A good way to learn more about the work of clerks is to perform clerical or bookkeeping tasks for a school club or organization. Your school may also have a school-to-work program that can provide you with part-time on-the-job training with local businesses, such as real estate agencies, newspapers and magazines that focus on the real estate industry, law firms that specialize in real estate, and financial institutions. You might also ask your school counselor to help arrange an information interview with a clerk—especially one who is employed in the real estate industry. 

Real estate clerks perform a wide variety of tasks that help real estate agents, real estate developers, construction managers, construction inspectors, building managers, and other real estate professionals do their jobs. These tasks include maintaining files; sorting mail; drafting correspondence; keeping records; typing copies of lists of rental or sales properties for submission to real estate databases or for listing in newspaper want ads; answering telephone calls about available properties or a need for services; making photocopies; preparing mailings (including announcements for open houses or rent notices to tenants); operating office equipment such as photocopiers, fax machines, and switchboards; computing, classifying, recording, and verifying financial data; and producing and processing bills and collecting payments from customers.

In small companies, real estate clerks perform most or all of the aforementioned duties. In larger companies, clerks may have more specialized duties. The following paragraphs detail the specialties available for people who work as clerks in the real estate industry:

File clerks review and classify letters, documents, articles, and other information and then file this material so it can be quickly retrieved at a later time. This information may be in electronic or paper format.

Billing clerks keep records and up-to-date accounts of all business transactions. They type and send bills for services or products and update files to reflect payments. They also review incoming invoices to ensure that the requested products have been delivered and that the billing statements are accurate and paid on time.

Bookkeeping clerks keep systematic records and current accounts of financial transactions for real estate management companies, and developers. The bookkeeping records of a firm or business are a vital part of its operational procedures because these records reflect the assets and the liabilities, as well as the profits and losses, of the operation.