How real estate agents can use payments strategically to shore up their bottom line

By David Greene, Chief Commercial Officer at Monoova

It’s no secret that it’s hard to enter the property market.

Last year, Australia’s house-price-to-income ratio skyrocketed to the highest recorded level in five years at 120.7 percent, forcing many Australians to remain renters. Yet renting is also becoming more expensive: in March 2024, the average rent for a house in Sydney cost a not-to-be-sniffed-at $750 per week.

Not only is it harder to achieve the dream of homeownership, but when the market is soft it is harder for real estate agents to generate income and commissions.

We may not be able to suddenly inject more money into the wallets of our customers. But, real estate agents can absolutely look to their own operations to create efficiencies and remove friction.

Below are a selection of tactics real estate agents can use to shore up their bottom line in the process.

Slash transaction time to boost volumes

Anyone operating a small business or franchise knows that cash flow is king. Not only is it critical in managing expenses, but it could also free up extra funds to reinvest in your business, potentially impacting your overall profitability and growth potential.

So why put up with anything less than instant payments?

This is where tools like cloud-based payments and financing platform Rello comes in.

Rello streamlines all forms of real estate transactions with automated, instant payment solutions, allowing real estate agents to access cash flow faster by offering multiple ways for the customers of real estate agents to pay.

Rello does this by generating unique payment links for vendors that allow them to choose from immediate account to account (A2A) payments, PayID, online card payments, or deferred options via Rello Pay, unlocking efficiencies in processing inbound and outbound payments.

Not only does this reduce transaction time; it can boost transaction volume too.

Rello reported to us that they calculated an 11 percent surge in transaction volume in the first month of real estate agents implementing automated payments via Monoova’s API-enabled solutions. They also saw 100 percent adoption of real-time A2A payments offering instant reconciliation with Monoova’s Automatcher solution.

Cut admin time

Time spent chasing payments is time not spent selling, or building and maintaining relationships.

When speaking to Rello directly about the impact of instant payments, we were informed that their clients saved four hours per week on average on payment processing, once instant payment options were offered. By automating manual payment processing and reporting, Rello themselves transitioned two full-time employees away from manual admin roles into business growth areas – a significantly better use of their time.

But chasing payments is not just frustrating, tedious, and time-consuming. The time spent chasing bills or waiting for a dishonoured payment can soon become more costly than the value of the initial invoice.

The time-value of money means that any money owed becomes less valuable the longer it remains with the client and not your firm. And this adds up.

Access commissions early

This one is a no-brainer. As already mentioned, money in your pocket today is more valuable than money in your pocket next week, month, or year.

Payments tools like Rello can provide early access to agent commissions to fund working capital for an agency, or even be used to reinvest into their business.

Help sellers make their property shine

Despite a tough market, there are still buyers leading with their emotions on purchases. This drives up prices.

Adding “sizzle” (not just the “steak”) to all marketing and advertising collateral is important.

So reduce the friction of paying for things like advertising and staging by offering the option for vendors to defer all marketing and listing costs associated with getting a property ready for sale.

Removing the upfront costs could drive a higher number of vendors to maximise their property’s selling potential, potentially leading to an enhanced sale outcome and – critically – higher commissions for agents.