Become a Buyers Agent: The antidote to cut-throat real estate practices

Are you tired of the aggression and overly competitive atmosphere you encounter in your real estate sales role? Fed up with feeling like every man and woman is out for themselves? Then you might want to consider switching to buyer advocacy.

Having been involved in property for 13 years, as both a financial adviser and as a buyers’ advocate, I’ve seen the deals, the subversive competition, and the cheap tricks that you find in a toxic workplace. In the transactional environment of real estate sales, everyone is operating alone. Instead of supporting each other, within an agency or within the industry, many (but not all) are ready to undermine a competitor to get a sale.

My summary might sound unnecessarily harsh but I hear these stories every day. I’ve also had personal experiences of what I know now was unscrupulous behaviour. And it cost me dearly.

Apart from suffering inhospitable workplaces, as a real estate sales agent, you work long hours and when you finally land the sale, you have to give a significant slice of your commission to the agency and the franchise.

The benefits of switching to buyer advocacy and vendor advocacy

Do you want a better work-life balance? Would you prefer to retain over 80% of the revenue you generate? Then consider becoming a buyers’ and/or vendor advocate.

Back in 2012, I moved to Melbourne and launched my own buyers’ advocacy business. Even though I’d been a buyers’ agent for over 1 year, going out under my own brand in my hometown Melbourne , (after living in Perth for 6 years), I was essentially starting from scratch. 

It was a lonely road to travel as I established industry relationships and built my contact database. I had to grapple with building a website, creating marketing and perfecting my systems and processes. Now that I was a business owner I had to wear many many more hats and learn new skills. 

Most of us are fine working as solo operators when we work under the banner of an established brand, but when you go out in business on your own you soon miss having colleagues around. All the business decisions and pressure to generate leads fall on your shoulders alone.

Property Mavens: The property advocate community for you

In 2020, I launched Property Mavens as a ‘turn key’ business solution to create a community of buyers’ agents and vendor advocates. Bringing together like-minded people, I’ve made it so much easier and enjoyable to launch a buyer or vendor advocacy business from a standing start. 

Just like a real estate franchise, Property Mavens gives you all the business tools you need to hit the ground running, at a fraction of the investment needed if you were to go it alone. Most importantly, you receive in-depth buyer advocacy training, proven systems and emotional support. By joining the Property Mavens group, you regain that all-important people aspect ? community ? where you have colleagues with whom you can collaborate, and share knowledge as well as market insights. 

Together, we raise the bar in buyer and vendor advocacy and improve the quality and perception of property professionals operating as buyers’ agents and property advocates. If you need support in an area you’re less familiar with or local market intel at a more granular level, or perhaps help brokering a deal, you can reach out to other members to marry their expertise with yours. 

Scaling your property advocacy business

With people outside the property industry believing they can become a buyers’ agent overnight, with little to no experience, it's my goal to bring qualified and experienced property professionals and buyers' agents together to collectively raise the perception and standards of our role in the industry.

Working together, we can protect our reputations and maintain the respect of our clients and peers alike. Together, we can counteract the lower fees charged by inexperienced buyers’ agents and confidently charge what we’re worth.

This is why, to join the Property Mavens team, you must be a qualified real estate agent with a minimum of two years of property experience, preferably more. We’re a collaborative network rather than competitive, and the purpose of the franchise is to enable us to scale our businesses, save setup and marketing costs and provide a supportive and knowledgeable community. 

You’ll be working alongside people with the equivalent experience to you and with the same level of emotional intelligence. You can grow your business and take on more clients than you could operating as a lone business owner. 

Better together

If you think you could make it in the buyer or vendor advocacy world, please get in touch. More members make for a much larger collective property advocacy brains-trust.

MIRIAM SANDKUHLER, BUYER & VENDOR ADVOCATE

As a multi-award-winning buyer’s agent, people engage me to help them purchase a home to live in, or a high performing investment property through which to create wealth. If you’re selling a property, I can help as a vendor advocate to manage the agent selection process and represent your interests in tandem with the sales agent.

If you’re an experienced property professional already, join me as I grow Australia’s first-ever Property Advocacy franchise; Property Mavens, meaning property experts!

Visit us at propertymavens.com.au for home buying and selling advice.

For more industry insights visit my franchisee blog.

For franchise opportunities visit franchise.propertymavens.com.au

Follow us at:

Facebook Page: facebook.com/PropertyMavens

LinkedIn Page: linkedin.com/company/property-mavens/

Twitter: twitter.com/propertymavens1/