What is A Realtor?
Basically, a realtor is a real estate agent. Person who help other buy and sell their lands or other pieces of property like a house or a flat or a shop, etc., are called realtors. This word, which sounds so nice and all-inclusive, was first used about 108 years ago in the United States. Like Jeans, burgers, comics and Coke, for example, America has given one more new thing to us!
Many people in this business, prefer to now call themselves as “Property Consultants”. This became popular after the IPCs, the International Property Consultants, like Richard Ellis, Jones Llang LaSalle, Knight Frank and Cushman Wakefield, etc., came to India.
Most builders now refer to the brokers as “Channel Partners”! This is, by the way, logically and legally not a correct denomination!!! There is no direct nor any established channel of a builder selling his goods through a broker, nor is there any sort of legally structured partnership between the two.
Be happy and proud and thankful about being associated with the Real Estate Industry. After all, this, as a part of the over-all Construction Industry provides employment to the largest ever lot in our country. Apart from the basic infrastructure construction of roads, bridges, airports, etc., all those colonies and housing projects are being done for the larger need of the people living in cities. All that provides for so many direct and direct jobs.
Just imagine the very large Income Tax and other taxes generation that gets done because of Real Estate. True, even the Supreme Court of India has stated that there is a lot of “unaccounted wealth” in this field. The Income Tax Department and other Departments of the Government of India, and the States have brought about so many schemes, rules and regulations over the past decades for that.
Today, the extent of this “unaccounted wealth” is not so high as it used to be. There is no need to give any figures to prove this. Just look around us: almost 99% of the advertisements that we see in the newspapers, and the billboards emblazoned in the sky unashamedly mention the price of the Flat on offer.
We do not need any statistical figures of the hugeness of our work: just look around us. Thousands and thousands of us pay a lot of Income Tax and GST. And every transaction generates a good amount of Stamp Duty and Registration Charges for the State Governments. And all those are filling the coffers of the Governments. Such a large infrastructural Development that we see around us is as a result of our money only!!!!
And remember the jobs we help in creating. Every real estate project is full of people: not just the architects, the engineers and labour, but so many others, security people, drivers, gardeners, cooks and cleaners, supply staff, maintenance workers, and so many more.
However, whether we call ourselves “Real Estate Consultants”, “Channel Partners”, or Realtors, we ARE brokers who have brokered a deal, and have helped a buyer and a seller meet and complete a transaction. This is a value addition by all means. We should be happy and proud of it; not belittle ourselves.
Zafar Iqbal