Smart Real Estate - Gold Coast

Good friendly staff willing to help without pressuring potential buyers! All necessary information regarding Council Rates & Body Corporate issues readily available! Good people to deal with!

Mark ZipfGoogle

I had the pleasure of viewing a rental property with Junko today and couldn’t have asked for a better experience. She was incredibly kind, friendly, and welcoming from the moment I arrived. She took the time to answer all of my questions and made the entire process feel comfortable and stress-free. What I appreciated most was that she was professional and knowledgeable without being pushy. It’s refreshing to deal with someone who truly cares about providing excellent service. Thank you Junko

Paula LoganGoogle

My experience as a buyer with Smart Real Estate and the Openn campaign process was ultimately disappointing and frustrating. From the outset, communication felt impersonal and transactional. Brad, as principal of the agency, did not attend the open home, and overall interactions felt focused primarily on progressing offers rather than building trust or guiding buyers through what is a major financial decision. The agency presents itself as a small family business with a personalised approach, however my experience felt quite the opposite. While the strategy may have been commercially effective for the agency, it did not reflect the level of care, communication, or professionalism I expected as a buyer participating in a significant purchase. During the final stage of the Openn campaign, communication became highly pressurised, with repeated urgent prompts to increase offers within very short timeframes. The final minutes in particular felt unnecessarily aggressive and emotionally pressured rather than professional and measured. While I understand competitive selling environments can be intense, buyers should still feel they are being treated with respect and clarity. Overall, I did not feel guided through the process in a transparent or buyer-focused way, and instead felt treated more as part of a rapid transaction than a valued participant in what is a significant financial decision. Dealing with an agent like Brad made me understand why more and more people choose to work with buyer’s agents. Experiences like this are also why so many people have developed a negative perception of the real estate industry. I have bought and sold properties many times throughout my life, but this was the first time I experienced this kind of treatment. My sincere advice is to be cautious when dealing with Smart Real Estate, Brad, and especially the Openn platform. In my experience, the process did not feel transparent or genuine. The Openn platform requires buyers to provide a significant amount of personal information simply to make an offer, while at the same time creating a highly pressured environment where buyers are pushed against each other prior and during so-called “final offers.” What I found particularly concerning was that the “final offers” process did not appear final at all. The property was placed back on the market the very next day after the bidding ended. During the last minutes of the process, new buyer entered and continuously increased the offer amounts. Their final offer exceeded mine by only $500. When I told Brad I was done, I withdrew my offer because the situation no longer felt genuine to me. Shortly afterwards, Brad contacted me again saying the owners were leaning toward my offer and that I would likely secure the property if I decide to keep my offer. I declined. I was then curious to see whether the property would be sold to the other bidder whose offer was supposedly higher than mine — but it was not. Instead, the listing was updated the next day with a slightly higher asking price and remains unsold. This made me feel that the original listing price may have been intentionally set low to attract more buyers into the process. Below are some of the messages I received from Brad during the final minutes of the bidding process: “Ready to start. Good luck.” “Strong offer.” “Maybe try $…m” “Ok Final Chance now. PUT BEST AND FINAL in now before it gets to 0:00. LAST CHANCE.” “Great work.” “No more stopping now. When it finishes that's it.” “100% sure you are out? Maybe go an extra $3k.” “Might tip the others out.” “Let me know 100% out or want to go again.” “Gonna start in a couple of seconds. 7 seconds to make a decision. In or out.” Overall, the experience felt unnecessarily manipulative and stressful rather than professional and transparent. It was disappointing because there are many ethical and decent real estate agents in the industry, and experiences like this damage trust in the profession as a whole. It was certainly an eye-opening experience, and I learned a lot from it.

Inna MGoogle