Basically Real Estate Broker or Agent is the intermediary between the buyer and the seller in a real estate deal. Under law real estate broker has what is called a fiduciary relationship with clients. This obliges the broker to act in his or her clients’ best interest.

From seller’s side, real estate broker helps to market the property using various methods in order to get the best possible price. Services offered by a real estate broker may include, giving an analysis of the current state of market, appraising the property, general marketing of property, guiding clients during the process of selling, preparing the necessary documentation and contracts, and auctioning of property if that is the requirement, among others.

While buyers can enter into a signed agreement with a real estate broker (thus obliging buyers to pay commission on conclusion of the deal) to search for a property at best possible price for them, that is not necessary. Buyers can deal with seller’s real estate broker or with others under a verbal agreement.

Brokers who assist in the deal without representing either the buyer or seller are known as transaction brokers and are not bound by the fiduciary relationship.

Real estate brokers are compensated depending on the role they played, by a commission based on a percentage of the gross transaction price of the deal, or through an hourly consulting fee.

Generally real estate brokers are required to have a license. In fact in some States of US unlicensed brokers are not entitled to receive commission and their activity is illegal. In some other states lawyers are allowed to deal with real estate matters in the same way as licensed real estate brokers. Buyers and sellers can also come to a deal without brokers.

When we talk about real estate transactions it is important to use right terminology. Here we will examine and explain few basic terms used is residential housing.

Occupation types
Housing tenure or occupation of a house can result from several legal arrangements. These include owner occupation, condominium housing, rented housing, pubic housing, and cooperative housing, among others. The type of occupancy does not depend on the type of house.

House Types
Residential real estate can be classified according to the physical appearance and their connectedness to neighboring real estate.

The term single family detached house is used to describe exactly that, a physically separated house occupied by a family. Duplex is a semi detached house with two homes usually separated by a single connecting wall.

There are several types of houses which are connected to their neighbors. A flat or an apartment is a single unit in a building with multiple housing units usually called an apartment building. When a multiple story building has separate houses in each floor, it is called a multi family house. A row-house or a townhouse, also called a terrace house, has a row of houses with just the connecting wall to separate them. Condominiums, though some times used to describe apartments, is a legal arrangement whereby the housing units in a apartment building or terrace house are owned separately and other common parts of the building and attached property are held collectively.

In addition to the already described permanent homes people also occupy potentially portable homes such as, mobile homes or trailers, house boats, and tents.

Size of a house is measured in several ways. When it is measured in square feet, the size of the living area, without garage and other such areas, are given in USA. In contrast, in Europe the measure includes the whole area enclosed by the walls. Houses are also measured according to the number of bedrooms.