion for property.

All of the above are certainly not enough, we must recruit those that possess those qualities and more. With technology making up so much of the business today, the ability to use the computer and a sound knowledge of online marketing

Of course, you need to be computer literate and comfortable working with the internet to work in estate agency. But it’s not just a case of us knowing your way around the web.

With technology now in abundance, we are finding investors more informed and educated when setting up meetings. In the past, you would have to dedicate some time to informing on matters relating to the industry and processing. More often than not, an investor today is very informed of how it all works. They simply have more knowledge and understanding of what they want and expect to happen.

Matching a buyer with a seller at the right price still consists of the basic fundamentals when it comes to buying and selling property. Despite technology having a greater role to play in the acquisition process, an investor is still looking for a first class service from an informed property expert.

While the estate agency operates very differently to it did 15 years ago, it is still a career which demands much more than what paper qualifications one has achieved. Having qualifications is one thing, but without the determination and competitive spirit you will not go very far in the property industry.

The vital point to take away from reading this article is that life skills, attitude and the right set of characteristics is more important to succeed as an estate agent than to have paper qualifications.