Ali Bandari has transformed his real estate career since opening his own Area Specialist office in Geelong, achieving remarkable success with 137 property sales in just 12 months.
After starting in the industry straight out of high school, Ali Bandari has quickly established himself as a dominant force in the Geelong property market, with plans to further expand his growing business.
“We’ve been hitting 15 listings and 12 sales every month so far, so we’re on track to do hopefully 200 sales in the next 12 months,” Ali says.
Ali’s journey in real estate began immediately after completing high school.
He earned his real estate qualifications at REIV in Melbourne before securing a position as an assistant at a local agency.
“For about two or three years, I worked as an assistant with a lead agent,” he explained.
“I was adjusting, building my profile and learning the business.”
He worked as a lead agent from 2020 to 2023, however, he wanted greater independence and flexibility, which led him to Area Specialist in August 2023.
“Honestly, flexibility and no restrictions on where I can list were big factors,” he said.
“Plus, I think branding was important. With franchises, you mostly market the franchise, but with Area Specialist, there’s 60-70% agent branding.”
Ali’s office is located in Geelong, but he primarily focuses on the Corio and Norlane areas, where properties typically range from $550,000 to $600,000 at the high end.
“At the moment, probably 60-70% of buyers are investors,” he said.
“There are a lot of active investors in this pocket because it’s still affordable, undervalued, and we’ve seen huge growth in the last six to eight months in this area.”
This market knowledge has helped him establish clear targets for his business, breaking down his goals into actionable metrics.
“We’ve broken it down into how many appraisals we’ve got to do, how many listings we’ve got to do a month, and how many sales we’ve got to do a month,” he says.
“We’ve put it all in numbers, and we’ve been targeting those numbers at least.”
Despite his busy schedule, Ali remains committed to community involvement, sponsoring local businesses and organisations throughout Geelong.
“I support the cricket club, a small community cricket club, Bell Park Medical Centre, and local businesses such as restaurants that are opening now,” he said.
“I’ve been involved from day one when I started, and that was my goal too, to give back to the community.”
His marketing strategy combines this community presence with traditional and digital approaches, including social media marketing, bus advertisements, billboards, and monthly letter drops of at least 20,000 flyers in his core trade areas.
The move to Area Specialist has been relatively seamless for Ali, who found the transition to new systems straightforward.
“It was smooth because most systems are similar. If you’re good with computer tech, the CMA and CRM systems are all similar. It probably took me a week just to adjust,” he said.
With his business thriving, Ali has his sights set on further expansion in the coming years.
“The plan is to grow the team and hopefully have another office around Geelong in the next two to three years,” he said.
“Lara and the northern part of Geelong are growing, with a lot of new development and properties coming up.”
For now, Ali continues to focus on what he does best, listing and selling properties while building his brand under the Area Specialist banner.
“Things are going great. I’m blessed,” he says.
Area Specialist is a real estate platform for top-performing agents, providing the systems, tools and technology they need to create, grow and power their business.
For more information visit beyourboss.com.au
