"Less focus on the brand, and more focus on the agent. Because at the end of the day, the agent is the brand. The real estate industry is changing fast and it is more evident that there is more focus on top performing agents and teams these days. We've found that clients will refer great agents, irrespective of brand or if they've switched brands. People do business with people.", so says Adriaan Grové, MyProperty founder.
MyProperty is now the first South African property portal to put more focus on the agents when consumers are trying to find an agent in their area. It is still early days with a number of incremental updates planned, but we are making progress:
1. When searching for an estate agent, consumers can enter any location or simply find agents operating near them. They are then presented with a ranked list of agents (and not offices as most other portals do). This ranking algorithm will be refined over time as we add more scoring criteria.
2. Consumers can refine their criteria, e.g. say I want to find estate agents that specialize in apartments in Sunset Beach I can do that.
3. Consumers can view agent profiles and get to know more about the agent including qualifications. This will soon be expanded with more criteria that will allow consumers to make a better decision in the agent of their choice.
4. MyProperty introduced an industry-first concept 'Neighborhood Experts' that allows agents to provide more info on the local neighborhoods they are operating in. This includes things like price overviews, tips, and attractions in the area. Some featured estate agent neighborhood experts can be viewed here. An uncluttered agent profile view is presented that focuses on the agent, their profile, neighborhood info and latest houses for sale or rent, as can be seen with the Woodland Hills Neighborhood Expert.
There are many hidden costs in using a random estate agent. It can result in your home sitting on the market for 4 or 400 days depending on your choice. Our goal, as a consumer and agent focused property portal, is to help you connect with a reputable estate agent in your area.
