Hiring in the real estate industry has devolved into a reactive, high-stakes waiting game. The pattern is familiar: a staff member resigns on a Friday, an expensive generic job advertisement goes up by Friday afternoon, an agency rushes to hire an available applicant by Monday, and leaders wonder why the arrangement falls apart three months later.
Katie Cotton, director of Recruit RE and soon to take on its new name, Real Estate Jobs Australia, has spent years watching this cycle play out from the front lines. Now, she is driving an industry-wide shift. Recently selected as part of the 2026 REACH Australia & New Zealand Cohort, Real Estate Jobs Australia is stepping forward as a completely re-engineered property technology marketplace.
The objective is to replace the inefficiencies of broad corporate job boards and the high costs of traditional headhunters with an industry-specific ecosystem built for long-term retention.
The blind spot of generic platforms
When Katie built the new jobs platform, she quickly identified why previous models fell short: they were costing businesses valuable time and money at every stage of the hiring process. The technology is now a purpose-built jobs platform for the real estate industry.
The catalyst was clear: cross-industry job boards charge premium rates for exposure that rarely reaches the right candidates.
“Let’s talk about the big job boards; they’re massive businesses. It’s over a thousand dollars to advertise a role, it expires in thirty days, and because the audience is so broad across every industry, you can end up spending time on candidates who would never be the right match for the role,” she said.
“A great example is if you advertised a role for an EA. That job would be pushed out to every executive assistant looking for work, regardless of industry. And sadly, what you do as an EA in a law firm is very different to what you do as an EA in a real estate business. That’s what was missing: specialisation. A better match, without the premium price tag.”
To challenge this dynamic, the newly deployed platform removes the traditional high cost of entry, introducing straightforward $99 job ads with no lock-in contracts. The platform is new and it will continue to expand over the next period of time.
“On average, around 25,000 real estate jobs are advertised each year, and none of it is translating into real success,” Katie says.
“So our approach is simple, for $99 you can advertise here instead. We target real estate specifically, and you’ve got better technology behind you, supporting the process and saving you time.”
Eliminating resume fatigue through video vetting
At the heart of the rebuild is an integrated video interview tool.
“We implemented “a really great feature, a pre-screen interview, which as far as we’re aware no competitor currently offers,”,” Katie says.
It gives time-poor principals and hiring managers an automated way to cut through mountains of unfiltered resumes and focus only on genuine candidates. Once shortlisted, candidates receive a video interview link where they answer five questions about the role and their skills. Their responses are shared with the business, allowing hiring managers to quickly assess suitability before committing time to a face-to-face interview.
“Every real estate business reached the point where the focus became how many applications we can get for a role, when volume was never the answer,” Katie says. “You just need the right one.”
The process means agencies are no longer limited in their shortlist by time constraints, they can screen a larger pool of applicants more efficiently and match candidates to the right role with far greater accuracy, for example narrowing 10 potential candidates down to the three who are genuinely aligned with the role before scheduling interviews.
Protecting anonymity and challenging industry norms
Beyond screening mechanics, the platform addresses a structural roadblock specific to local property markets: the tight-knit, highly visible nature of the industry that prevents top-tier, passive candidates from exploring new opportunities.
To resolve this, the platform allows jobseekers to maintain strict anonymity, masking their identities until they actively choose to submit a formal application.
“The number of jobseekers who reach out wanting to remain anonymous is staggering. Many have made it clear they would not apply for a role elsewhere because of how their information is shared.”
With the platform scaling up production, Katie is also using her voice to challenge common real estate hiring habits, explicitly targeting the practice of hiding salary ranges on job listings.
“I’ve written a number of blog posts recently on topics such as hiding the salary, and I believe that’s one of the things that needs to change. I often say to hiring managers and business leaders, would you apply for a job if you didn’t know how much you’d be paid? And the answer is always no.”
She says there was a time when asking about salary was considered rude, but the cost of living has changed that.
“You can’t offer someone $60,000 when they’re already earning $100,000. It’s a waste of everyone’s time.”
According to Katie, this lack of upfront alignment underpins the sector’s chronic retention difficulties.
“Real estate has the lowest average tenure in any industry. And the predicted future tenure is suggested to be less than twelve months,” she says.
“And that’s not a reflection of poor candidates or poor businesses. It’s that we’re not accurately defining what we need in our business.”
The scale-up trajectory
This exact structural focus caught the attention of Second Century Ventures. Where an earlier model had once been overlooked by the scale-up program, Katie’s shift into pure-play property technology proved the opportunity was real, securing the platform a place in the 2026 REACH ANZ Cohort.
“Everybody knows how challenging it is to hire good people into their business. There’s a clear opening for something that aligns far more closely with the real estate industry.”
As the platform concludes its initial testing and moves into wide-scale commercial rollout, Katie’s core message to agency leaders remains focused on operational efficiency.
“There is a smarter, faster way to hire in your business. Everybody is time poor, and everybody wants to save money, that goes without saying.”
“The only way to do both is to move to a platform built specifically for this industry. That’s exactly what realestatejobs.com.au was designed to do.”