Estate agent owned, all or mostly tenanted properties under one ownership. Alternative titles are Factor, Steward, or Bailiff, depending on the era, region, and extent of the property concerned. The term originally referred to a person responsible for managing a landed estate, while those engaged in the buying and selling of homes were ""House Agents"", and those selling land were "Land Agents". However, in the 20th century, ""Estate Agent"" started to be used as a generic term. Estate agent is roughly synonymous with the United States term real estate broker. Estate agents need to be familiar with their local area, including factors
Estate agent are based. Online estate agents normally cover the whole of the UK, therefore claiming to be able to reduce fees due to removing geographical boundaries that traditional estate agents generally have. Lastly, online estate agents often charge up front, instead of a traditional agent, who would normally charge nothing if the property is not sold In February 2010 the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) announced that a change in the legislation for estate agents has led to a shake up in the way homes are sold, allowing cheaper online agents to become more established than they could before. Intermediary estate