The challenges of becoming a buyer’s agent

He shared: “I thought, ‘How could I turn a career from buying property into a full-time style of job?’ That's how the buyer's agent role came about. Simon [Cohen] and myself … we studied the buyer's agent business model in the US because around 86 per cent of people in the US use a buyer's agent.”

“We came back and started that concept in my bedroom and [it] proved viable very quickly. We signed up our first client within a week,” the property professional added.

However, it wasn’t an easy beginning for Mr Handler and his business partner since a lot of Australians have not yet been properly oriented to the concept of a buyer’s agent.

Mr Handler describes the first 12 to 16 months in the business as “like headbutting with a wall”. But instead of dwelling on hardships, the budding professionals used them to their advantage as they continue to build their own portfolios.

For example, if they find a particular property for sale but don’t have a client to sell it to, one of them will purchase it instead.

“We would buy [the properties] ourselves, [especially] if we came across an off-market property … We were obviously capitalising on those opportunities,” Mr Handler shared.

Soon, they were able to establish Cohen Handler as one of Australia’s leading property buyer’s agency group—helping investors by making the real estate process simple, fun, and rewarding. Aside from being able to build his own portfolio with more than 10 real estate assets, Mr Handler also prides himself on assisting clients as they go through their own wealth-creation journeys.

The real estate process

Having personally experienced being investors, Mr Handler and Mr Cohen have taken all their learnings and integrated them into their business. Basically, the duo applies the same wealth-creation processes and strategies they had used to help their clients.

One of the most important lessons they impart is the value of speed, according to Mr Handler. They always remind investors that taking too long to decide might mean lost opportunities.

He said: “Speed is mission critical to buying property. A lot of buyers don't understand this well enough … A lot of our clients also don't, which is why they inherently engage us.”

“Speed is really about executing quickly when you find the right property. If you spend time taking too long during your due diligence or deciding [whether this is] right or ... not, the price just potentially goes up, there's other buyers putting in more bids, the vendors might not want to sell, the real estate agent becomes more cheeky,” the buyer’s agent explained further.

Aside from speed, they also factor in the importance of crunching the numbers before ultimately securing a property. Building portfolios should be devoid of emotions, so the numbers always have to make sense based on their client’s objectives, Mr Handler said.

He highlights: “We like to follow ... very strict processes with numbers … We don't buy into the whole emotion when we're building our portfolios for clients or ourselves … Once the numbers stack ... we're confident with the due diligence and it ticks all the boxes.”

For example, as a company, they try to avoid buying off-the-plan properties because they can’t carry out effective due diligence since circumstances could change in the time between securing the property and having it built and ready for occupancy.

“We’ve got to think about the future when we’re making purchases,” Mr Handler added.

A good buyer’s agent

Nowadays, a lot of Australian investors use buyer’s agents to help them purchase the right properties.

In fact, according to Mr Handler, there are around 65,000 real estate agents across the country right now—a stark difference to having only around 300 fellow agents when he first started in the business eight years ago. This number is only expected to increase as technology moves forward and people continue to seek ways to be more efficient in their processes.

“[Technology is] creating all this efficiency in people's lives, [but] the monotonous process of people going online to search property hasn't changed. You've got to spend your Saturdays … at an open [and] people are not enjoying that process, so we definitely are going to see a huge increase in the need for buyer's agents,” the buyer’s agent said.

However, finding a good buyer’s agent in the growing sea of professionals will prove to be a challenge, he highlights.

Mr Handler believes that cultivating trust between agent and client is integral to the success of the whole real estate process. Instead of simply being an agent who sells properties, good buyer’s agents come across as consultants who also impart education and offer sound advice.

As a buyer’s agent, Mr Handler encourages his fellow professionals to work hard in understanding their client’s long-term objectives in order to help them move forward in their wealth-creation journey.

He said: “I guess the buyer's agent role is quite a specific type of personality and you've got to come across as very trustworthy to the client … The types of buyer's agents that really flourish [are] … really strong at nurturing clients, they're very good at understanding clients’ requirements and objectives, especially for investments.” 

Tune in to Ben Handler’s episode on The Smart Property Investment Show to know more about his journey from being an investor to becoming a buyer’s agent, as well as more advice for investors and professionals alike.