- Daily & Weekly newsletters
- Buy & download The Bulletin
- Comment on our articles
Related articles
Recent
Popular
Record number of real estate agents in Belgium
The profession of real estate agent is increasingly popular among Belgians, with 9,379 real estate agents active in the country, a record high, according to Trends. "It is a popular profession," confirms Luc Machon, vice president of the professional institute of real estate agents (IPI).
Belgium has about 1,000 more real estate agents than 10 years ago. While the IPI doesn’t have an explanation for the increase, Machon told Trends: "We only hope that they are attracted by the right motives, and not simply lured in by the promise of quick money. Only agents who are consistently focussed on quality and innovation will succeed in the business.”
Since September 2013, anyone with an undergraduate degree can start a career in real estate. However, the IPI does require that aspiring real estate agents first pass a written and oral exam to acquire the necessary authorisation to work in the field.
The institute employs two detectives specifically for the purpose of tracking down real estate agents who are working without the required authorisation. In 2014, the IPI found 614 non-certified agents, an increase of 40% compared with the previous year.
Comments
Far too many of those smarty-pants around! They are indeed out for a 'fast buck' to the point of worshipping the ground house-owners walk on. They have access to documents and information that gets denied to solicitors and more 'serious' professions, and they act as though properties be their own. Ridiculous!
A real estate agent, it is useless and it will cost me dear!
Wrong! The real estate agent can instead save you money. It is generally accepted that an individual putting his property for sale itself overstates the average 10%, increasing its selling time. Or a property that appears too long "FOR SALE" risk from the cheap! For cons, the evaluation of a real estate agent will be more objective because it is a professional who knows the market. In addition, the realtor will handle advertising and you prémunira costly disasters. The sale will therefore be faster and in better conditions for everyone.
If prices rise, it is the fault realtors!
So when they go down, we can say that thanks to real estate agents? Both statements are false because the intermediary role played by the real estate agent forces him to give balanced assessments if he wants to realize the transactions. If he overstates it will not sell if it undervalues, it will no longer matter. His interest is therefore in a delay in the market more than a price spike.
A realtor is a lot of blah and little action
Disagree! A real estate agent is the only expert can handle ALL aspects of the transaction, to illuminate every corner of shade. Examples: before the sale, which checks the urban aspects, permits, complied, hidden defects? During the sale, which organizes visits, which "manages" buyers candidates, criticisms and questions, which ensures their solvency, which can negotiate without qualms? After the sale, which assumes responsibility by offering guarantees to all parties?
Real estate agents? Hello schemers!
As in any profession, there is probably some unscrupulous individuals among real estate agents. It is for this reason that the IPI exist! Its mission is clear: strictly regulate access to the profession, its exercise and ensure compliance with ethical rules. Besides the fact that your agent puts in each operation involved his credit -and therefore its subsistance-, he incurs the penalties of the Institute (which may include suspension or delisting) in case of contravention ethical rules.
Even if you do not want to go through them, they do not let go of you
Harassment is prohibited by the IPI. If an agency is harassing you because you want to sell your property yourself, you have the right to complain. This practice is in fact repressed by IPI code of ethics which textually says in article 11: "real estate agent can not harass anyone for the purpose of obtaining a mission."
Some real estate agents are incompetent
Some doctors too! In all professions, there are people who work well, others less. But the real estate agent, which comes in various specialties, is probably one of the few to be paid at 100% of its results (imagine what would happen in medicine, for example?). This means that a real estate agent "incompetent" that is to say, badly evaluating the properties to sell, not recruiting potential purchasers, not embodying transactions would quickly constrained revenue fault, to change jobs. And go perform his incompetence elsewhere.
A Real estate agent
(text from (www.ipi.be)