Definition
Estate Agent: A person or company who acts in the sale, lease or maintenance of land, property, real estate etc for another.
source: wiktionary.org

Further Clarification
An estate agent is a person or business that arranges the selling, renting or management of homes, land and other buildings, in the United Kingdom and Ireland. An agent that specialises in renting is often called a letting agent. Estate Agents are mainly engaged in the marketing of property available for sale and 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 rare in England and Wales. It is customary in the United Kingdom and in Ireland to refer to real estate or real property simply as property.

The term originally referred to a person responsible for managing a landed estate, while those engaged in the buying and selling of homes were “House Agents”, and those selling land were “Land Agents”. However, sometime during the 20th century, “Estate Agent” started to be used as a generic term, perhaps because it was thought to sound more impressive. Estate Agent is roughly synonymous in the United States with the term real estate broker.

In England there is much distrust associated with the activities of estate agents, especially as in the United Kingdom, there are such large swings in house prices and estate agents don’t actually value them, but essentially they compete with each other for instructions to sell them. Regulation or control is minimal.
source: wikipedia.org

Questions & Answers
Questions: What percentage of the commission do real estate agents get after the broker is paid the commission of a sale? After the sale of a home, let’s say a real estate company gets 3%. What percentage of that 3% does the agent typically get from the broker if the agent made the sale? What would be an ideal percentage of that 3% for new agents, and when should an agent get a raise?

Answer: I was an agent and it is not the same accross the board. Often brokrages negotiate a percentage with the agent when they sign on. I’ve seen anywhere from 50/50 to 100% to the agent. It depends on many factors. But for the most part I’d say 70/30 in favor of the agent is a good place to start with a yearly cap of around $15,000-20,000. If you contribute the cap amount in a year everything over you take in at 100%.
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Question: Do Australian Real Estate Agents have the ability to cross reference a potential tenant’s previous addresses? For example, if a person listed three previous addresses with one Real Estate Agency, and the Real Estate Agency calls the previous listed Real Estate Agencies, (to check if they were a good tenant etc) can they also cross reference the listed addresses on the application? Is there like a national database or something where Real Estate Agents can see your rental living history?

Answer: Do you mean you are applying for a rental property, and your wondering if the agent your applying with will cross reference where you previously lived with agents who you previously rented with? The answer is yes. Agents can get a reference from your old agent to see if you paid your rent on time, or if you were late in paying.
source: Yahoo! Answers

Estate Agent Humor

source: clangnuts.com