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Agent Select – For Finding Your Real Estate Agent

Agent Select helps vendors select the best performing agent for their property anywhere in Australia, securing the best terms, for their biggest asset, using a unique online competitive tendering system.

Selling your property is expensive and complicated.

For most of us, we have no hesitation shopping around for the best price on TV’s, computers, flights or holiday accommodation. But did you know that the majority of people selling a property select the first real estate agent they talk to? No competitive process? For a $500,000 property, this is a decision that will likely cost you in excess of $10,000!

Check Them Out

Agent Select | Our Preferred Agent Comparison Website Open Agent Rate My Agent Local Agent Finder Agent Select | Our Preferred Agent Comparison Website

Agent Select does more or less the same thing, but without the same number of agents to compare. 

They’re here to show you a smarter way.

Quite simply, Agent Select helps you select the best performing agent for your property anywhere in Australia, securing the best terms, for your biggest asset.

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Open Agent

OpenAgent helps you find the right and best agent by comparing them on their recent sales performance, appraisals, experience, negotiation skills and what past clients say about them.

They work hard to find high-quality agents who work hard for their vendors. They intelligently use data and customer reviews to match you with local agents who have a proven track record for selling properties just like yours.

Rate My Agent

RateMyAgent is a website designed to help buyers and vendors identify and research the performance of real estate agents and agencies through comparative reviews and data. They compare top-rated real estate agent reviews and ratings of the best Realtors, insurance and mortgage brokers. 

Local Agent Finder

LocalAgentFinder is a copy cat site. 

Free Property Report Compare Agents Secure the Best Deal Free Property Report

Check your suburb and find out how many Top Agents operate in your local area.

Compare Agents

We’ll help you compare up to 3 of the best performing local Real Estate Agents.

Secure the Best Deal

By comparing the Agent’s fees, terms and experience, Agent Select can save you thousands of dollars!

Agent Select helps you select the best performing agent for your property anywhere in Australia.

They’re here to show you a smarter way.

For most of us, we have no hesitation shopping around for the best price on TV’s, computers, flights or holiday accommodation.

But did you know that up to 75% of people selling a property select the first Real Estate Agent they talk to? No competitive process? For a $500,000 property, this is a decision that will likely cost you in excess of $10,000!

Free and 100% independent service to consumers.

Agent Select are a free service to vendors and 100% independent, with no affiliations or relationships with any real estate agents.

A national database of 40,000+ licenced real estate agents is leveraged to short-list the strongest performers based on your property profile and location. These agents then compete to secure your business via an unbiased, transparent process.

Most importantly, you choose!

You have complete control! Agent Select simply facilitates the bids of competing real estate agents into a simple, yet powerful comparison report.

If you have a relationship with a real estate agent, you can include them too. If you want to exclude an agent for any reason, no problems! Agent Select simply ensures a competitive, transparent process amongst the bidding real estate agents. You are the winner!!!

How can it be free?

For you, the property owner, the service is free. The lifeblood of real estate agents is strong, reliable leads for property listings.

For most agents, this is an expensive and often frustrating process – especially if not given the opportunity to compete for the listing! We simply ensure the best agents, based on the profile and location of your property, are given the opportunity to compete. For this, Agent Select receive a nominal Referral Authority fee that is standard practice in the industry.

Get More Info

No Registration required – No up front costs. Just motivated vendors.

• Unlike other lead generation sites real estate agencies DO NOT register with Agent Select. They work with Corporate partners all over Australia and usually have specific requirements.
• If their algorithms rank your Agency and Agent as one of the best performing in the local area (or the vendor requests your company’s inclusion) their property professionals will cross check and validate this data and if satisfied notify your Agency by phone and email/SMS as to the business opportunity.
• If offered the listing opportunity all you need to do is secure an appraisal time and accept the Referral Authority terms and conditions.
• Immediately after acceptance, you will receive a confirmation email in your Agency’s Agent Select dashboard, which includes the vendors contact details and the address of the property.
• Once you have appraised the property you will be required to complete their online form with 5-6 criteria which align to your normal listing procedure.
• Agent Select then work with Vendor to ensure they have all the information they then need to make a confident decision and you’ll be notified either way of the outcome.

Compare Agents

I would like to thank Agents Select for helping us find an agent who, in the face of a hardening sales market, managed to secure for us a good sale of our property. T&C Woodward After a previous real estate experience, I was left angry and upset..I came across Agent Select. From the first call Jessica made me feel so much better, can’t thank the Agent Select team enough. Thanks guys Tammy You guys were a great help. Was awesome knowing someone else was in our corner in this totally foreign journey. Thanks! Kate & Paul Thank you for your service and it was truly a fabulous experience rating Bruno as very caring informative and guided us through the whole process without any uncomfortable issues … 5 out 5! Carla I was really stressed about selling my home and Bianca made it very easy. Highly Recommended! Evelyn 10 out of 10! – an excellent choice. Thank you for recommending Darren to us. Robert K Previous Next

Find Property Manager

Agent Select can find you the right property manager

They look at their track record

You need someone who is not only a professional, but who is a good negotiator while being polite and firm. Are they reliable? You need them to be reliable for the sake of both you and your tenants’ sanity!

Your tenant is the most important part of the rental process, so it’s vital that the person you choose to manage your property is going to enjoy that relationship.

Property management fees and structures

Ensure the commission you pay is going to be well spent. This is generally between 6.6 – 8.5 % plus GST for their management fee to collect rent, and one weeks rent for leasing the property. The fee isn’t the most important part of your property management choice – it’s certainly something to consider, but remember that, as with most things, you get what you pay for. Agent Select will be able to help you compare this.

What is their experience like?

This comes down to how comfortable you are with the experience that your property manager has. We’ll always start with the Agency principal or director that is going to be ultimately responsible for managing your property.

You need someone with solid experience who can manage conflict and deal with issues to help you.

What are their systems like?

We’ll only put you in touch with Agents that have a dedicated property rental management department in place. A good property manager should have a checklist that they go through with you which takes care of all of these things.

And remember… it is property manager’s duty to foster a good working relationship with you and your tenants and to keep everyone happy!

Find A Property Manager

A good property manager must ensure that:

• Prospective tenants are vetted closely
• Background checks conducted
• Rental history checked
• Work verifications are conducted
• The property is well maintained
• Your tenants are doing all the right things
• Any grievances are dealt with promptly
• Property is compliant with the law
• Communicates with you regularly

Real Estate Agent & Commissions

When you’re selling your home, arguably the biggest decision you’ll make is which real estate agent you’ll choose to work for you.

Types of fees

It’s common knowledge that real estate agents usually charge on commission — that’s a percentage of the sale price. In Australia, that’s usually in the range of two to three percent. Typically, this is the bare minimum of what you’ll pay, as other costs can be involved such as advertising costs. How expensive these will turn out to be depends on how you proceed with your agent. For example, a simple property listing on the major websites like domain.com.au and realestate.com.au and at the real estate company premises may run in the hundreds of dollars. Bigger marketing campaigns however can easily tread into the thousands in upfront costs.

As well as that, real estate agencies may propose different fees in all sorts of ways such as:

• Higher commissions which include some or all advertising
• Guaranteeing the sale by not getting paid a cent if there’s no sale
• Conversely, requiring signage and advertising costs even if the property doesn’t sell
• Flat fees
• Scale of commission on the sale price of more expensive real estate
• Any mix of the above balancing out commission and upfront costs on advertising and signage

As a general rule, it’s a bad idea to pay anything upfront. You pay a real estate agent to sell your house and until that happens, they haven’t done their job especially when some commissions can go as high as five percent. In this respect, agents who guarantee the sale by not requiring any payment until after the sale are an attractive option.

On paper, flat fees also look attractive if they aren’t paid until after the sale, particularly when the fee seems low. In reality however, if your agent’s pay isn’t tied at all to the sale price, this leaves a big incentive for agents to simply sell quickly, locking you out of a potential buyer with a bigger sale down the road. When all is said and done, you might have saved a few thousand on commission, but lost tens or even hundreds of thousands in a big sale.

If your property is well in demand and its property value is high, scale of commission schemes might get you the most bang for your buck. That means for every dollar up to a certain amount in the sale price, the agent gets a cut, and every dollar beyond that amount, they’ll get a bit more. For example, you might agree that they’ll earn 3% on every dollar up to $1,000,000, and 7% on every dollar beyond that. That means your agent will work their hardest to get the highest price possible.

As always though, you should be sure to negotiate a payment structure that suits your needs.

Commission levels by state

Across states and territories in Australia, average commission levels are mostly in the two to three percent range. The only exception is Tasmania which clocks in as the most expensive at 3.26%. Somewhat surprisingly given its current market reputation as a hot region, NSW boasts the second cheapest average commission levels at 2.11%. Though the market changes frequently, average commissions for the other states and territories can be found below:

• South Australia: 2.07%
• Victoria: 2.13%
• ACT: 2.18%
• Western Australia: 2.45%
• Queensland: 2.47%
• Northern Territory: 2.68% 

This doesn’t tell the whole story however, since property values in each state can vary wildly. If an agent were to sell the median dwelling price in each capital city at each state’s respective average commission level, they’d get paid:

• Adelaide: $8,642.25
• Hobart: $10,686.28
• Brisbane: $11,794.25
• Perth: $12,005
• Canberra: $12,240.70
• Melbourne: $12,460.50
• Darwin: $13,333
• Sydney: $16,275

Here it’s easy to tell that even though Sydney is in the state with the lowest agent commissions on average, the value of sold properties in the area more than make up for it.

Even within states and territories however, commissions can vary wildly. By some estimations, the difference in average commission rates between rural and metro areas can be as large as 1.9 percentage points. In broad strokes, fierce markets with lots of competition seem to lead to lower agent commissions, so if your property’s location is in a hotly contested area, you should see an easier time finding a great deal.

How to compare agents

Now that they know all this, how does a first time home seller compare agent proposals?

If they’re not going for sale by owner (FSBO), the traditional way is to visit real estate websites or google a few real estate agencies in the area and visit them one by one. Often the problem with this is that agents are experienced salespeople and once you’re in the door, it can get easy to be swept away in the excitement of starting your home selling journey. Up to 75% of vendors do it this way and end up going with the first agent they talk to. Then you can find you missed out on a better agent with a better proposal elsewhere.

That better proposal may mean you miss out on tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Another problem is that sometimes you may not be talking to a licensed real estate agent at all, since some agencies employ dedicated salespeople to help gather clients to pass to the agents.

There’s are better ways, however.

One better way is through Agentselect.com.au, a free service where agents come to you and compete for your business. There are tens of thousands of licensed real estate agents across Australia who you can choose from. There, you can pick from the real estate companies and agents most experienced in property sales around your property’s location. 

Once you have a handpicked selection of agents you’d like to explore, they submit proposals to you, which the service makes easy to compare in a side by side quick overview. That way you can consider all the facts before you make a decision. Further, get provided with the agents’ contact details like phone number and email address and everything from agent commissions to marketing campaigns are up for negotiation. 

Remember, your choice of agent determines how you approach the entire selling process until keys change hands, so it’s one of the most important decisions you’ll make. To get the best deals with the best agent, go to Agentselect.com.au.

What do you get for your money?

One way or another, you will be paying for all the costs involved in selling your house. Whether they’re included in a higher commission or separated as their own fees with a lower commission, home owners should be aware of not only what you’re getting, but also how it will bring prospective buyers to you.

Advertising costs can include things like:

• Sale signs
• Open house signs
• Property listings in newspapers
• Listings on property websites (realestate.com.au, domain.com.au, etc.)
• More advertising in any of the above

All of these do add up and it’s quite standard to have at least a few of these in your marketing campaign, even for home owners going for sale by owner. The vast majority of property buyers begin their search by looking up property online on real estate website, so having a presence there is crucial. 

If you and your agent decide to sell by auction, there may be extra costs involved which, again, you will foot the bill for in some form. These include things like:

• Extra marketing for the auction
• An auctioneer
• Extra help on auction day

Because everything depends on a great turnout at open home times and auction day itself, you’ll typically find much more intense and expensive marketing campaigns in the lead up to the day, with more signage on the day itself. There will also be the costs of an auctioneer, which can vary in cost, and your agent may bring in extra help from their real estate agency to work the crowd of potential buyers and drum up bids. 

On the other hand, if you and your agent decide that going by private sale is the best route, you won’t have to deal with these costs at all. But there are different costs involved for private sellers. While the advertising won’t tend to be as intensive as for auction, getting to the sale tends to take a bit longer so you may find yourself paying less, but over a longer period of time. Sale signs can and do get damaged and may need to be replaced, and multiple open homes require signage too.

Also worth noting is that your agent may recommend paid services to make your house more attractive once the sale sign goes up. While these may not be paid to your agent, they are costs to you all the same. These might be:

• Cleaning
• Landscaping
• Renovations
• Repairs
• Decorations and furnishings

For all of these, you should discuss with your agent in detail how much you might be able to do yourself, and for the things you can’t, how much value they add to your house. 

Negotiating Tips

The first and most important thing to remember is that everything is up for negotiation. If a proposal doesn’t suit you and the agent won’t budge, you can always walk away and seek another. 

The second is that it’s important to be realistic about your expectations. Remember that licensed real estate agents are professionals who do an important job for a living, and they should be paid a fair amount for the value they provide to you. Understand how much they’re actually being paid. Unless you’re talking to the owner of the real estate company, agents will usually personally receive between fifty and seventy percent of the agreed commission, with the rest going to their agency.

Also, note that a lower commission doesn’t always mean good things for you. Much of the time you get what you pay for. Score a lower commission and your agent may not treat your property as a priority. Even worse, you may find that your agent is willing to to give you a bargain because they aren’t very skilled to begin with. Missing out on a big sale isn’t usually worth a few decimal points of a percent in agent commission.

Do your own research. Get a general idea of what your house is worth based on your property’s location and the current market. Your agent’s valuation should be in the general range of other sold properties in your area, so beware of agent’s overpromising a big sale to get you to sign on. 

Finally, look at the value they provide more than the commission itself. Agents in a given area will tend to charge roughly the same commission, and even across Australian capital cities, average commissions tend to stay within a percentage point of each other. But while they might cost roughly the same, there is enormous variation in the skill and effort levels among agents. What does an extra half percent mean to you if the right agent can net tens of thousands of dollars above your reserve price?

Want to compare agents easily? Visit Agentselect.com.au

Customer Satisfaction

• They don’t share your information.
• 100% free to use
• No charge to search & compare

Agent Select can help you select the best performing agent for your property in Australia. Free and 100% independent. You can find and compare real estate agents for your property anywhere in Australia and compare real estate agent fees, commissions and strategies.

Agent Select provides a free service to property vendors, short-lists the strongest performing agents based on the profile and location of the property to be sold, manage the process through an expert team and unique online competitive tendering system, they are 100% independent and have no panels or agency relationships and manage communication with vendors and competing agents.

Real Estate Agent Comparison,Tech / February 6, 2020 / Lynne Becera