Robert Maher moves to @realty
Robert Maher, one of Australia's top performing commercial real estate agents, has joined @realty.
The national real estate network has signed more than 500 agents to its banner over the past four years.
Maher has been ranked in the top two per cent of Australian real estate agents by sales volume.
He moved to @realty from his role as a commercial property specialist for Gunning Real Estate in the Sutherland Shire.
Maher says he will represent both commercial and residential listings across the Sutherland Shire and surrounding areas. Agents at @realty's can work independently in any region due to their unrestricted zoning policy.
Maher says he chose to work with @realty, which sold a total of $861 million in property in 2017, due to the company's business model, which benefits both agents and their clients.
"@realty is based on the Gold Coast and unlike other franchise agencies, there are no regional offices, which means agents have much more autonomy to work in the way they want to," Maher said.
"It's an excellent alternative system for smaller independent agents to operate under," he said.
"Vendors benefit from @realty's purchasing power, which allows agents to provide lower cost marketing and a more premium and personalised service than what may be offered by larger franchise groups, which impose numerous restrictions on agents.
"I have only been on board with @realty for a few weeks but I have found the executive team to be highly responsive, led by James and JJ Taylor who have a strong vision for the future of the business.
"The network of agents is also very collaborative. For vendors it is almost like having 500 agents all working to achieve the quickest and best result for every @realty client."
@realty director JJ Taylor says the company has a suite of bespoke software, which gives agents an edge on industry competitors.
"Because the @realty model is the first of its kind in Australia, we actually had to commission a cloud-based platform to connect our agents, head office and compliance management teams.
"We then built in to this system bespoke software which automatically searches all listings and compares them to potential buyer profiles to find a match, which effectively means that all 500 of our agents are working to make a sale.
"In addition to this, we have Click2Buy - an eBay style platform, which allows buyers to compete on an even playing field by viewing any offers made by other prospective purchasers in real-time.
"Another tool we offer is Home Booster - a social media platform, which has generated a total of more than 21,000 leads for the 50 vendors who have listed their home on the platform in recent months.
"Home Booster allows agents to target homebuyers on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter within proximity of the listed property, retarget buyers who have previously visited @realty listings or have demonstrated online activity suggesting an interest in real estate, so it's highly targeted.
"@realty recently won the Real Estate Institute of Queensland (REIQ) Innovation award and we try be innovative in all that we do.
"We believe @realty has been a game changer not only for agents but also for buyers and vendors who benefit from our approach to selling real estate using custom technology and a unique business model."