Building dreams : Real estate professionals provide services for property transactions

Looking for local real estate market information? Planning to invest in real estate? In fact, when you plan to buy a house or property, you need to know the most reliable real estate agent to guide you, the best source for home finance and insurance, a reliable company to build the house of your dreams, efficient professionals to design your home, superior quality furniture, and sites to give you landscaping and gardening ideas. Apart from this, you also need to know how you can safeguard your home. Real estate takes care of all this and more.

What do I have to do?

Your home is likely to be your most valuable asset, so professional expertise and assistance with the sale and purchase of your property is essential. Real estate agents provide services for buying and selling properties. They also develop properties after entering into collaboration agreements with the property owners. Real estate agents have to deal with the registration of property, transfer of properties, etc. They cater to all their clients’ requirements in residential and commercial dealings. Real estate professionals also provide advisory services for shopping malls, amusement parks, housing societies, etc.

They need to have a thorough knowledge of real estate laws, local economics, housing laws, types of financing, mortgages and other such issues. The legal status of the land is one of the main issues that agents should address before confirming a property. Before buying land, a number of checks need to be done to confirm that the land has a clear and marketable title. The first step is to enquire about the tenure and check government records for confirmation. The tenure could be freehold, leasehold or may be held under a government grant. The seller should be in a position to provide all necessary documents.

Another step involves seeing that the title deed of the land, which you are going to buy, is free and clear of all dues. Property taxes which are due to the government or municipality are a first charge on the property and, therefore, enquiries must be made in government and municipal offices to ascertain whether all taxes have been paid up to date or not.

Once all the matters, financial and otherwise are settled between the parties, an agreement is reached. This ensures that the owner does not renege on his word regarding the cost and doesn’t make a sale to someone else who offers more money. The agreement should state the actual cost, the advance amount, the time span within which the actual sale should take place and how to proceed in case of any default.

The agreement is prepared by a lawyer and should be signed by both the parties as well as two witnesses. The land can be registered in a sub-registrar office after preparing the title deed with all relevant information included. A lot of customers also consult Vaastu and Feng Shui experts before building their dream homes.

What should I study?

Most employers look for candidates with a good academic background and prefer those with a professional degree or a diploma in the field. Those who possess excellent communication and interpersonal skills have an edge over others.

What next?

Real estate agents and brokers will experience massive employment growth in the coming years due to the increasing housing needs of a growing population. Low interest rates will continue to stimulate sales of real estate, resulting in the need for more professionals.

The domestic sector will grow into a $50 billion industry by 2010 and prove to be one of the most attractive sectors for foreign investment.

An industry research by financial services firm, India Infoline, claims that the real estate sector growing at 33 per cent CAGR (compound annual growth rate), could be a $50 billion industry in the next four years, if institutional participation supported the growth.

The research report also says that tier-I and tier-II cities are best placed to take advantage of the growth in the real estate market. Well known builders like the DLF Group, Unitech, Ansals, Niho, Omaxe Group, Parsvnath Builders, Senior Builders, Essel Group, JMD, etc, are playing a major role in the real estate boom.

WHERE TO STUDY

India Institute of Real Estate, Mumbai (www.iire.co.in).

Accommodation Times Institute of Real Estate Management, Mumbai (www.accommodationtimes.com).

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, US.

Columbia University, New York, US.

University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, US.