BEING a real estate agent is so easy especially here in the United States. All you need to do is enroll in a one-semester course and you can be accredited by the National Association of Realtors. Or you can pursue a bachelor’s or even a master’s degree in realty from some accredited college. You can choose either to become just a real estate salesperson of a real estate company or you can upgrade yourself and become a real estate broker.

A real estate broker must be the go-between of the buyer and seller. He or she must assess first a certain seller’s property before he or she is ready to advertise it to the buyer. The real estate broker must also know the actual value of the property and whether it is infested by ants or on the verge of collapsing. With that, he or she must inspect the property itself and know the condition of the floor, its carpets, etc. He or she must inquire from the owner whether the property for sale includes all the old furnishings in it such as the electric stove or the dishwasher.

On the other hand, the real estate broker must also be responsible to go around with the potential buyer in shopping around for a piece of property. He or she must explicitly know from the potential buyer what price range of property he’d like to buy. He or she must also know whether the owner intends to live in that property or merely treats it as a retreat home to go to during summer vacations and other special or contingent occasions. In other cases, the potential buyer would like to lease his property to other persons. For that, it is the responsibility of the real estate broker to enumerate to the potential buyer all the real estate laws in the area where the buyer intends to purchase property. These included federal, state and recurring laws such as the garbage collection tax law. There’s also the income tax law of the said property. And above all, the real estate broker must warn the potential buyer of the property of possible debt in connection with the property up for sale.

Professional real estate brokers – meaning, those who are accredited and have achieved a bachelor’s degree – do comparative market analysis, exposure, facilitating a sale, property management and auctioning property. The real estate brokers must also be the ones responsible to set up advertisements for the properties for sale. Some real estate brokers have even resorted to the Internet in advertising property. That’s why sales of real properties have jacked up and buyers of properties in a particular area are not limited to the same state. There are even foreign buyers as well depending on the real estate laws of that state. The National Association of Realtors has likewise formed an agreement with other countries in the world that the realtors of the other countries will cooperate with the NAR in their business. Isn’t that great?

YOU need to know lots of things before buying property in Spain. First, you must know your purpose why you want to buy a certain piece of real estate. Do you want that property to be your permanent settlement? If the answer is yes, will you settle down for a condominium unit or a massive villa? If you want to settle down in a condominium unit, will it be a bachelor’s pad or do you want to settle down with your lifetime partner? Do you plan to have kids in mind? Or if you want to settle down by yourself, are you planning some romantic company every night at your pad? If so, there are a few factors that you must be aware of. Before buying a certain condominium unit, have your lawyer or the travel agent on whether the neighbor next door is nosy or not.

Otherwise, you can be guaranteed of your privacy at all times. Try to find out too if your neighbor is friendly. In this way, you can immediately get any medical assistance in case of emergency. Speaking of medical emergencies, research too if there is a nearby hospital in your area and the possible timeframe of an ambulance’s arrival and subsequent evacuation to a hospital in case of that particular contingency. You also have to research whether the neighborhood that you are planning to move into does not reek of crime. Is it also a quake-prone or a hurricane-prone area? Don’t worry about the temperature, Spain offers the most comfortable weather to any vacationing Western European. In summer, the temperature reaches to around 22 degrees Celsius while during winter; it’s as low as 0 degree Celsius. Speaking of the temperature, there are different kinds of properties available in Spain. There are those stripped of furnishing and there are those that already have furnishings like heaters, fireplaces, air conditioners and refrigerators. Of course, these come at a price but these are maintained excellently by the previous owners or by the real estate broker handling them. Some of these are even brand new.

If you want to buy a villa in Spain, there are also several factors to consider. A villa being a very large piece of property, do you want someone to accompany you like a gardener or a butler perhaps? Or maybe you want a maid or someone who really knows how to plumb.

Some of the persons who have bought real estate here in Spain do so not because they want to settle down here but because they want to have a summer retreat resort here. So they buy the property and leave them alone for the rest of the year. Of course, they pay taxes to the government. The real estate tax computed is based on the possible income you have earned from the property if you were to lease it to someone else. Other than that, tax laws are nil unless you count the monthly garbage collection fee imposed by the local government where your property stands.