Real Estate Agency in Australia

A Comprehensive Guide to Opening Your Own Real Estate Agency in Australia

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Australia’s real estate market is dynamic and diverse, offering significant opportunities for aspiring entrepreneurs. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the real estate industry is a vital part of the economy, contributing approximately 8.3% to the national GDP. For those considering opening their own real estate agency, understanding the landscape and the steps involved is crucial.

1. Market Overview

The Australian real estate sector is vast, encompassing residential, commercial, and industrial properties. In recent years, the market has shown resilience and growth. For instance, as of early 2024, the median house price in Sydney was around AUD 1.3 million, reflecting both high demand and significant investment potential.

2. Business Planning

Before diving into the real estate business, it’s essential to develop a comprehensive business plan. This plan should outline your agency’s mission, target market, competitive analysis, marketing strategy, and financial projections.

Essential Components:

  • Mission Statement: Define the core values and vision of your agency.
  • Target Market Analysis: Identify demographics and property types you want to focus on.
  • Competitive Analysis: Understand local competitors and market gaps.
  • Financial Projections: Estimate start-up costs, expected revenue, and profitability.

3. Legal Requirements

Opening a real estate agency in Australia requires compliance with various legal and regulatory requirements. Here’s a brief overview:

Licensing:

  • Real Estate Agent Licence: You must obtain a real estate agent’s licence specific to your state or territory. Each state has its own regulatory body, such as the Office of Fair Trading in New South Wales or Consumer Affairs Victoria.
  • Educational Requirements: Typically, a Certificate IV in Property Services (Real Estate) is required. Some states may also require additional qualifications or experience.

Business Structure:

  • Business Name Registration: Register your business name with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
  • ABN (Australian Business Number): Apply for an ABN through the Australian Business Register.

Insurance:

  • Professional Indemnity Insurance: Required to protect against claims of professional negligence.
  • Public Liability Insurance: Covers you in case of accidents or injuries on your property.

4. Setting Up Your Agency

Once you have your business plan and legal requirements in place, it’s time to set up your agency:

Office Space:

Choose a location that is accessible and visible to potential clients. Consider a central business district (CBD) location for higher visibility or a suburban area if you plan to focus on local markets.

Technology and Tools:

Invest in a reliable Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to manage client interactions and property listings. Consider platforms like Salesforce or Real Estate Investar for enhanced productivity.

Marketing Strategy:

Develop a robust marketing strategy to attract clients and build your brand. This could include:

  • Digital Marketing: Use SEO, social media, and email marketing to reach potential clients.
  • Traditional Marketing: Utilise flyers, brochures, and local advertising.
  • Networking: Engage with local community events and real estate networks.

5. Hiring and Training

Your team is crucial to the success of your real estate agency. Consider the following roles:

  • Real Estate Agents: Qualified and licensed professionals who will handle client interactions and property sales.
  • Administrative Staff: Responsible for managing day-to-day operations and supporting agents.
  • Marketing and Sales Team: To handle promotional activities and client acquisition.

Invest in ongoing training and development to ensure your team remains knowledgeable about market trends and regulatory changes.

6. Financial Management

Effective financial management is key to sustaining and growing your agency. Key financial considerations include:

  • Start-Up Costs: These can range from AUD 10,000 to AUD 50,000, depending on your office setup, licensing fees, and marketing expenses.
  • Ongoing Expenses: Include rent, salaries, insurance, and marketing.
  • Revenue Streams: Primarily through commissions on property sales and rentals. The average commission rate in Australia is about 2-3% of the property’s sale price.

Financial Stats:

  • Average Commission (2023): 2.1% of the property sale price
  • Estimated Annual Revenue per Agent: AUD 200,000 to AUD 300,000

7. Compliance and Ethics

Maintaining high ethical standards and compliance with industry regulations is essential. Ensure your agency adheres to the Real Estate Institute of Australia’s Code of Conduct and other relevant guidelines.

Opening a real estate agency in Australia can be a lucrative and rewarding venture. With a solid business plan, adherence to legal requirements, and a strategic approach to marketing and operations, you can build a successful agency in this thriving market. Stay informed about industry trends and continuously adapt to changing market conditions to ensure long-term success.

Top 10 Growth Suburbs: Brisbane

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Brisbane’s median house price has hit a record high of $673,000 after an increase of 2.5 per cent in the past year.

The market in Brisbane’s local government area (LGA) has grown almost 30 per cent in the past five years thanks to “steady, sustainable growth”.

Read more about the Top 10 Growth Suburbs Of Brisbane here.

Real Estate Course

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Real estate is a career path that can provide many employment opportunities. It’s an adaptable role that allows to you the independence to take control of your career and grow it to become more than just a job.

Like any line of work, there are many pros and cons of a career in real estate and while there are many challenges, you’ll also be able to reap its rewards. You’ll have the freedom to make your own decisions and be responsible for your own career progression. Over time, you may even choose to start and build your own real estate agency.

Working in real estate will give you the opportunity to work within a fast paced role, meet new and diverse people, and use your interpersonal skills as part of key sales techniques. And because these qualities and skills are gained and not taught, it means that it’s never too late to considering switching career paths to real estate. Your past experience will contribute to your proficiencies as a real estate agent.

How to become a Real Estate Agent

To become a practising real estate agent in Queensland, you will need a certificate of registration from an accredited training organising. Their registered training courses are generally self-paced and takes approximately 2 days to complete. To complete the real estate course assessment, you must show that you understand key information about the legislative requirements.

Real Estate Schools

National Real Estate Learning (NREL.edu.au) is a leading Australian real estate training company that provides nationally recognised courses that are Office of Fair Trading compliant, and registered training organisations (RTO).

NREL is an online real estate course and we understand online training may be daunting without face-to-face support, but be reassured as NREL has specifically developed an online resource library to help you every step of the way. Our digital assessing team are also just a click away.

Real Estate Course

NREL delivers online real estate training in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. NREL’s online learning platform is a 21st century way of meeting the needs of people who are looking to start a real estate career, or up-skill their current qualifications to further their real estate employment prospects. If you want to run your own real estate agency, you will need a full real estate agent license.

The courses features:

  • Easy to understand content
  • Open book assessments
  • No exams
  • Free multiple assessment attempts

Tip 5: How To Manage Your Day

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Welcome to the end of another Tip Series. This last one is very simple but probably the most important.

Tip 5: Know Your capacity

The best way to work effectively and efficiently, is to know your capacity. Capacity is the fuel that makes bringing our skill and talent fully to life. We usually take this for granted as most of our lives as we have always had enough.

Many things can change this, children, digital technology, rising job complexities, more information and more requests. All of it coming faster and more relentlessly.

Obviously, we aren’t meant to operate at high speeds for extended periods of time and our brains work in flows of spending then renewing energy. We can push our limits through coffee or sugar, but we do eventually need a break.

Tip 3: How To Manage Your Day

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You might notice a theme appearing, managing your day to day work life is built on a foundation of how you work. If you understand how you work, your routine will be more efficient enabling you to get better results, to get more done and fundamentally be happier.

If your still having trouble understanding how you work maybe this tip will help.

Tip 3: Take a step back… seriously

When was the last time you huddled with your team and discussed how you worked? Aside from an occasional annual or bi-annually meeting, not many of us meet to discuss this.

Why? We are usually all too busy working to take pause and make some changes on how we are working. I’ve never seen a sports team without a huddle, yet we’ll continue working with clients and colleagues for months – if not years – without taking a step back, taking stock and making improvements to our system.

This is even harder to do as individuals we never have meetings with ourselves.

Over time the biggest problem that emerges is when routine sets in, bad habits creep in without us realising.

Work in the real estate industry is always going to be busy, you’ve got houses to sell, targets to meet, commission to earn. However take the time, get your team or yourself to set down and brainstorm what are the difficult or problematic parts of your job.

Then think about ways to improve these parts, no idea is stupid and no idea can’t be logically solved (teleportation doesn’t exist so you can’t suggest that when you have to many open homes).

Pros and Cons To Multi-Listings

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A multi-listing, or a multiple listing agreement is an option open to sellers if you’re willing to offer it.

Normally, under an exclusive agreement, one agent/agency handles the entirety of the sale process from start to finish, including the photography, marketing, open for inspections, negotiations etc. until the property is sold and unconditional.

Under a multi-listing agreement, the seller signs up to you and any other agent(s) whom usually work for the same agency. The property is then marketed to both agent’s audiences, effectively promoting the property to more potential buyers.

So, what are the advantages and disadvantages of a multiple listing agreement?

Disadvantages:
All agents involved in the multi-listing will share the commission from the sale, so you may find the other agent involved in the multi-listing work less efficiently than you, essentially relying on you to sell the property even though they get paid half of the commission fee.

Miscommunication between all agents and the seller could also lead to a lower sale price. Buyers will often go to all agents of the multi-listing property and see who will accept the lowest offer. If you’re not on the same page, the property could sell for less than its potential.

Advantages:
The main advantage is of a multi-listing is that the property can be marketed to more potential buyers. This could lead to the attraction of buyers outside your core market. Multi-listings were particularly popular in the days before domain.com.au and realestate.com.au when properties were not accessible at the click of a button.

Although not as common, multi-listings still occur today if a property is listed for sale outside an agent’s core market and the listing agent often invites the area’s well-known agent to share the listing. Their personal contacts or buyers who have recently missed out on property in the area could the buyer of the multi-listing property.

Tip 2: How To Manage Your Day

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Carrying on from our previous tip where we discussed working proactively instead of reactively. Our next tip looks into how best to proactively work.

Tip 2: Building a schedule around your rhythm

Every day we have a rhythm to our energy levels, some parts of our day we have a higher level of mental alertness. Notice when you seem to have the most energy during the day and dedicate those times to your proactive work instead of the reactive work.

Proactive work can be optimizing your workflow to be more efficient or upgrading your marketing or personal brand, in either case it involves a large amount of creativity. For most people this type of work usually takes the most energy out of us.

Which goes back to proactive work first, reactive work second. We don’t want to try being creative after our brain has slowed down and is numbed by the mundane pile of emails and messages you just responded to.

This will be difficult when you get a message beginning with “I sent you an email an hour ago…!”. There will always be a bunch of people waiting for you to get back to them, while don’t see this as an excuse to not respond because you will. But think of this as a way to optimize your time and work more effectively based on how your body and mind works.

Is Multiple Listings In A Street Good Or Bad?

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“There’s a few houses for sale in my street, it mustn’t be a good time to sell.”

It’s a common assumption raised by sellers, and although it may not create the best first impression for buyers, it’s not always a bad thing.

Multiple properties listed for sale in the same street is a sure sign of property price growth. If a suburb is more tightly held and only has property selling there once in a blue moon, it usually means there is less growth.

If your sellers aren’t sure that the multiple ‘For Sale’ signs is a good thing, encourage them to speak to the neighbours or other people selling in the area. The local’s will share their experiences and profitable outcomes which could be the push you need to get the listing agreement signed.

CEO of property price predication firm realAs, Josh Rowe says of all of Australia’s housing stock, five per cent is listed for sale each year. This means it take about 20 years for all housing to completely change hands.

However, in high sale areas, the volume of houses for sale can rise to 8 per cent.

The seller is not the only one that can capitalise on the plethora of sale signs. As an agent, if you successfully sell a property in a short time frame, you can use your success story to approach those properties that have been on the market more than 90 days.

The buyers have left over from the first sold property may be willing to place their offer on the second property you have listed.

Tell us, how many properties have you sold in one street?

Tip 1: How To Manage Your Day

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Through our constant connectivity to each other, when have become increasingly reactive to what comes to us rather than being proactive about what matters the most. We are trying to stay afloat by responding and reacting to the latest email, message, tweet, post, call, and so on.

Being informed and connected has become a disadvantage as it interrupts your flow of thinking then acting.

Tip 1: Proactive work first, Reactive work second

Achieving any great task, like selling a house or hitting your targets takes time, thought, craft and persistence. However, on any day this effort will never seem as urgent as those emails from Client X or Colleague Y asking for something that couple wait a couple hours.

At the beginning of the day we start with an overflowing inbox, 20 voice messages and a list of steps from the last meeting. It’s tempting to “clear the decks” before starting your work and to tell yourself once you’re up-to-date it will be easier to focus.

The trouble with this is it means spending the best part of the day on other people’s priorities. By the time you settle down to your important jobs it could be mid-afternoon after your energy dips and your brain slows. There is always tomorrow, however with tomorrow another pile of emails, messages and to-do lists appear.

If you carry on you will spend most of your day doing reactive work instead of proactively working to achieve anything truly worthwhile.

Do Your Listed Properties Need More Buyers?

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Enhancing a listed property to look and feel like a home will attract greater buyer competition and ultimately push the price of the property up. So, how do you position a property in a way that will appeal to more buyers?

Focus on quality
If your sellers are planning on enhancing the property before it goes on the market, ensure they invest in quality products or services. Whether it be the need to repair the leaking tap, lay new carpet, or harvest the grass to ensure it grows evenly, recommend they use the best person for the job. Buyers are becoming increasingly discerning when it comes to the standard of the property.

Connect it up
We now live in a well-connected world. From Facetime to Facebook, buyers are expecting homes to be connected with some form of electronic automation. This could mean electronic garage doors, well-connected internet, or simply the latest kitchen appliances. This will not only attract buyers to the property now, but will hold its value for new owners in 5-10 years’ time.

Avoid big statements
The bold feature wall or eye-catching façade might look good to you, but will it appeal to a wide array of buyers? Major design statements often date quickly, leaving your buyers hesitant to purchase a property with out-of-the-ordinary features. Encourage your sellers to keep the style of the property modern without making it to polarising.