A developer’s success depends on the ability to coordinate and direct the completion of a set of interrelated activities efficiently and at the appropriate time.
Development process requires skills of professionals: architects, landscape architects, civil engineers and site planners to address project design; market consultants to determine demand and a project’s economics; attorneys to handle arrangements and government approvals; environmental advisers and soils engineers to analyze a site’s physical constraints and environmental influences; surveyors and title companies to provide legal descriptions of a house; and lenders to provide financing. The general contractor of the project hires subcontractors to place the architectural plans into actions.
Purchasing unused land for a possible development is sometimes called speculative development.
Subdivision of land is the principal mechanism by which communities are developed. Technically, subdivision describes the legal and physical steps a developer must take to convert raw land into developed land. Subdivision is a vital part of a community’s growth, determining its appearance, the mix of its land uses, and its infrastructure, including roads, drainage systems, water, sewerage, and public utilities.
In general, land development is the quickest but most profitable technique as it is so determined by the public sector for approvals and infrastructure and because it involves a long investment period with no positive cash flow.
After subdivision is finished, the developer usually markets the land to a home builder or other end user, for such applications as a warehouse or shopping centre. In any case, use of spatial intelligence tools mitigate the risk of these developers by mimicking the population trends and demographic make-up of the sort of customers a home builder or retailer would like to have surrounding their new development.
A broker that specialises in renting is often called a letting or management agent. Estate agents are primarily engaged in the marketing of land available for sale and also a solicitor or licensed conveyancer is used to prepare the legal documents. In Scotland, however, many solicitors also act as estate agents, a practice that is uncommon in England and Wales.
It is customary in the United Kingdom and in Ireland to refer to property or real property simply as property.
The estate agent remains the current title for the person responsible for the management of one group of privately owned, all or largely tenanted, properties under one ownership. Alternative titles are Factor, Steward or Bailiff depending on the age, the area and the extent of the property involved.
The term originally referred to a individual responsible for handling 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 utilized as a generic term. Estate agent is roughly synonymous with the United States term real estate agent.
Estate agents will need to know about their local area, including factors that could increase or decrease property prices. E.g. if a new road or airport is to be built this can blight houses nearby. Equally, the closing of a quarry or improvement of an area can improve prices. In advising clients on an asking price, the agent has to be aware of recent sale prices (or rental values) for comparable properties.