In the past, when brokers (and their agents) only represented sellers, the term ‘’real estate salesperson’’ may have been more appropriate than it is today, given the different ways that brokers and their agents can help a buyer through the process rather than simply “sell’’ him or her a property. Legally however, the term 'salesperson' is still used in many states to describe a real estate agent.

Real estate education: In order to become licensed, most states require that an applicant take a minimum number of classes before taking the state licensing exam. Such education is often provided by real estate brokerages as a means to finding new agents.

Today in many states, the real estate agent (acting as an agent of the broker with whom he/she is employed) is required to disclose to prospective buyers and sellers who represents whom. See below for a broker/agent’s relationship to sellers and their relationship to buyers.

While some people may refer to any licensed real estate agent as a real estate broker, a licensed real estate agent is a professional who has obtained either a real estate salesperson's license or a real estate broker's license.

In the United States, there are commonly two levels of real estate professionals licensed by the individual states, but not by the federal government:

Real estate salesperson (or, in some states, Real estate broker):

When a person first becomes licensed to become a real estate agent, he/she obtains a real estate salesperson's license (or some states use the alternative term, "broker") from the state in which he/she will practice. If you want to obtain a real estate license, the candidate must take specific coursework (of between 40 and 90 hours) and then pass a state exam on real estate law and practice. In order to work, salespersons must then be associated with (and act under the authority of) a real estate broker.

Many states also have reciprocal agreements with other states, allowing a licensed individual from a qualified state to take the second state's exam without completing the course requirements, or, in some cases, take only a state law exam.

Real estate broker (or, in some states, Qualifying Broker):

After gaining some years of experience in real estate sales, a salesperson may decide to become licensed as a real estate broker (or Principal/Qualifying broker) in order to own, manage or operate his/her own brokerage. In addition, some states allow college graduates to apply for a broker license without years of experience. College graduates fall into this category once they have completed the state required courses as well. Commonly more course work and a broker's state exam on real estate law must be passed. Upon obtaining a broker's license, a real estate agent may continue to work for another broker in a similar capacity as before (often referred to as a broker associate or associate broker) or take charge of his/her own brokerage and hire other salespersons (or broker) licensees. Becoming a branch office manager may or may not require a broker's license. Some states such as New York allow licensed attorneys to become real estate brokers without taking any exam. In some states, such as Colorado, there are no "salespeople", as all licensees are Brokers.

A Realtor, pronounced “Real-tor” (rē΄əl tōr), is a real estate salesperson or broker who is a member of the National Association of Realtors (NAR). All Realtors are brokers/salespersons, but not all brokers/salespersons are Realtors.

Real estate broker

A real estate broker is a term in the United States which describes a party who acts as an intermediary between sellers and buyers of real estate (or real property as it known elsewhere) and attempts to find sellers who wish to sell and buyers who wish to buy. In the United States, the relationship was originally established by reference to the English common law of agency with the broker having a fiduciary relationship with his clients.

Estate agent is the term used in the United Kingdom to describe a person or organization whose business is to market real estate on behalf of clients, but there are significant differences between the actions and liabilities of brokers and estate agents in each country. Beyond the US, other countries take markedly different approaches to the marketing and selling of real property.

In the US, real estate brokers and their salespersons (commonly called "real estate agents" or, in some states, "brokers") assist sellers in marketing their property and selling it for the highest possible price under the best terms. When acting as a Buyer's agent with a signed agreement (or, in many cases, verbal agreement, although a broker may not be legally entitled to his commission unless the agreement is in writing), they assist buyers by helping them purchase property for the lowest possible price under the best terms. Without a signed agreement, brokers may assist buyers in the acquisition of property but still represent the seller and the seller's interests.

In most jurisdictions in the United States, a person is required to have a license in order to receive remuneration for services rendered as a real estate broker. Unlicensed activity is illegal, but buyers and sellers acting as principals in the sale or purchase of real estate are not required to be licensed. In some states, lawyers are allowed to handle real estate sales for compensation without being licensed as brokers or agents.

Residential real estate

The legal arrangement for the right to occupy a dwelling is known as the housing tenure. Types of housing tenure include owner occupancy, Tenancy, housing cooperative, condominiums (individually parceled properties in a single building), public housing, and squatting. Variants include timeshares and cohousing.

Residences can be classified by if and how they are connected to neighboring residences and land. Different types of housing tenure can be used for the same physical type. For example, connected residents might be owned by a single entity and leased out, or owned separately with an agreement covering the relationship between units and common areas and concerns.

Major physical categories in North America and Europe include:

* Attached / multi-unit dwellings
o Apartment ("flat" outside North America) - An individual unit in a multi-unit building. The boundaries of the apartment are generally defined by a perimeter of locked or lockable doors. Often seen in multi-story apartment buildings.
o Multi-family house - Often seen in multi-story detached buildings, where each floor is a separate apartment or unit.
o Terraced house (a.k.a. townhouse or rowhouse) - A number of single or multi-unit buildings in a continuous row with shared walls and no intervening space.
o Condominium - Building or complex, similar to apartments, owned by individuals. Common grounds are owned and shared jointly.
* Semi-detached dwellings
o Duplex - Two units with one shared wall.
* Single-family detached home
* Portable dwellings
o Mobile homes - Potentially a full-time residence which can be (might might not in practice be) movable on wheels.
o Houseboats - A floating home
o Tents - Usually very temporary, with roof and walls consisting only of fabric-like material.

The size of an apartment or house can be described in square feet or meters. In the United States this includes the area of "living space", excluding the garage and other non-living spaces. The "square meters" figure of a house in Europe reports the area of the walls enclosing the home, and thus includes any attached garage and non-living spaces.

It can also be described more roughly by the number of rooms. A studio apartment has a single bedroom with no living room (possibly a separate kitchen). A one-bedroom apartment has a living or dining room, separate from the bedroom. Two bedroom, three bedroom, and larger units are also common. (A bedroom is defined as a room with a closet for clothes storage.)

See List of house types for a complete listing of housing types and layouts, and house or home for more general information.

Business sector

With the development of private property ownership, real estate has become a major area of business. Purchasing real estate requires a significant investment, and each parcel of land has unique characteristics, so the real estate industry has evolved into several distinct fields. Specialists are often called on to valuate real estate and facilitate transactions. Some kinds of real estate businesses include:

* Appraisal: Professional valuation services
* Brokerages: Assisting buyers and sellers in transactions
* Development: Improving land for use by adding or replacing buildings
* Property management: Managing a property for its owner(s)
* Real Estate Marketing: Managing the sales side of the property business
* Real Estate Investing: Managing the investment of real estate
* Relocation services: Relocating people or business to a different country
* Corporate Real Estate: Managing the real estate held by a corporation to support its core business—unlike managing the real estate held by an investor to generate income

Within each field, a business may specialize in a particular type of real estate, such as residential, commercial, or industrial property. In addition, almost all construction business effectively has a connection to real estate.

"Internet Real Estate" is a term coined by the internet investment community relating to the parallel that exists between high quality internet domain names and real-world, prime real estate. Many internet companies actually use the address of properties as domain names.

Real estate as "real property" in the U.K.

In British usage, “real property”, often shortened to just “property”, generally refers to land and fixtures as such while the term “real estate” is used mostly in the context of probate law, and means all interests in land held by a deceased person at death excluding interests in money arising under a trust for sale of or charged on land.[3]

See Real property for a definition and Estate agent for a description of the practice in the UK.

French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and German usages of the term

In French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and German, real estate is called "immovables" (French: immobilier, Italian: immobiliare, Portuguese: imóvel, Spanish: inmueble and German: Immobilie); other property is called "movables" (French: mobilier and Spanish: mueble).

Real estate in Mexico and Central America

The real estate business in Mexico and Central America is different from the way that it is conducted in the United States.

Some similarities include a variety of legal formalities, (with professionals such as real estate agents generally employed to assist the buyer); taxes need to be paid (but typically less than those in U.S.); legal paperwork will ensure title; and a neutral party such as a title company will handle documentation and monies in order to smoothly make the exchange between the parties. Increasingly, U.S. title companies are doing work for U.S. buyers in Mexico and Central America.

Prices are often much cheaper than most areas of the U.S., but in many locations prices of houses and lots are as expensive as the U.S., one example being Mexico City. U.S. banks have begun to give home loans for properties in Mexico, but, so far, not for other Latin American countries.

One important difference from the United States is that each country has rules regarding where foreigners can buy. For example, in Mexico, foreigners cannot buy land or homes within 50km of the coast or 100km from a border, while, in Honduras, they may buy beach front property. There are also different special rules regarding certain types of property: ejidos—communally held farm property—cannot be sold to anyone, but that does not prevent them from being offered for sale.

Many websites advertising and selling Mexican and Central American real estate exist, but they may need to be researched.

Etymology

In law, the word real means relating to a thing (res/rei, thing, from O.Fr. reel, from L.L. realis "actual," from Latin. res, "matter, thing"), as distinguished from a person. Thus the law broadly distinguishes between "real" property (land and anything affixed to it) and "personal" property (everything else, e.g., clothing, furniture, money). The conceptual difference was between immovable property, which would transfer title along with the land, and movable property, which a person would retain title to. The oldest use of the term "Real Estate" that has been preserved in historical records was in 1666 .

The word is not derived from the notion of land having historically been "royal" property. The word royal—and its Portuguese cognate real—come from the related Latin word rex-regis, meaning king.

Introduction

Real estate is a legal term (in some jurisdictions, notably in the USA) that encompasses land along with anything permanently affixed to the land, such as buildings, specifically property that is stationary, or fixed in location. Real estate is often considered synonymous with real property (also sometimes called realty), in contrast with personal property (also sometimes called chattel or personalty). However, in some situations the term "real estate" refers to the land and fixtures together, as distinguished from "real property," referring to ownership rights of the land itself.

The terms real estate and real property are used primarily in common law, while civil law jurisdictions refer instead to immovable property.