I work in new development sales. Am I eligible to win an Agent of the Year award?
Agents or agencies with more than 50% of all their vendor reviews being new development on 2025 properties are not eligible to win any sales awards.
If agents or agencies have over 50% of their vendor reviews are development in one suburb, city or other location relating to an RMA award, they will not be eligible for the award for that specific area.
HOWEVER, if overall, in all locations they have less than 50% of their vendor reviews on new development properties, they are still eligible to win in other locations if in those locations they're under 50%.
How new development reviews are assessed
1. RateMyAgent defines 'new development' reviews as reviews from a user who leaves 5 or more vendor reviews for the same agent or agency on new unique properties in the same vicinity.
2. The number of sales made is not considered in relation to our development ruling in any way.
This means you can have an unlimited number of development sales that will count for awards (as long as you qualify for the award). When collecting reviews on these sales, however, you need to ensure that each developer is leaving 4 or less reviews so they will not be classified as development reviews OR you make sure to collect more reviews on sales that are not development, than those that are development.
3. The number of buyer reviews is not considered in relation to our development ruling
4. Vendor reviews count for awards if the sale was made that year (this means if reviews are collected for 2025 sales, they're not included in the upcoming awards)
Example one
Example one
Agent X
In 2025, in the suburb of Richmond, specifically, he received:
5 vendor reviews from 1 developer
5 vendor reviews from a different developer
9 reviews from other vendors
10/19 development reviews = over 50%, which means he is not eligible for the Richmond award.
Let's say Agent X also collects reviews for sales in Cremorne, South Yarra and Collingwood. The reviews he collects in these areas are not for development.
Agent X is not eligible for an award in Richmond
Agent X can still win awards in other suburbs
Still eligible for the City of Melbourne because he has a lot of other reviews in other suburbs.
Example two
Example two
Agency B
In 2025, they have collected:
In Bendigo South suburb.
12 vendor reviews from Developer 1 in Bendigo South
4 vendor reviews from Developer 2 in Bendigo South
4 vendor reviews from Developer 3 in Bendigo South
5 reviews from other unique vendors in Bendigo South
Only the 12 reviews from Developer 1 are classified as development reviews because the other two developers left under 5 reviews each. This means they are counted as regular Vendor reviews.
12/25= less than 50% development reviews in Bendigo South. They are eligible for this location, but only if they meet the criteria of being under 50% overall for the year.
In Bendigo North, the agency have 25 reviews they have collected, on development sales, then they have another 5 vendor reviews from other unique vendors. This means 25/30 for this suburb, they are over 50% development.
In Bendigo West, the agency has 17/20, which is over 50% development.
All vendor reviews for the year: 25+30+20 = 75.Vendor reviews for the year.
Vendor reviews on development properties: 12+25+17 = 54 vendor development reviews.
This means overall for the year, the agency's reviews are 54/75 = 76% development. This means they wouldn't be eligible for any awards.
There are no other rules relating to development reviews outside of winning our annual awards.
We have this ruling in place to ensure an even playing field among our users when completing for a RateMyAgent Award, since agents could get a large amount of reviews from one or little users.