How real estate agents can use AI to get ahead
There has been an Artificial Intelligence revolution over the past 12 months that's rapidly shaping new futures for all kinds of industries. The real estate world isn't exempt from this,
OpenAgent started in 2013 with a vision to make it easy for people to buy, sell and own property. Since then, we've become Australia's number one real estate agent comparison service with more than 2 million visitors* a year using our site for research.
We’re committed to building trust between home sellers and real estate agents. We do this by understanding the real motivation of sellers and intelligently using data and customer reviews to match vendors with local agents who have a proven track record for selling properties just like theirs.
Consumers love our online tools, property blog and agent comparisons, but our real success is driven by our 60-strong team in Australia who know the market inside and out.
We understand that every home — and home-owner — is unique, so we qualify vendors to find out more about their property, their past experience with agents and the qualities they are looking for before we match them with you.
Our view of the property lead market, combined with big data analytics and rigorous qualification of all our data, makes us a valued partner to many of Australia’s highest-performing agents. In fact, 7 out of every 10 top-performing agents** in Australia are OpenAgent clients.
7 out of every 10 top-performing agents** in Australia are OpenAgent clients.
We undertake marketing activities to attract customers who are thinking about selling in the future. Either they are ready to meet an agent now, and if that is the case we put them through our agent selection process. For anyone who isn’t quite ready to speak to an agent, we nurture them until they are.
OpenAgent optimises the agent selection process for sellers through a combination of sophisticated data analysis and human expertise. Unlike other recommendation platforms, OpenAgent typically recommends two to three agents who are best suited to the vendor and their property.
Sellers seeking an agent will receive a tailored shortlist based on their personal needs and property details. The shortlist is created by the vendor themselves via our data-backed digital portal or delivered to the seller either over the phone by one of our knowledgeable property specialists.
Once we pass a vendor's details to you, we'll remain available for support for both you and the vendor throughout the process — otherwise, it's your time to shine.
Working with OpenAgent, you don’t pay for a lead until you have successfully sold that property. It’s important to us that our interests are aligned, which means we only get paid when you do. At that point, you are charged between 20-30% of your commission^. This price is set at the time the lead is sent to you and varies depending on a number of factors.
As an agent, OpenAgent connects you with real sellers who are ready to go to market. 35% of leads referred to agents go to market within 3 months.***
Read some of their stories and experiences working with OpenAgent.
Principal & Director - Social Realty, Brisbane
Working with OpenAgent has been like having another team doing the legwork while I focus on mine. It keeps me busy, allows me to meet more sellers and buyers, and stay in practice. I've been in the industry for 10 years and have been working with OpenAgent almost since the beginning of my career. It enables me to duplicate myself and scale my business. The OpenAgent team is really professional and personable, and the data and the info they provide is very good.
Sales Agent - Move Real Estate, Mount Louisa
I've worked with OpenAgent for almost 10 years. It's been a fantastic experience and I've got heaps of leads, it's almost 50% of my business. The leads are all quality — some might not be ready immediately, but they're all genuine sellers, and I find the key is to continue to follow up because they do come on eventually. I tell everyone OpenAgent is a great idea — it's been the greatest thing for our company, especially with setting up and launching a new business.
Owner & Selling Principal - Ray White Diamantidis Group, Western Sydney
If we have a 50% market share, there's still 50% out there that we don't have. OpenAgent sends us the leads that are slipping through the cracks. They actually speak to the vendors before the lead is sent and fill me in with all of their information. We also find that some vendors prefer to contact OpenAgent so they can engage with two or three agents in one go rather than calling around individually.
Our editorial team monitors market movements and curates the insights you should be aware of; delivering them to you in a monthly email newsletter. This makes it easier for you to stay up-to-date with relevant industry and market news, insights, trends, and information for real estate agents.
There has been an Artificial Intelligence revolution over the past 12 months that's rapidly shaping new futures for all kinds of industries. The real estate world isn't exempt from this,
Property is often talked about like it's a massive, faceless market. In reality, it's an industry that takes place on a very personal, local level with one
Agents are constantly looking for new business, so it may surprise you to learn that new research shows a significant proportion of genuine referrals are ignored each year.
Most people don’t sell often, and when they do, their life situation is most likely different, so it’s like selling for the first time every time.
Selling a property can be overwhelming, and homeowners are looking for an impartial expert who can help them make sense of agent comparisons, understand the current property market, and give them guidance on how to approach their unique selling situation.
That's where OpenAgent comes in. We give vendors digital tools to help them do their research and have a dedicated property specialist team on hand to support them through their selling journey
We check with every vendor before we connect them if they are in contact with any agents.
If one slips through and we’ve connected you with a vendor whom you’ve done an appraisal for in the last 6 months, you just need to show us evidence of that, and we won’t charge you if you do successfully go on to sell.
Sometimes a customer might be in your CRM but you haven’t been actively engaging with them. In that case, you would still be charged if you successfully go on to sell the property
At OpenAgent, we do more than just forward you the names of people who have clicked on our website. We use big data and behavioural analytics to refine and qualify our leads more deeply, to understand their likelihood of listing, the timeliness of them listing, and the types of characteristics they are seeking in an agent. This often also includes a phone qualification from one of our 60 Australian-based customer service team. Then, when we think they are a good match for you, we refer them on. On average, we receive approximately 15,000 leads on our platform each month, but based on our rigorous qualification process, we only pass on an average of 2000 highly qualified prospects to top-performing agents.
In addition, our agent tools then help you understand the best behaviours of your team that convert those listings. So yes, we charge 20%-30% of your commission when you successfully sell a property from a listing we have provided. But we believe the rigour, the smarts, the data infrastructure and the qualification work that goes into delivering such high-quality leads more than justifies this amount. And if the lead you receive from us results in a lifetime relationship with referrals from a delighted client – then the 20%-30% is repaid many, many times over.
Probably not. The OpenAgent platform uses a unique combination of big data and behavioural analytics together with our Australian-based team to qualify the leads that we see. This means we see more behaviour that is proven to generate genuine leads and we’re able to qualify and deliver it to you more quickly. When you use OpenAgent, it’s like you’ve got an entire lead identification and qualification team working for you, committed to driving new business your way.
No, definitely not. Our recommendation engine is based purely on performance, sales experience and customer reviews. We use over 2,000,000 sales transactions and over 14,000 recommendations and customer reviews to identify the best agents for prospective property sellers on our website. From there, our team will personally qualify the leads.
We generally recommend 2-3 agents. Sometimes a vendor may ask to speak to additional agents so on occasion it is more than this. However, we don’t recommend up to 10 agents like some other referral agencies. We believe in connecting vendors with 2-3 agents that are best suited to their needs. We work out the suitability through a combination of sophisticated data analysis and human expertise.
** The claim "7 out of every 10 top-performing agents in Australia are OpenAgent clients" is based on data from the 2023 REB Top 100 list. This figure is derived from 67 agents who opted in to receive leads from OpenAgent.
*** The claim "35% of leads referred to agents go to market within 3 months" is based on OpenAgent data. In 2023, 34.5% of referred leads listed their property for sale within 3 months of introduction.