analytics

Big Agency vs Small Agency

Choosing an agent to sell your property can be a confusing decision for most 'Property-Sellers'.

Not only will you be faced with quite a lot of choices, each agent you interview for the job of selling your property will have their own slant on 'how best to do it'. Agents will often contract 'how they do it' against 'how the others do it' in order to convince property sellers their way is best. Not surprisingly, one of the common 'contrast' an agent will raise is that of 'agency size' in terms of exposing your property to buyers.

Those agents representing a 'big agency' will say 'BIG' means more buyers will see your property. But is size an important issue when it comes to exposing your property to the market place? Does big really mean more buyers?

The 'BIG AGENCY' -- More Buyers Myth...

The 'BIG' agency will argue that due to their size they have more listings compared to their 'smaller' competition (this part of the myth may well be true) and because of this they attract more buyers (this is the part of the myth that needs testing).

Additionally, if the 'big agency' you're interviewing is part of a network (i.e. franchise group that's spread across the country) they'll say that their large network of offices helps to expose your property to more agents who work as a team in trying to sell your property. In other words, when you list with an agency in a 'BIG FRANCHISE GROUP', your property will be exposed to more buyers.

But is this really true?

There's no doubt, there was a time where 'BIG' did mean more buyers. But that was in the pre-internet days. And that time is long gone. Before the internet, the only avenue buyers had to find their next home was to...

1) Look for property advertised in the various local newspaper (they still do this)
2) Look in shop front windows of real estate agencies at the 'window cards'
3) Go to 'open houses'
4) Talk to a real estate agent and ask them to call you when they listed a property that matched your criteria

Nowadays, the internet makes looking for a property from the privacy of your computer the quickest and easiest way. And that has led to buyers becoming self-sufficient when it comes to finding their next property.

The bottom line is...Buyers now have the tools to find their ideal property and remain anonymous until they're ready to buy. And this suits them as they don't want agents calling them and 'selling' to them.

When you list your property with an agency, 'BIG' or 'SMALL', your agent will recommend listing your property on at least one of the two 'BIGGEST PROPERTY ADVERTISING PORTALS' - realestate.com.au and/or domain.com.au.

There really are three levels of portals based upon traffic levels.

Tier 1 includes realestate.com.au and domain.com.au

Tier 2 includes realestateview, homehound.com and myhome.com.au

Tier 3 includes all the other portals.

Fact is, the Tier 1 'online property sale portals' attract virtually every buyer out there. Around 90% of buyers search for property online. So it's a complete myth when any agency suggests they can expose your property to more buyers. Regardless of the size of agency, provided your property is listed on one or both of the 'Tier 1 Portals' you can be assured that your property is being exposed to virtually all of the buyers who are searching online (which is about 90% of all buyers).

That being said, it's irrelevant how big an agency is. The truth is...'Online-Marketing' is a level playing field. Any agency can advertise on realestate.com.au. There are no advantages in going with a big agency in terms of listing online.

So what about buyers searching 'off-line'?

Same goes for 'off-line' buyers. They'll be using their local paper and magazines to find their next property. This is not new. And like 'online' buyers, 'off-line' buyers are able to privately search for property and avoid making contact with an agent until such time as when they've found their dream property and are ready to make an offer.