Real Estate business - Essay Example

Real Estate business Real Estate business covers, wide variety of professionals, involves many different kinds of properties, each with its own characteristics and issues, and defines a huge segment of the economy with its own market forces. Real Estate transactions take place every where and consumers of real estate services include buyers and sellers of homes, tenants and landlords, investors and developers. In reality, appraisal, property management, financing, subdivision and development, are all separate businesses within the real estate field. As such, a successful Survey professional in Real Estate field should understand all the intricacies involved in this business and must have basic knowledge of these specialties. Surveys and valuations of residential property: The role of a registered chartered surveyor is crucial in any property transaction and resolving problems between landlord and tenant. Professional ethics and rational, analytical, and unbiased observations should be applied in all dealing. A registered surveyor should pay much attention to client requirements and deliver exact services they need. They should go through records related to the property, physical condition of the building and environment, any legal complications involved in the transaction and keep a record of each aspect concerning the property and produce a comprehensive report. First and foremost, as a responsible guide to prospective client, it is the responsibility of surveyor to identify client requirement and get abreast with basic information about the property. Client might have got information from word of mouth or from an estate agent, generally interested in his own ulterior motive, to extract profit. The first-hand information available with the client may not be factual and carry hidden agenda of the estate agent. As such, it is obligatory to ascertain source of information and get acquainted with the area. Professionalism and ethics: Primary to the enquiry is to identify problems prevalent in the area and local amenities. Prime requirement of every client is to have a calm, cordial, and cooperative environment conducive to their aspirations at the same time capable to return more benefits from their investment. It is the supreme responsibility of a property surveyor or manager to ascertain the above-mentioned pre-requisites and suggest options based on a comparative analysis. It should also be ascertained from the local agency whether any developments in the area are obvious and it will affect the interests of the client. While considering the client’s interest an analysis of the vendor back ground is also paramount in arriving at a conclusion with regard to the property under review. Approach of a vendor to the client and surveyor should be critically analyzed. A vendor with clear intentions will be frank and polite; at the same time any move to influence the surveyor should be taken as a sign of manipulation and camouflaging their ulterior m profit making from the transaction. A study of the tenant’s behavior is also important before deciding acceptability of the property. Law prescribe that dogs should not be unleashed or left unattended to crate any threat to other inhabitants. The passage to any building should be kept clear and without encroachment from the inhabitants, and it is the responsibility of the landlord to attend it. Cluttering in the passage, unattended children in the premises, and dogs or pet animals left free to roam around also indicate that there is enough ignorance on the part of inhabitants. Accessibility to common area and the dwelling unit also need to be looked into. Attendance to a house will be evidenced from its look and tidiness. First and foremost, surrounding of the building like boundary wall, outbuildings, drains, gardens, driveways and exterior of the building like roof, chimney stacks, rainwater goods, cracks and distortion to the building, and windows and doors should be inspected. Acceptable standards of interior includes: general decorative order: crack free walls and ceilings: walls, windows and doors without dampness, rot, and disfiguring: and well maintained and operating electrical, gas, and heating installations. Furnished and well maintained dwelling units attract high value, whereas empty, untidy, smelly and horrible looking environment repels any prospective client. If any inconsistencies are present in dwelling place it has to be construed that the landlord is irresponsible to attend basic requirements of maintaining decorum in a property and prospective client will be exposed to much inconvenience. Such units should not be recommended for family use. Simultaneously, it is essential to ascertain the actual lease holder of the property and to confirm whether alive or not. In the event of death of a lease holder the tenancy rights will expire and the landlord will generally have full executive power to transfer the lease or resale. Another stage is to find out whether the property is ex-tenanted, that means leased to a second or third-hand tenant, or repossession. Confirming this issue is very much needs to avoid future litigation to the property in question. Interest of speculative developer’s role in the property is a major constraint in valuation of any property. They project high value and hide inherent problems that may be encountered in future, such as encumbrance and actual lease right to the property. When the vendor is not available to assist in inspection, tenants are non-cooperative, and local government agencies connive with the vendor, then alternative methods of employing private detective agency may require in certain cases. Each and every client will be looking for a property that can be quickly acquired, hassle free, ready for repair, rebuilding or shifting, and economically viable to their purse. General requirement of a client interested in purchase will be for valuation of property, assessing the condition of building/dwelling unit with regard to technical specification, quality of material used, maintenance-repair and water, electrical, gas, and heating services provided to the unit, as well as legal encumbrances if any attached to the property. Valuation is the major tool to identify whether the “Property Price Advice figure” is substantially less or the property is overpriced and also to get a look into market price or current rate prevalent for houses of similar specifications in the local area. (Frequently Asked Questions. 2007) The party may also seek advice on getting finance and negotiating to bring the purchase price down. All cases may not be easy to handle, and client expectations in some cases will be taunting and mostly challenging to the surveyor to accomplish. Some may fall in love to a property in first sight, but others look at all the negative aspects. In other cases the client interest is for resale or creating artificial market boon they may require only cursory survey and rely on finance valuation. Whatever the intent of the client it is for the surveyor to stick to his professional ethics and try to reduce risk for the client as also to his profession. Negligence and repercussions on survey: The responsibility of a surveyor is not limited to his/her potential, but the support staff also should have knowledge and potential to tackle any challenging situation. Success of any organization depends mainly on its support staff and their capability to provide information and material required for their superiors. It is also necessary that the support staff should be well informed and briefed about every case and written instructions should be given to attend individual responsibilities. The instructions should be clear and concise so that they are able to execute it in the expected manner, and shall not arise any overlap or contradictions in final report. Limitations, if any, should be clearly earmarked in a professional manner, such that the person responsible to final decision making is not put to dilemma. In the given example the surveyor had a bitter experience from his accountant who had not dealt with his tax affairs properly. The accountant used his services, six months ago, to survey and values her prospective dwelling unit. She is not happy with his work as the building has rot and subsidence causing crack, which was not brought to her notice earlier, but by another surveyor. She was also not forewarned about the proposal to build a new airport runway, which is going to reduce by half the property value in the area, and adversely affect her financial prospects. Under these circumstances, the accountant will definitely initiate legal proceedings against the surveyor for his gross professional negligence. He will be forced to pay a high rate of compensation than what he gets from professional indemnity insurance (PII).This instance throws light on sheer negligence on the part of a professional surveyor leading to dissatisfaction of a customer, and incidentally to personal loss to himself. As a registered, professional, and efficient surveyor we should be diligent, accurate, and investigative in our job. We should inquire into history of the prospective property, any new initiative on the part of government or local body to acquire it for official purpose, and maintain up-to-date records on the property they are assessing. Attention should also be given to probable rot, cracks, or moss accumulation to any building under review for identifying impending damage to it. Accurate observation, careful recording, good assessment, excellent reporting, and presentation are main attributes of an efficient, professional surveyor. Taking any assignment lightly, approaching the work with devoid of professional ethics, and sheer negligence will attract criticism from the client as well as our superiors, in addition to personal and financial loss. We should not rely on luck, hope, and power of prayer or leniency of boss, legal reprieve, and insurance support to surmount personal negligence in the profession of property management which is replete with competition. Hence, as a professional surveyor our slogan should be ‘getting it right, first time, every time!” Written Communications and Reporting: To become a successful property manager written communication and reporting plays key role in property management. Failure to communicate perceived idea clearly to the receiver leads to communication gap. Three key elements for successful communication and reporting, to be kept in mind, are accuracy, brevity, and clarity. The reporting should be error free, kept separate from encountered fact and individual opinion, free from personal prejudices, do not mislead, and be to the point. Brevity of the report depends on its adherence to: being precise, putting excessive detail to appendix; keeping to the most appropriate length; and stating, if it is summary, needs for queries about further detail. This could be achieved through clarity of thought, explanation and analysis, and logical presentation put down with clear warning with explanation and analysis. Prospective sellers and buyers will naturally depend on the comments and observations of a certified surveyor to arrive at decision for final settlement about a particular property. Developing analytical acumen, with knowledge gained from referral texts and experience from professional exposure in the filed, will help in good reporting. Do not jump into conclusions and refrain from specifics, as obvious certainty would mislead reader. The basic principles of accuracy, brevity, and clarity to prepare a good written communication should be kept in mind each and every time so as to impress the boss as well as the client. A questionnaire covering all the important aspects of a property based on client requirement and vendor demands along with standard requirements of local government body, as an inspection tool, will be helpful to prepare a comprehensive report about the intended property. Conclusion: Professional knowledge and experience plays a major role in any decision making, when confronted with challenging situations and to avoid future criticism. We all encounter many critical situations in life, whether a professional or not, which put to test our acumen to analyze and respond spontaneously. Any negligence on the part of a professional, particularly in real estate management field, will attract adverse criticism, and may lead to personal loss in future. Duty of a Registered Surveyor/Project Manager ranges from knowledge of surveying principles and practices, engineering design and construction practices, topographic survey, land survey, writing legal descriptions and investigating property histories to obtain appropriate deeds and plats, develop scope and fee proposals, and budgeting to assess worthiness of a residential and/or commercial plot, quantity and cost estimating, valuation, and habitability of the dwelling unit, etc. A systematic and planned approach assisted by concise, realistic, and ethical report will help chartered surveyors in their professional success. Works cited Frequently Asked Questions. Property Price Advice.co.uk Accessed from 8 Dec. 2007 . Read More