While we may all have our eyes on the 2016 Olympics Games, you may not know that award season is here again. No, we aren't talking about the Emmy's or even the Oscars, but the Real Estate Institute of New South Wales Awards for Excellence, or the REINSW Awards as they are locally known.

The REINSW Awards aim to celebrate excellence within the Real Estate Industry by identifying professionals, teams and companies who excel at high service levels, provide outstanding qualities, have the biggest successes and achieve some of the most creative initiatives the industry can provide within a 12 month period.

The awards are in their 19th year with more than 21 categories that teams and individuals can be nominated for across both the commercial and residential space. Of particular interest are Commercial Agency - Small and Large, Commercial Salesperson, Digital Marketing, Innovation and Young Agent. There is a buzz about town that is hard to ignore with nominees spending time ensuring their service levels are at a maximum and customers are cared for with soft and careful hands.

Award season isn't the only time, however, that nominees are being fastidious with their services. Teams like CI Australia have been nominated for Commercial Agency - Large and their CEO Andrew Hunter, stated "Since our re-brand in 2015, CI has embarked on a major evolution of our service delivery lines and internal workplace environment - the results are only starting to hit the surface and we look forward to continuing the CI evolution in every aspect of our business." He goes on to say "Being recognised in this category is testament to our ongoing growth and success". Independent agencies, like CI Australia, may be up against some big international names but that doesn't mean they aren't as likely to take home the top prize as the awards are independently judged.

One of the main reasons agencies nominate for the Awards of Excellence is to benchmark themselves against the rest of the industry. Entering the awards has given agencies, teams and individuals the chance to learn from their peers, after all there's no better way to do this than by watching the best in business in action.

Hugh Anderson from Sutton Anderson, nominated for both the Commercial Agency - Small and Commercial Salesperson categories, has commented on the award process, "Being nominated as a finalist is validation of our ongoing striving for excellence. We've had the opportunity to review our continuous improvement process and identify where further value-add can be made".

We wish all the nominees the best for the awards night hosted at Four Points by Sheraton on the 13th October. Further details and tickets can be purchased here.