Real Estate can be Residential or Commercial, residential being the buying of a home or the rental of apartment and commercial is the buying of a business. When looking to buy a home what you should really do first is ask yourself where do I want to live? Do you want to live in the country or the city or somewhere else? Buying a house depends on how much money you have and how much money you want to spend. You should first get your finances in order before even looking into buying, once your finances are settled then you need to look at your credit report and see if you are even in the clear the agent also know what will be needed in the final stages of the closing of the sale, such as closing cost and signing of all documents. If you were to do all of it on your own you risk the chance of getting scammed or cheated out of something you didn’t know about. There is so much to know about the buying a home that the normal person wouldn’t know so that why a lot of people feel more comfortable going to someone that does know, like will you need a loan and do you know what the closing costs will be? You can also renegotiate the terms of costs if you don’t like them, and sometimes most people will appraise the house that they are looking to buy or ask if the current house owners have had it appraised. If everything comes out fine and the way you want it you can then make an offer that suits you and current owner and if its agreeable then all there is left to do is sign the papers and move in when you can.