Frequently Asked Questions

The system counts publicly available information on your behalf from the internet. This works much the same way as many agents do with a "sign count" of their district, so as long as you and your competitors have your properties on the internet we are able to collect that information.

Any agency is fully able to collect and collate all of this data themselves, then produce the graphs and table that make up the report. We estimate that if done manually by on of your skilled staff members it would take at least 10 to 15 hours to complete at the same level of detail every single week. Very few offices would have the systems and discipline in place to do this.

No. MarketTracker does not store any listing data or photos from any portal such as the number of bedrooms and whether it has a pool or not. It simply views web pages and counts the results on your behalf. You or the public cannot view property for sale at any time on the MarketTracker system as it simply does not exist.

Neither. We believe that charging agents per suburb or postcode is flawed. Some agents in major cities operate in just one suburb whereas in smaller cities and towns they might have a primary trade area of 15 suburbs.MarketTracker reports allow clients to nominate and enter up to 15 suburbs in one normal report, however we strongly recommend that agents only enter suburbs which make up their primary trade area. Trying to capture outlying areas where they hold only a listing or two in will only dilute the effectiveness of their reports.

Additional reports for extra nominated localities or areas are available for $18 per month and can be used for a number of reasons including :

• Tracking outlying suburbs without effecting the statistics on the primary trade area
• Track multiple branches independently
• Split the primary trade area into two or three sections so they can have better information on each segment of their market.
• Monitor adjoining territories for potential prospecting
• Assess adjoining territories prior to or in the planning stages of opening a branch office.
• Monitor salespeople in adjoining areas for the purposes of recruitment.

MarketTracker can track any suburb or town in Australia.

MarketTracker counts data from online portals so in that sense it is very accurate.

The data we collect may hold very small inconsistencies, however it is important to point out that the power of MarketTracker is not in it's 'absolute' accuracy but in its timely delivery and the fact you are looking at live feedback of your marketplace.

Every week you receive data on your marketplace that is up to date within 5 minutes of hitting your inbox. With MarketTracker you could be analysing your marketplace more than 12 reports prior to getting any similar accurate Valuer General data from RPData or other such companies, as they generally take at least 3 months before the data changes to appear.

There is nothing like MarketTracker, so it does not compete with other market tracking solutions such as valuer general data and sign counts. In fact to really get the most out of Market Tracker it should be used in conjunction with any other market tracking solutions to provide a more complete picture if that is preferred, however we believe that MarketTracker provides the best realistic snapshot for your marketplace for minimal effort.

Most agencies around Australia update their "under contract" properties, however there are still some that don't do this. Potential sellers research the portals too, so if you look critically through the property portals as though you were a seller doing research on your price, competition, market place and to assist in finding and selecting an agent, you can understand why most agencies do update this information.

Some agencies choose to not mark properties as "under contract" because of the belief that they will still attract inquiries, however generally they are very much in the minority. If an agent does not update their "under contract" properties, they are still counted and simply appear in the Listings column instead. This works exactly the same way as a sign count in that if an agency does not put a "under contract" sticker on a for sale signboard you will show it in your count as "for sale", rather than "under contract".

When you receive your report you will need to apply your own fundamental analysis. There may be some unique information that you know about your marketplace and your competitors that you need to apply when reading the reports:

Things that may affect the reports :

• Most modern offices update their properties online every single day, however some smaller offices still update portals manually once a week rather than using a provider to push an xml feed to an office. If you receive your report on Wednesday and that agency updates only on Monday the data on that agency is a couple of days out of date.
• Some agencies choose not to provide their salespersons information rather entering in the salespersons field "The Sales Team" or a similar generic title.
• Some listings are managed with two salespeople acting as a team and are entered with both names even though there is a single entry field, so you will see salespeople with names like "Mary Smith and Joan Davies"
• Some salespeople don't consistently use the same name so you can often get the same salesperson split into two salesperson records such as "Robert Wilson" and "Bob Wilson"

Whilst MarketTracker reports exactly what is provided in all of these cases and others, a member with fundamental knowledge of their marketplace and competitors will need to interpret this information when reading the reports.

Agencies will often try anything to gain an advantage and MarketTracker actually helps you to identify them with several sections specifically designed to highlight these tactics.

Some of the most common tactics employed that may breach specific sections of the major portals terms and conditions include:

• Removing and reloading property so it returns to the top of a list
• Failing to remove properties once they have settled
• Loading the same property multiple times with a different photo set
• Loading properties actually listed with an associated agency or office

If you find a competitor is using such tactics, we suggest you politely ask them to stop and if they refuse you may choose to raise the matter directly with the portals who are actively trying to stop these tactics.

When a property is marked as sold it is often moved to a different "sold" database in the portals. Experience has shown that this is very inaccurate as many agencies don't mark properties as "sold", instead electing to remove/delete them altogether.

Yes with the exception of NSW. Because of the NSW exchange system the NSW report does not have "under contract" and the conversion data which is able to be reported on in other states.

No. When you set the program up all you do is select the suburbs you require the report on. When it generates your first report the system will automatically select the 10 agencies with the highest number of listings in your nominated area. You are then free to remove or add any other agencies you like.

There is no fixed contract. You can cancel the report after 1 day if that is what you wish.

We believe that MarketTracker has to represent the same fantastic value in the 12th month as in the first month. If you view a copy of the demo you will see a real world example of a report, with only the names of the suburbs, agencies and salespeople changed for confidentiality.

At just $35 per month and with the ability to cancel your subscription at any time, you can't go wrong. If you don’t see the value in the information provided by the reports, you cancel immediately - no questions asked!

Security is very important to us which is why we use the Paypal system for all payments. Many people have come across Paypal when they purchased on ebay however paypal is used for much more than ebay and is in fact the worlds largest online payment system with more than 150 million accounts worldwide. The members privacy is protected with Paypal because there is absolutely no financial information sent to us and we are never given the members credit card number or their bank account details at any stage.

It is very important that you follow the below steps in order.  Failure to do so could result in Paypal cancelling your MarketTracker account.  If this does happen, please just let us know and we will provide you with a new subscription link to re-activate your subscription.

1. Add the new credit card

2. Make the new card your primary card

3. Change the funding source for your subscription to the new card

4. Remove the old card

With Paypal you can pay with credit cards, debit cards or even directly from your bank account. Paying by credit or debit cards is extremely simple and can be in place in a matter of a minute or two. When paying by bank account there is one extra step in the process. Paypal actually deposits money in your bank account and you have to confirm exactly how much they deposited. This is a security feature and confirms that you have access to that bank account. This additional step extends the signup time by a day or two as you wait for the money deposited to show up on your online statement but the process remains very simple.