National real estate network @realty have reported $2 million in sales per day in 2017 using a new business model, which has been awarded the Real Estate Institute of Queensland (REIQ) Innovation award.
@realty operates from a single office in Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast and boasts more than 500 agents nationwide.
@realty director JJ Taylor said the driving force behind the company’s unique model – and its success – Â is the desire to provide real estate agents with more freedom and flexibility.
“The essence of innovation is identifying and removing roadblocks which prevent best practice or performance in any area. @realty was started four years ago because the traditional model for selling real estate was proving too rigid and restrictive,” said Mr Taylor.
“My family is from the United States and the culture of working in real estate over there is vastly different.
“We quickly realised agents in Australia were often unwilling to conjunct on deals because it meant splitting the industry average 45 per cent commission, but because we offer commissions of 93 per cent our agents are often more than willing to collaborate.
“The goal of @realty is to combine the advantages of operating as a sole trader with the benefits of working within a branded office.”
Mr Taylor said that because @realty operates from a single head office, agents have no designated ‘areas’, which means they are able to better leverage their networks.
“In some regions, we have up to a dozen agents so we are on par with any of the major national brands – and all of those agents are connected to one another through forums and our software systems,” he said.
“We invest in the education and training of our agents by providing marketing collateral and offering online project kits and webinars, and our executive team often travels to meet with agents in their hometown.
“This way, our agents don’t have to spend their time attending weekly meetings in a regional office, they can focus on doing their jobs and if they need support they have multiple tools at their disposal.”
Mr Taylor said @realty has invested in bespoke software and digital and social media management systems which allow agents to operate remotely.
“Because the @realty model is the first of its kind in Australia, we actually had to commission a cloud-based platform to connect our agents, head office and compliance management teams,” he said.
“We then built into this system bespoke software which automatically searches all listings and compares them to potential buyer profiles to find a match, which effectively means that all 500 of our agents are working to make a sale.
“While our core business is selling real estate, we also offer conveyancing and finance, so our system has also been designed to reflect that we are a multi-disciplinary business.”
