Real Estate - Business Sector

Business Sector

With the development of private property ownership, real estate has become a major area of business, commonly referred to as commercial real estate. Purchasing real estate requires a significant investment, and each parcel of land has unique characteristics, so the real estate industry has evolved into several distinct fields. Specialists are often called on to valuate real estate and facilitate transactions. Some kinds of real estate businesses include:

• Appraisal: Professional valuation services
• Brokerages: A mediator who charges a fee to facilitate a real estate transaction between the two parties.
• Development: Improving land for use by adding or replacing buildings
• Net leasing
• Property management: Managing a property for its owner(s)
• Real estate marketing: Managing the sales side of the property business
• Real estate investing: Managing the investment of real estate
• Relocation services: Relocating people or business to a different country
• Corporate Real Estate: Managing the real estate held by a corporation to support its core business—unlike managing the real estate held by an investor to generate income

Within each field, a business may specialize in a particular type of real estate, such as residential, commercial, or industrial property. In addition, almost all construction business effectively has a connection to real estate.

Professional university-level education in real estate is primarily focused at the graduate level. Focus in towards the commercial real estate sector, primarily real estate development or investment rather than residential real estate sales conducted by a Realtor.

See also graduate real estate education for a discussion and list of university-level real estate programs.

"Internet real estate" is a term coined by the internet investment community relating to ownership of domain names and the similarities between high quality internet domain names and real-world, prime real estate.