budongsaneseo bon jibeun joyonghaessjiman yeogi jogeum meoreosseo.

Here 부동산 most naturally means a real estate agency / realtor's office, not the abstract idea of real estate in general.

In everyday Korean, people often say 부동산 as shorthand for:

• the real estate office
• the real estate agent
• the agency they used to look for housing

So 부동산에서 본 집 usually means the house I saw through the real estate agent / at the real estate office.

에서 marks the place where an action happens.

So in 부동산에서 본 집:

• 보다 = to see
• 부동산에서 = at the real estate office / through the real estate agency

Literally, it is something like:

• the house seen at/from the real estate office

Depending on context, a natural English interpretation is:

• the house I saw through the realtor
• the house I saw at the real estate office

Korean often leaves this a little broader than English.

본 is the noun-modifying form of 보다 in the past.

• 보다 = to see
• 본 = seen / that someone saw

So 본 집 means:

• the house that I saw
• literally, the seen house

This is how Korean makes relative clauses: the describing verb goes before the noun.

So instead of saying:

• the house that I saw at the realtor's

Korean says:

• 부동산에서 본 집
• literally, at-the-realtor saw house

The subject is omitted because it is understood from context.

In this sentence, 본 most naturally means:

• the house I saw
• or possibly the house we saw

Korean very often omits pronouns like I, you, and we when they are obvious. This is one of the most common features English speakers have to get used to.

So even though there is no explicit I, it is still naturally understood.

은 marks 집 as the topic of the sentence.

So 집은 gives the feeling of:

• as for the house...
• the house, on the other hand...

This works especially well because the sentence is making a contrast:

• the house was quiet
• but the station was a little far

Using 은 helps set up that contrastive topic.

If you used 집이, it would sound more like you are simply identifying the house as the subject, without the same topic/contrast feeling.

It breaks down like this:

• 조용하다 = to be quiet
• 조용했- = was quiet
• -지만 = but / although

So:

• 조용했지만 = it was quiet, but...

A useful thing to notice is that 조용하다 is a descriptive verb ending in 하다, so its past form becomes 조용했다.

Then -지만 attaches to that:

• 조용했다 + 지만 → 조용했지만

이 marks 역 as the subject of the second clause.

So:

• 역이 조금 멀었어 = the station was a little far

This sounds strange if translated too literally into English, because English usually says:

• the house was a little far from the station or
• the station was a little far away

In Korean, though, saying 역이 멀다 is very natural when the reference point is understood. Here the understood reference point is:

• from the house
• from there

So 역이 is the thing being described as far.

No, it does not mean the station used to be far but is not far now.

In Korean, past tense is often used when talking about:

• an impression you had
• something you observed
• a situation you are recounting after experiencing it

So 멀었어 here means something like:

• it turned out to be a little far
• it was a little far, from what I saw

Because the speaker is talking about a house they already checked out, the past tense sounds natural.

If you were stating it more as a general present fact, you might also hear:

• 역이 조금 멀어
• 역이 조금 멀어요

But 멀었어 is very natural in this kind of after-the-fact comment.

조금 means a little or somewhat.

So:

• 역이 멀었어 = the station was far
• 역이 조금 멀었어 = the station was a little far

It softens the statement and makes it sound less blunt.

In casual speech, people also very often use 좀 instead of 조금:

• 역이 좀 멀었어

That would sound very natural too.

멀었어 is in casual/informal speech.

It would be used with:

• friends
• close family
• someone younger
• very informal conversation

More polite versions would be:

• 부동산에서 본 집은 조용했지만 역이 조금 멀었어요.
• 부동산에서 본 집은 조용했지만 역이 조금 멀었습니다.

So the final -어 ending tells you the sentence is casual.

It can, depending on what you want to emphasize.

Compare these:

• 역이 조금 멀었어
  = the station was a little far
  The station is treated as the thing that is far away.

• 역에서 조금 멀었어
  = it was a little far from the station
  This makes from the station more explicit.

Both can be natural, but they are framed differently.

In your sentence, 역이 조금 멀었어 is a very common and natural way to describe a house location from the speaker's point of view.

It could absolutely mean an apartment, a place, or a home, depending on context.

In Korean, 집 is often used broadly for:

• house
• apartment
• residence
• place to live

So if the speaker was apartment-hunting, 집 might still be translated naturally as:

• the apartment I saw
• the place I looked at

Korean uses 집 much more broadly than English house sometimes does.