So my mate Jonathan got into estate agency about three years ago, and I remember thinking he’d lost the plot. He was working in a call centre, hated it, and just walked into Foxtons one day asking if they had any jobs. They did. Weirdest career move I’ve ever seen someone pull off, but he’s actually doing alright now. Better than alright, to be honest.
That’s kind of what got me thinking about this whole thing, because people don’t really talk about how to become an estate agent like it’s a normal job you can just do. Everyone acts like you need some magical qualification or a business degree or something. You don’t. Not even close.
I’ve grilled Jonathan left and right about it since then, talked to his boss when we were out, and generally bothered the hell out of everyone I know in the biz.
Turns out how to become an estate agent is way less complicated than people think, and loads of agencies are actually desperate for staff who can just show up and do the work.
Why Nobody Needs a Degree for This
Genuinely, the best part about this whole thing is how to become an estate agent without a degree is completely legit. I know that sounds mental, but it’s true. Jonathan didn’t have a degree. His boss didn’t have one.
Most people in the agency don’t have degrees. What they have is the ability to talk to people without being weird about it and enough organisation to not lose paperwork.
The industry doesn’t care about your A-levels or your GCSEs or what university you went to. They care about whether you can show up on time, whether you can remember what someone said about their kitchen requirements, and whether you’ve got the thick skin to deal with people changing their minds constantly. That’s it.
How to become an estate agent with no experience UK is actually the normal way people do it. Jonathan had zero experience. He’d worked in a call centre, which I guess taught him how to speak to angry people, but he’d never been near property in his life.
They trained him on the job. He spent the first week just following someone around, then they threw him into the deep end, and he figured it out.
The companies actively prefer people with no experience because they don’t have bad habits to unlearn. If you’ve already been doing something wrong for ten years, trying to fix that is harder than just teaching someone fresh how to do it properly.
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The Apprenticeship Thing if You Want Structure
Now, there are estate agent apprenticeship programmes if you want something more formal. Jonathan didn’t do one, but some people do, and if you’re the type who needs structure, then fair enough.
You earn whilst you learn, so you’re not spending money and starving at the same time. Takes about a year or so, sometimes two, depending on where you go.
The thing is, though, you don’t actually need to do an apprenticeship to start. You can just apply for jobs and get going. Some agencies will pay for your training anyway once you’re hired.
Jonathan’s agency paid for his Propertymark qualification because they needed him trained properly for handling client money and all that legal stuff.
If you want to do it before applying, fine. It costs about sixty to two hundred quid and looks decent on an application. But it’s not essential. Loads of people get the job first and do the qualifications alongside work.
Actually Finding the Jobs
This is where it gets easy because, honestly, there are loads of estate agent jobs going at the moment. You’ll see them on Indeed, Reed, and all the usual job sites. But the best bit? Just walk into agencies.
Seriously. Walk into your local Foxtons or Countrywide, or whatever’s near you, with a CV and ask if they’ve got anything going. People actually do hire like this still.
Jonathan basically did that. Printed a couple of copies of his CV, walked in, and asked if they had trainee positions, and they called him the next day. Simple as that. High street agencies always need people, and half the time they’ve got positions they haven’t even advertised yet.
When you’re applying or going in person, just be honest. Don’t pretend you know everything. Tell them you’re reliable, you’re willing to learn, and you’re ready to graft. That’s genuinely all they want to hear.
What Actually Happens Day-to-Day
Alright, so Jonathan comes home most days covered in dust, shoes full of gravel from people’s driveways, and smelling weird.
He’s been in about fifteen different houses, shown properties to people who asked really dumb questions, and spent three hours persuading someone to drop their price by eight grand. That’s a normal day for him.
You are essentially assisting people who are out of their minds, An stressed out because buying and selling houses is the pits.
You organise viewings; you photograph and video properties that, in some cases, look utterly rank; you listen to people moaning about their neighbours, and then you try to make deals happen between two people who can’t stand each other but have to sell something to each other.
It’s not glamorous. It’s messy and involves way too much admin. But it matters to the people you’re working with, which is fine.
Let’s Talk Money Because That’s What Matters
An estate agent’s starting salary is roughly twenty to twenty-five grand a year. Jonathan started at twenty-two. That’s your base, which you get for the first few months whilst you’re still rubbish at the job and haven’t sold anything yet.
Then you start making sales, and the commission comes in. Estate agent salary UK sits around twenty-nine grand on average, but that includes people making sixty, eighty, or a hundred grand plus.
The difference is commission, and commission depends entirely on how many properties you shift and how much those properties sell for.
So like, if Jonathan sells a house for three hundred grand and the agency takes one and a half per cent as commission, that’s four and a half grand. Jonathan might get twenty per cent of that, which is nine hundred quid from one house. If he’s shifting ten houses a month, suddenly he’s earning loads.
But here’s the thing – you don’t earn that straight away.
You earn it once you’ve got clients who trust you and you’ve built a reputation. Estate agent jobs start quietly and get busier as you get better at it.
Estate Agent jobs vary between agencies, too. Some are pure commission, some are salary plus commission, and some lettings agencies do different structures. Most are salary plus commission, and that’s the normal one.
Is It Worth It Though
Honestly? If you like talking to people and you don’t mind that your job is basically explaining why a one-bed flat in zone two costs half a million quid, then yeah, it’s alright. The money gets decent. The hours are rubbish – weekends, evenings, all that – but once you’re established, you can sometimes negotiate better hours.
The worst bit is that it’s feast or famine. One month you’re making bank, the next month nobody’s buying anything, and you’re earning your base salary and wondering if you’ve made a terrible mistake.
But people stick with it because once you get going, the money’s real, and it’s not like most jobs where you’re watching the clock.
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Just Do It If You Want To
Honestly, if you’re interested, just start looking at estate agent jobs in your area. See what’s available. Walk into an agency. Ask questions. Jonathan did it half-asleep one morning, and it turned into his actual career.
That probably wouldn’t happen for everyone, but the point is that the barrier to entry is basically nothing. You just need to show up and be willing to work.
