- Where to begin?
- Why do you need an office?
- How to succeed in business?
- What documents need to be prepared?
- Information support
- Underwater rocks
- conclusions
Real estate is a profitable business and this applies not only to construction, but also to work in the field of sales, resale, and rental. Intermediary and real estate services are in great demand today. In fact, more than 90% of all transactions pass through them. But demand creates supply and there is quite high competition in this area. Next, we will tell you how to open a real estate agency from scratch and what pitfalls this business idea has.
Where to begin?
The competitive struggle is preceded by organizational work; first you need to open an agency. You should immediately decide on your working style, and based on this, make an estimate of the upcoming costs of opening your own enterprise. Many business professionals claim that it is enough to rent an office, buy unsightly furniture, and you can move on to promoting your agency. This concludes the step-by-step instructions for organizational issues. In fact, it is necessary to approach the issue comprehensively and analyze many aspects. Then opening your own business will be the beginning of a successful activity.
Why do you need an office?
The idea that a real estate agency cannot exist without an office is irrelevant today. Gone are the days when everything was decided by a luxuriously decorated room in the city center, with a computer and a busty secretary, and the opening was accompanied by a pompous, generously paid event, attracting talkative presenters and crowds of onlookers. Today, information technology has come to the fore and the main value is awareness, including technical and technological. The agency should be aimed at a wide audience, not a specific group of people.
The point is that what is the point of spending money on renting an office, purchasing furniture, office equipment, if it all hangs like a dead weight and makes the new agency unprofitable? This situation is obvious, because while there are no clients and the agency is not promoted, you will have to pay its rent in vain, but why? Just because it’s written so in a smart article?! To open your own business today you need a different approach.
How to succeed in business?
Before you throw yourself headlong into a senseless waste of money, aimed, in fact, only at opening an office, you need to get to know the real estate market and work on it. To begin with, as an agent who rents out apartments. You don’t need an office for this, just have the Internet and a mobile phone. They will allow you to open your own enterprise and take your first steps in business. You need to use them to do the basics - bring tenants and landlords together. And this work does not require an office, it involves prompt movement around the city, and a well-delivered speech will not hurt. Thus, real estate works for the entrepreneur, and not vice versa, and opening an office, it turns out, is not a primary expense item.
To get your first money, you just need to convince someone to rent an apartment. To do this, you need to draw up an agreement that stipulates the responsibilities of the parties - the tenant and the landlord, which is certified by a notary. Some clients refuse this procedure, which benefits the realtor. Often, contracts are drawn up locally in the rented premises - an apartment, and this is where the agent receives his commission.
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If clients want to sign a rental agreement on neutral territory, they can easily rent an equipped office for a few hours in a prestigious business center. Today such a service is very common. This will cost much less than constantly paying for empty premises - it will significantly reduce the cost of opening an agency.
From all of the above, two obvious conclusions arise:
- Real estate and working with it require efficiency, which makes it necessary to have your own vehicle to a greater extent than to rent an office;
- It is necessary to competently draw up a lease agreement, which will provide for all possible situations - options for resolving them. To do this, you can use the Internet or contact a lawyer.
If you are not entirely confident in your abilities, consider opening a franchise real estate agency. Today in Russia one of the leaders in this matter is the Miel company, which has been successfully operating for more than 20 years. The initial investment in this case will be about 800 thousand rubles.
What documents need to be prepared?
To open an agency and work legally, all you need to do is pay taxes. For this it is necessary register an individual entrepreneur. The procedure will require a minimum of documentation:
- Application form P21001;
- Copy of the passport;
- Payment of registration fees;
- Application for transition to a simplified taxation system. To do this, fill out form No. 26.2-1.
It should be remembered that real estate services qualify as information activities and do not require the entrepreneur to have an operating office.
Attention! Opening and registering an individual enterprise will not take much time, but terminating its activities is a long process that requires costs and hassle. Therefore, before opening an individual entrepreneur, you need to carefully weigh all the pros and cons. This is more about assessing your capabilities.
Information support
The best solution for developing a real estate agency would be to create and promote a website. It is necessary to invest in it funds that were intended for renting an office, purchasing furniture and equipment. There are quite a lot of specialists who will quickly develop a resource, launch it online and start promoting it.
Example of a good site:
You can create a website yourself from scratch and thus save money, but for this you need to have certain knowledge, and training will take a lot of time. Actually, creating and launching a thematic website today means opening your own business, since a virtual resource objectively almost immediately begins to work in the direction of information promotion of the service, the person or group of people providing it.
- Always be polite and punctual;
- Check the information carefully;
- Be able to convince clients, find compromises, and resolve conflicts.
Underwater rocks
The most important pitfall when opening a real estate agency is information leakage from staff. Very often, hired realtors carry out transactions behind the manager’s back, which allows them to increase their income (or rather, % from renting an apartment or selling a plot). In addition, unscrupulous employees can leak information to competitors, which is also a disadvantage of this business. Another unpleasant situation is when you hire an experienced realtor who is not too interested in cheap deals (for example, renting an apartment for a month) and is waiting with folded arms for the so-called big deal (sale of real estate of 10 acres). All three of these situations can have a significant impact on your agency's revenue and overall business ROI. To avoid these pitfalls, it is recommended to proceed as follows:
- When hiring, enter into an agreement with staff that will provide for a fine for disclosing confidential information. This is a fairly effective measure that allows you to weed out cunning realtors even before starting work.
- Firing employees who miss the finer points of a deal. It is better to hire a young specialist who will strive to achieve results, especially if you are interested in % of the deal.
conclusions
To open a real estate agency, you can use the classic scheme, the step-by-step instructions of which are as follows:
- Office rental;
- Purchase of equipment;
- Registration of individual entrepreneurs.
As a result, opening costs are unlikely to be justified due to high competition. The scheme will pay off if a person has practical experience working in a real estate company, has regular clients and has decided to open his own business.
By the way, as for the costs of opening a real estate agency, the approximate costs will be no more than 300 thousand rubles. This figure takes into account renting a small office, renovations, purchasing furniture and office equipment, as well as creating a website and launching an advertising campaign. If you properly analyze the competition and can actively engage in the sale and rental of housing, the payback of the business will be no more than two years. For more detailed calculations, you need to draw up a business plan.
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The second option is to invest funds meaningfully so that they work and bring dividends in the future. You should always remember that starting any business from scratch is difficult and it will require a person to have an impressive capacity for work and a desire to develop. In fact, opening a real estate agency itself is not a problem; it is quite difficult to develop it further and win its place “under the sun” and build up a client base.
That's all I wanted to tell you about how to open a real estate agency from scratch in Russia. Now you know what the pros and cons of this business are, what documents you need to prepare and, in general, where to start. We hope the information was useful and understandable for you.
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