Irvine Holding Co. Releases list of top 5 Orange County Realtor's - top 1% Realtor's

IRVINE, Calif. - Jan. 19, 2014 - PRLog -- The Irvine Holding Co. has compiled its list of the top five real estate brokerages/agencies in Orange County, CA. Based on the sheer number of real estate companies that populate the Orange County real estate marketplace they are referred to as Top One-Percent real estate Realtors. Although the list is not in any particular order; you could exchange 4 for 1, 5 for 2, and so on, here is the list.

1)      Beach Cities Real Estate www.bcre.com

2)      Canaday Group www.canadaygroup.com

3)      Hom Group | Sotheby’s International www.homgroup.com

4)      BanCorp Realty www.bancorprealty.com

5)      Hartanov Team www.hartanovteam.com

There were obviously many different factors and variables used in determining the list of top Orange County Realtors, which we are also referring to as the top 1% Orange County Realtor. Here is where the majority of the weight was placed, again these are not in any particular order.

1)      Length of time serving in the Orange County real estate market.

2)      Client reviews (or lack of), quality of review.

3)      Reputation in Orange County real estate.

4)      Complaints (lack of).

5)      Overall standing with California Bureau of Real Estate.

6)      Average size of transaction (although closing larger transactions does not necessarily determine a better Realtor, the frequency of these transaction and speed of closure do signal strength in real estate agency).

7)      Website. Ease of use, quality, original content, blog.

8)      Market perception, exclusivity.

9)      Internet presence.

10)   Orange County service areas.

While the list was being compiled “blind-shopper” calls were made to local, regional and national real estate companies participating in the Orange County real estate market. A random call would be placed on a home for sale that was not the broker’s listing, but was being pulled up by the MLS data feed on their company’s website. The results of the survey were all over the board, but the broad-based findings were not unexpected.

The large national real estate companies such as Remax, Zip Realty, Trulia, Century 21, Zillow, all for the most part suffered from the Forrest Gump Syndrome “your Realtor is like a box of chocolate, you never know what you are going to get.” They are spending a fortune on SEO and internet advertising but there appears to be a huge disconnect between their corporate marketer’s and their local foot soldiers. The right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing. It is also Irvine Holding Company’s opinion that if you elect to do business with the cookie-cutter national players you really need to do your homework first on the actual individual agent that you will be working with. The name of their company is not going to sell your home, and the local expertise and marketing skills of your Realtor is paramount.

When placing calls to the more localized regional, city and community specific boutique Realtors our responses and accuracy to questions were more favorable and relevant. We found for the most part that each inquiry on a specific property received a much more detailed response with relevant, useful information that would help the home buying process when compared to the information provided by the large national real estate companies. The quality of websites for the smaller regional, city and community specific real estate companies were all over the board, some were excellent, other were marginal, but we did not find any correlation between the quality of the response or detailed property description and the company’s website. Many of the smaller local Realtor had better high quality, original relevant websites than the national ones who possess much greater financial resources.

The Irvine Holding Co. did its due diligence on its list of Top-5 Realtors in Orange County, which we also reference as the Top 1% Realtors in Orange County:

1)      Beach Cities Real Estate www.bcre.com

2)      Canaday Group www.canadaygroup.com

3)      Hom Group | Sotheby’s International www.homgroup.com

4)      BanCorp Realty www.bancorprealty.com

5)      Hartanov Team www.hartanovteam.com

There are many, many quality Realtors who work in the Orange County real estate market. We are sure that if another company conducted their own survey the list would undoubtedly look different than ours that - is what lists are all about. When you are looking to buy or sell a home, complete your homework carefully, never hire a Realtor simply because so-and-so referred them to you or because someone left you a colorful postcard on your front door. Check them out, call their references, make a few extra calls conduct a few extra interviews it will be worth it in the long run, it has the ability to pay a huge financial reward for your family when you chose an excellent, quality Orange County Realtor.

Sydney Elaine

CMO

Irvine Holding Co