Sydney’s eastern suburbs buyer agents: Advice, tips and how they got their start

From Bondi to Double Bay, these are the most prominent buyers agents securing dream homes and potentially saving buyers thousands of dollars. Meet the top buyers agents of Sydney’s east.

Picture: Bob Finlayson.

A decade ago, it was hard to find buyers agents in the Australian property market.

Since then the industry has exploded.

Why? A combination of a highly competitive market, the lure of a buyer-focused profession for sales agents – and a growing awareness the value of having an advocate by time-poor professionals.

While buyers agents have generally been considered the domain of high net worth individuals seeking access to off market stock, buyers agents say their clientele ranged from first home buyers purchasing apartments to multimillion dollar sales.

Buyers agents are retained to lend their professional expertise to getting the best value for a property purchase for a buyer, including accessing off market stock and negotiating on price on behalf of their client.

Real Estate Buyers Agents Association president Cate Bakos said it was hard to determine the growth of buyers agents because there was not formal register.

In NSW buyers agencies must be covered by a real estate licence and agents need to hold a real estate licence or equivalent real estate certificate.

Ms Bakos said consumers should check agents were “appropriately licensed” and had proven experience when selecting a professional to work with.

Get ready to meet the top buyers agents finding clients their dream home and saving them millions in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.

Simon Cohen – Cohen Handler

Simon Cohen. Picture: supplied.

Simon Cohen, founder of Double Bay-based buyers agency Cohen Handler, attributes the transformation of the buyers agent space to a greater appreciation for insider expertise.

Mr Cohen said he saw a gap in the market while working at Ray White Double Bay.

“I thought to myself: ‘Why can’t I show my buyers all the other off-market stock that all the other agencies had?”

While buyers agents do not currently need accreditation to practise, all buyers agencies must be covered by a real estate agent’s licence.

Mr Cohen said the average purchase price of $1.8m showed the misperception buyers agents cost people lots of money was not reflected in his agency’s clientele.

Seeing how prevalent buyers agents have become in Australia is a point of pride, he said.

“It really is phenomenal”.

Sam Green – Advantage Buyers Agency

Sam Green. Picture: supplied.

After 12 years in real estate sales, Advantage Buyers Agents director Sam Green saw the impact the highly competitive market was having on buyers desperate to get their foot in the door.

“I saw it was becoming more and more crucial for buyers to use a professional,” Mr Green said.

Mr Green opened the doors to his agency just over a year ago at Double Bay.

He said the high calibre of real estate agents in Sydney’s eastern suburbs pitted buyers against “some really tough and very skilled negotiators”.

“Buyers who miss out a lot will get what I call buyer fatigue [where] they get sick of missing out two, three, four times,” he said. “They end up giving in and buying a property that they necessarily don’t love, or they pay too much. I’ve literally seen people pay a million dollars too much for a property”.

Mr Green founded his agency with a strong belief a buyers agent was, in many cases, the secret weapon to finding the best real estate in the market.

“[I saw] how many properties were trading quickly and quietly. And they’re some of the best ones too,” he said. “Not everyone selling is always after money. Some people want to do it quickly. Some people want to do it quietly. And I think that’s where using a professional can save you a lot of money.”

Byron Rose – Rose and Jones

Byron Rose. Picture: supplied.

Byron Rose founded his Paddington-based agency Rose & Jones in 1999 and said he was one of the first buyers agents in the country to “exclusively represent the purchaser” by “providing strategic advice around value and the negotiation process”.

Mr Rose said initially the majority of his clients were expats.

“However, due to the competitive nature of the real estate market we have seen our client base grow to local buyers of all price ranges in both the residential, commercial and development acquisition space,” he said.

He said experience in the property sector had helped him and his team develop best practices to protect buyers.

“It is often assumed that a buyers agent will shave hundreds of thousands of dollars off the purchase price,” Mr Rose said. “In some instances this may be the case, however where a good buyers agent adds value is by providing expert advice and securing a property at the right price, under the right terms that will perform well in any market”.

Leon Jacques – Cohen Handler

Leon Jacques.

Leon Jacques had been in the industry for more than 15 years before he turned his hand to buying as an agent.

Mr Jacques said after selling his real estate business, he felt his deep knowledge of the market would be of benefit to buyers.

Mr Jacques said the growth in the space had been driven by buyer demand.

“I think there is an acceptance of what we do and realising the value that we add to a client,” he said. “We often source properties that they don’t get access to themselves, such as off markets, or pre-markets, or we’ll get into opportunities earlier.

“We’re analytical on value. So we’ve got a better understanding of what a property should sell for and that way we can advise our clients when they should buy and when they should walk away.”

Jayden Hurvitz – One Buyers Agency

Jayden Hurvitz. Picture: supplied.

One Buyers Agency director and buyers Agent Jayden Hurvitz spent several years growing start-ups and scaleups in New York before returning to his roots to launch his Double Bay-based agency with sister Carli.

The family affair began seven years ago and built on the back of repeat client business, Mr Hurvitz said.

He said the clientele the agency services “everyone from first home buyers up to $100m”.

As awareness of buyers agents has increased in Sydney’s east, people have seen the value of expertise in high stakes situations.

“For most people, when emotion comes into the game it doesn’t matter if you have a million dollars or you have $100 million,” he said.

“A property purchase is one of the biggest and most emotional purchases of one’s life. [We] get access to the properties they’d never be able to.

“Also when they fall in love it doesn’t matter [if the client is] the best negotiator in the world. When emotion is taken into the equation that goes out the window.”

Mark Cadry – Buy East

Mark Cadry. Picture: supplied.

Buy East director Mark Cadry was working in property development and renovations before he and his wife Nicky saw the opportunity to translate expertise they shared within their network into a professional venture.

“Friends of ours used to ask how do you find properties? How do you buy, and how you negotiate?”, Mr Cadry said. “And so we started helping friends buy properties”.

He said what began as a “hobby and a passion” that helped deepen his knowledge about the eastern suburbs market has transformed within nine years into a thriving family agency out of Rose Bay.

“The policy that we use is how would we want to be helped? And how do we want to be served if we were using a buyers agent?” he said.

“We developed our procedures and policies around, not what a sales agent would do, but how a buyer would want to be serviced. So we’ve come from more of the customer service side of things in the sales,” he said.

Alexandra Churchill – Advantage Buyers Agency

Alexandra Churchill. Picture: supplied.

General manager and buyers agent at the newly launched Advantage Buyers Agency in Double Bay, Alexandra Churchill, transitioned into the field from a successful career in real estate sales at a high profile agency alongside business partner Sam Green.

Ms Churchill said being involved in a drawn out property search opened her eyes to the value her experience could be to buyers, just as buyers agents were growing in demand.

“It is sort of slowly becoming more common,” she said. “And that is because if you’re going to have a professional agent sell your house, why wouldn’t you do the same thing on the other side? Why wouldn’t you have a professional advising you?”

Ms Churchill said along with helping wealthy buyers and those looking for their first home, a rewarding purchase came from helping a family transition out of their home of 30 years into a new property that suited their needs in the tight eastern suburbs property market.

“Selling was daunting to them, and [then we assisted them make] the move to buying and helping them through that process as well,” she said.

Marcus Kosmin – Cohen Handler

Marcus Kosmin. Picture: supplied.

Marcus Kosmin leapt at the chance to get in on the ground floor of the buyers agent boom, transitioning from a successful career in sales to take up a buyers agent role around seven years ago.

Now at Cohen Handler, he said assumptions that becoming a buyers agent was a less high pressure role did not paint the full picture.

“It’s extremely hard what we do, if not harder than what sales agents do themselves,” Mr Kosmin said. “The rules still apply, which is that if you’re the best at what you do, you will rise to the top”.

He named working closely with clients over many years as a trusted adviser as the most rewarding part of his job.

“A couple of my clients, I bought them their first property that they lived in for years,” he said. “Then they got married, and went into a two bedder. And then onto a house”.

Dave Petrini – Buy East

Dave Petrini. Picture: supplied.

Buy East buyers agent Dave Petrini said 20 years in the hospitality industry gave him client service skills that will stay with him for life.

Coming from outside the property sector has put Mr Petrini in prime position for understanding how to get results out of different personalities and thrive under pressure.

He said he is currently working with clients across the spectrum.

“I‘ve got a client now, who’s looking for an investment [property] for $600,000 and I’ve got a client looking for $30m,” Mr Petrini said.

Carli Skurnik – One Buyers Agency

Carli Skurnik. Picture:supplied.

One Buyers Agency director Carli Skurnik said after climbing the real estate ranks for 11 years and building an irreplaceable network, she realised she was ready for a change.

“I looked around and 90 per cent of the females [at the top] were divorced, or single,” Ms Skurnik said, adding the “seven days and nights a week” required at the highest levels can be difficult on families.

She made the move with brother Jayden Hurvitz to found a buyers agency to refocus her expertise into helping people build their property portfolio, from their first home onwards.

She said clients she helped purchase their first home who have found professional success are still working with her many years later.

“[My] $1.2 million clients that I bought for 10 years ago, are onto $20 million today”.

Steven Langman – Cohen Handler

Steven Langman, Buyers Agent, Cohen Handler. Picture: supplied.

After 18 years working as a real estate agent and a decade working as a buyers agent, Steven Langman believes experience cannot be replicated when it comes to understanding the eastern suburbs market.

“What’s very important if you’re a buyer’s agent is to be a specialist, you have to know your market exceptionally well,” Mr Langman said. “I recently purchased a property for $15m for a repeat client that I had bought two previous properties for. And within eight days, I found them a beautiful property [where] without me, they wouldn’t have found it.

“Both properties that I bought for them prior, one has tripled in value, and the other more than doubled in value in a few years.

“You have to know your market, you’ve got to be an expert”.

Dragan Dimovski – Buyers Agency Australia

Dragan Dimovski, Buyers Agent, Buyers Agency Australia. Picture: supplied.

Dragan Dimovski, who founded Buyers Agency Australia about five years ago, said securing deals for his clients was “just as rewarding for me as if it’s my own property”.

Mr Dimovski said he had seen an increase in people seeing the value of a buyers agent, particularly in saving money in an inflated market.

“Saving someone over $180,000 on a purchase that was valued at $700,000” is listed by Mr Dimovski as one of his greatest achievements.

Kim Ball – Buy East

Kim Ball. Picture: supplied.

Buy East buyers agent Kim Ball said a career as a chartered accountant had become her point of difference in her real estate career.

“I tend to get quite a lot of finance people just because of my accounting background. I think that resonates,” Ms Ball said.

She said while a sales campaign might last six weeks, working as a buyers agent required a genuine commitment to her clients.

“Buying for someone, sometimes it can take weeks, months. You do build up relationships and [go through] their ups and downs through the journey – and you do get very close to your clients,” Ms Ball said. “On the buyer’s side, you’re very invested with your client’s personal circumstances, and you need to see properties through their eyes.”

She said the most rewarding part was the “end result, where your clients over the moon, they couldn’t have done it without you”.

Martine Harvey – One Buyers Agency

Martine Harvey. Picture: supplied.

One Buyers Agency director Martine Harvey said in recent years many more properties have been shown off market, leading to greater demand for her services.

“Because of all the off markets, you need to have a buyers agent who’s got that relationship with the agents,” she said.

“If you’re a buyer on your own, you might speak to 135 agents, but we speak to over 600 agents in the eastern suburbs. If you don’t have a buyers agent by your side … you’re actually going to becoming lost and trying to find that property is going to take you so much longer.”

Ms Harvey said while the world of eastern suburbs property had been glamorised, hard work was the marker of the most successful agencies.

“There‘s the other side that they don’t see, which is the hustle. It’s like any successful business; the amount of hours you put into the business is the reward that you get out of it.”

Will Hotson – Buy East

Will Hotson (left), with Mark Cadry (right), Buyers Agent, Buy East. Picture:supplied.

Buy East buyers agent Will Hotson said building repeat clients over many years was among the most rewarding parts of his career.

“Having a lot of really happy clients that actually come back time and time again. We’re buying for clients multiple times over five, six years,” Mr Hotson said.

“All our business is 100 per cent referrals and repeat business. That’s a really good achievement.”

Originally published as Sydney’s eastern suburbs buyer agents: Advice, tips and how they got their start