Real estate and financial consulting - two sides of the same coin

Those days when the function of a real estate agent was reduced to a sample of more or less suitable objects from the database and receiving a commission, and when the agent himself could be completely uneducated and not a professional person, are gone. Indeed, high IQ is not needed to set parameters and take the client by the hand to the object.

Who is a real estate agent in modern realities? And what are they, these modern realities?

Globalization and freedom of investments. The boundaries, both geographical and conceptual,  in the modern world are very conditional. Where, for example, is the line between residential and commercial real estate? At first glance, everything is simple - residential for living. However, it has become the norm to buy a second home somewhere abroad. A sort of luxury lodge. What to do with this cottage 9 months of the year, when nobody lives there? Definitely, to rent out and receive income, and this immediately implies advertising, revenue optimization and payment of taxes. And the lucky owner does not want to bother himself with such subtleties and leaves this work on a real estate agency.

This is a simple situation. Let's talk about commercial (with full meaning of it) real estate.

And here we (agents) get an equation with a great set of variables. The ideal situation is when the client who has contacted the agent knows exactly what he wants and where he wants - the country, the direction of business, the subtleties of his conduct and his budget. Then the work itself is reduced to the search and selection of premises according to the specified parameters - whether it is an office, or a shop, or production. But such situations are rare.

More often a client who has reached a certain well-being in his country wants to diversify risks and invest profits in some other country with a favorable investment climate and a stable economy. In this phrase "any country"  are  the key words. This is the way how the request is formulated. In other words the situation "I have N million money, I want to invest it in profitable real estate" is all that the client tells us. Here the work of the real estate agent begins.

A professional must also know the geopolitical situation in order not to advise the client on investments in a country where military actions will begin today or tomorrow; and general economic indicators of different countries, and the dynamics of growth in property prices, and statistics by industry - what exactly is the most profitable at the moment in this country.

And this is just the beginning, just necessary information  to set the search vector - the country and the direction of the business.

Further, in parallel with the search for objects, the agent should be able to give detailed advice on the legal nuances of the transaction, on taxes and the possibility of their optimization, on the projections for the return on investment, as well as on the possibility of residence permit, permanent residence or citizenship for the investor. In addition, the purchase of profitable real estate is only the tip of the iceberg. The purpose of buying such a property is clear from the name - making a profit. So the question is "how"? And this is also the work of the agent. Searching for a manager, tenants, maintenance of this property, actions aimed at increasing investment attractiveness - all these the agent can give both in the form of a consultation (if the owner wants to go that way himself), or take all the work by himself - under contract terms and for a provision , of course.

Did you try, reading this article, to calculate how many professions a competent agent should master? A political scientist, economist, lawyer, accountant, manager ... and most importantly, it is infinitely educated and erudite person who does not stand still, but aspires for a dynamically changing world every day.

In general, a full-fledged real estate agency is a full-fledged investment consulting with an extended range of services, where the actual search for real estate is a small part (and, incidentally, not the most difficult) of the entire work.

So the concepts of "real estate" and financial consulting in modern realities are inextricably linked, and the correctly chosen agent is your so-called financial "confessor". Make the right choice!