Residential & Commercial Real Estate Agents - What's the Difference?

Few will argue that buying and selling real estate isn?t a specialized business transaction, or that when you want to buy or sell a house in Houston, hiring a Houston real estate agent isn?t the most common way to get the job done. It may be an excellent idea, but it doesn?t go quite far enough. All real estate agents aren?t the same, because there are two types of specialists: residential and commercial real estate agents.

When economic activity grows sluggish, agents from either camp may try to cross over in their efforts to keep business humming. Whether you are buying or selling or leasing a place to live, or contemplating a business-related real estate move, job one is to pay attention to which type of agent is offering assistance.

There are distinct differences between the residential and commercial real estate agent. Let?s take a look at the some of the major areas that make them different:

Types of Properties

The most basic distinction between a Houston commercial real estate agent and their residential colleague is the type of properties they deal in ? just about always determined by the intended use of the real estate.

For the most part, the role of the residential real estate agent is to help his client purchase, lease or sell a single family dwelling. On the other hand, commercial real estate agents help their clients find income-producing properties. They may be retail space, manufacturing or service locations, or any of the other types of real estate that house a business endeavor.

Valuation Methods

Not only is the intended use of the property different, so is the determination of market value. Houston residential real estate market value is determined by comparing it to recent sales of similar Houston properties. There are a wide variety of ways a commercial real estate agent? determines the value of commercial property. All of them deal in one way or another with calculating future income and return on investment.

Clientele

Commercial real estate agents deal with businesspeople ? building owners, tenants and investors ? who are, as a general rule, dispassionate about the transaction. The client?s main concern is to get a decent return on the investment. It?s business, after all.

Residential real estate agents, on the other hand, deal with people to whom the product ? the house or condominium ? usually comes to represent a significant emotional attachment. There?s far more emotion involved in the residential transaction and good residential agents will have much experience in handling the emotional component in such a way that it does not wind up compromising an otherwise sound transaction.

Source: http://www.cpzrealestate.com/residential-commercial-real-estate-agents-whats-the-difference/

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