FAQ

At OpenAgent, we come to work every day because we want to make it easier for Australians to sell their homes. We thrive on a culture of transparency and continuous improvement, where we can add value and support you in your home selling journey, because we believe that Australians want to sell their homes for the best possible price and have a good experience along the way.

Let's face it, the home selling process can be stressful. On top of being busy, you might have pressure to sell quickly, be going through a difficult time, or even have property in another state. Every story is different, but we know that no matter what your home selling journey looks like, we can help.

All active real estate agents are initially considered. We then use a combination of sales data, customer feedback and proprietary performance metrics to make our recommendations to you.

In the current COVID-19 situation, we will seek to refer you to agents who have confirmed to us that they have social distancing measures in place to ensure your health and safety. You will be advised when one of these agents has been recommended to you. You will still be able to see the full list of recommendations at any time, if you want to.

It is our intention to eventually confirm that all agents in our recommendation list meet these standards, however, to date - we have only confirmed this with the agents on our retained product who we work closest with. This will mean those agents are likely to be referred first.

Our online research tool compares and ranks all active real estate agents, including those who aren't working with OpenAgent.

However, we can only work with agents who have agreed work with us. We do this to make sure agents we work with adhere to our high standards to ensure you get the best possible outcome.

If an agent we want to recommend to you isn't currently working with OpenAgent, our team will give them a call and bring them on-board before we pass across your details. In the event they don't want to work with us and we can't find you a replacement, we will pass on their details to you and you can contact them directly.

We know that every property is as unique as the person who owns it, so when it comes to selling, you need someone with the right skillset and expertise to guide you through that process.

To get things right from the start, we ask questions about:

• Special features of your property that you think will help it stand out on the market 
• Your past experience with agents 
• The qualities you're specifically looking for in an agent

We take an individualised approach to your property and your situation so that we can match you with the right agent, we listen to your needs before recommending agents.

How many agents we introduce really depends on your situation and where you are in the process. We normally start with 3 agents, and then check in with you to get feedback, and if needed we then refine your research and come back with more agents for you to interview until we find you the right agent.

No. Our service is 100% free for vendors.

When a property is sold, the successful real estate agent pays OpenAgent a referral fee, which is at a standard industry rate of 20%-30% of the total commission of the sold property. It enables us to offer our services at completely no cost to the homeowner.

Some agents pay us an ongoing retainer for the services we provide. To be eligible for our retainer product, they must satisfy certain benchmarks and then maintain the highest level of quality. This is measured through user feedback, quantity of sales and other proprietary data

Most agents do market their services as well. However, finding quality listings can be expensive and time consuming - taking agents away from their core business and often targeting people who aren't even in the market. OpenAgent gives great agents more opportunities to work with genuine and motivated sellers.

We only provide our service to people who are real people and who actually want our service (sounds reasonable?). We will only pass your phone number to real estate agents when you give us explicit consent, so your details are safe with us. If you have any questions about this, please let us know or review our privacy policy.

Absolutely not. We never sell, trade or pass along your personal information to other parties. We only use your personal information to match you with the best agents for your property, and we only share your details with an estate agent if you agree first and ask us to introduce you.

For further information, you can read our full privacy policy.

The only way for us to bring you all our research and technology for free is if we can be paid by the real estate agents who benefit from our services. For this reason, we really appreciate you letting us make the initial introduction to the agents so they understand that you used our service to help you find a great agent.

Absolutely not. There are NO obligations or sneaky catches with OpenAgent. We will always do our best to find and introduce the best local agents to you, but if you don't like the agents we source for you, then of course there will be no hard feelings. We would appreciate your feedback though, so we can keep improving our matching engine!

Absolutely. If there is an agent you do not wish for us to contact or consider, then let us know in the registration process and we will make sure they are excluded.

Not a problem. It's not unusual for sellers to turn to OpenAgent after their own search has failed to turn up the perfect agent, or just to double-check the competition before they sign. We'll simply exclude any agents you've already contacted from your search.

No - when working with us, agents need to agree to our terms and conditions, which explicitly highlight that they cannot pass on the referral fee to the vendor (you).

The best real estate agents work hard to get a great result for all their clients. But OpenAgent is in a position to provide the best real estate agents with a regular source of business, and the agents are aware that we are watching and monitoring their performance. They also know we are going to ask you what you thought of their performance. Some agents have told us they work harder for the clients that come through us because they understand that if they delight OpenAgent clients, they are more likely to be positively reviewed and then highly ranked by our system.

Yes! If you are looking to sell your property anywhere in Australia, we can help in some cases, you may get empty instant search results. This is usually because you are searching in a more remote suburb or something went wrong with the technology (oops!). We can still conduct personalised research for you to find quality agents for you, for any property in Australia.