Methodology

This page defines what "best" means on every suburb page of greatrealestateagents.com.au. It is the substantiation for that claim under the Australian Consumer Law, and it is the reference the ranking engine is built against. The long-form explanation with reasoning is in our guide how our ranking works.

Definition

"Best real estate agents in a suburb" means the agents with the highest score on the formula below, computed from that suburb's data, on the date shown at the foot of the page. It does not mean a general judgement of quality, and it does not mean a recommendation that any agent is suitable for a particular property.

Inputs

For each agent in each suburb, recomputed nightly:

| Input | What is measured | Source | |---|---|---| | Sales in the suburb | Attributed sales over 12 and 24 months, recent sales weighted higher | Licensed sold-listing data, connected agency feeds, verified corrections from claimed profiles | | Days on market against the suburb | Median days from first listing to sale for the agent's attributed sales, compared with the suburb median for the same period | Same as above, plus suburb market data | | Price achieved against an independent estimate | Sale price compared with an automated valuation estimate at listing, or the type-adjusted suburb median where no estimate exists; weighted by the number of sales | Licensed market data | | Reviews | Volume, recency and the proportion tied to a transaction we can see | Google Places public snapshot (rating, count, up to five reviews, under Google's terms); agent-connected Google Business Profile, RateMyAgent and Facebook; agency-syndicated reviews; first-party post-settlement reviews | | Responsiveness | Median time to respond to enquiries from this site (partner agents only) | Our own records. Weighted at zero until the sample is large enough to be fair; the change will be announced here and in the version history |

Exclusions

The following are never inputs and never affect the order of agents:

• Partner status, or any payment to or from this company.
• Whether a profile has been claimed.
• The agency an agent works for, including any agency related to our owners.
• Badges, widgets, CRM connections, webinar attendance or any other engagement with us.
• Information supplied by an agent that cannot be matched to a record.

Formula version

Each suburb page shows the formula version and the computation date. Versions are retained with their weights, and every page build is stored, so the ranking on any past date can be reproduced. The weights for the current version are published in the version history on this page when the first indexable pages go live; any change is announced here with its effective date.

Indexation gate

A suburb page is published only when the suburb has at least three agents with at least one attributed sale in the past 24 months and a current market snapshot. Suburbs below the gate appear on their region page without a ranking. Agent profiles are published only when the agent has at least one attributed sale or one review. Our sitemap is generated from the same gate.

"Why ranked here"

Each agent's position carries a line stating the inputs that produced it, generated from the same numbers as the score. Narrative text on suburb pages is generated from the page's own data and checked against that data before publication; no narrative is published where the data is absent.

Partner agents

Some agents have agreed to pay us a referral fee, a share of their selling commission, if a vendor who meets them through this site sells through them and the sale settles. Those agents carry the label "Partner: pays a referral fee on settlement" on every card and profile, in the same type size as their name. The fee is paid by the agent, cannot be passed on to the vendor, and is not an input to the ranking. Agents who are not partners are ranked identically and appear in the same list.

Reviews

"Verified" appears only on a review we can tie to a real sale we can see in a record. Negative reviews are not removed for being negative. Agents with claimed profiles have a public right of reply. Post-settlement review requests go to every vendor whose settlement we detect, in the same words, with no incentive. The full policy is on the review policy page.

Corrections and audit

Agents can correct attributed sales through a claimed profile or by writing to methodology@greatrealestateagents.com.au; corrections are verified against public records before they affect a score. Agency principals may request the ranking audit log for any suburb in which their agents appear. All corrections, removals and formula changes are logged.

Data sources and licences

Suburb boundaries and codes from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and Geoscape (open licences). Sold listings and market statistics under commercial licence from Domain and PropTrack. Public business information from the Google Places API within Google's policies. State licence registers for licence verification. Agent-authorised review sources as listed above. No review text is copied from any website. Every sourced attribute on this site records its source and the date it was fetched.