The Birth of a Buyers Agency With Simon Cohen
17 March 2023
Written by Acme Mag
When you hear the name Simon Cohen, you might think of a lot of different things. You might think about his role on Luxe Listings as one of Sydney’s leading buyer’s agents, you might think about the impact Cohen Handler has had on Sydney’s real estate scene, or you might – like us – think about how one man took the relatively unknown concept of a buyers agent and repackaged it for a wider client base. Acme recently spoke to Simon about just that.
Acme: What was your vision for Cohen Handler when you first founded it and what were your business aspirations at the time?
Simon: I worked as a real estate agent at Ray White and I found I was dealing with buyers a lot. I felt magnetically drawn to buyers. I could only really sell them the houses that Ray White had and I thought there had to be a better way for buyers to be represented in Australia. Without buyers there really are no sellers. The emphasis is always on sellers but never on buyers. I just had this vision to create a buyers agency in Australia. Coupled with this vision of creating a culture and a workplace where I would want to work. It was those two things that got me into it.
Acme: Was there a big gap at the time for buyers agencies?
Simon: It pretty much didn’t exist. People told me I was crazy and no one knew what it was, or what they did. I would say it took two years to really feel like we had a business, brand and momentum. Making the decision to start my business was a hard one, but I thought to myself, ‘if I don’t do it now I’ll never do it’ – I had nothing to lose.
“I was young and doing really well as a real estate agent. I was making a lot of money at a young age and it was hard to give that up for something that didn’t really exist, but I believed in it. I believed it would work and I believed Australia needed it.”
Acme: So has the vision you had for Cohen Handler changed at all over time?
Simon: Well I never thought it would be nationwide, so now my vision is to take it to more and more places. But overall the vision is still the same which is to represent buyers and the buyers interest.
Acme: What are the main challenges you solve for buyers?
Simon: I guess the main challenge is them being able to find access and negotiate the properties they’re looking for. They need either a home or investment property and we take that challenge away for them. Clients are underrepresented when it comes to real estate deals, we navigate through the property process for them and they are out there spending all of this money on their own without experts. You know you don’t go operate on yourself without a doctor.
Acme: What has been the most important lesson you have learnt during your career?
Simon: You can never please everyone. I could look at the sky and think it’s blue but then someone else could look at it and think it’s grey. We all view things differently and it took me a long time to realise that. I look at things my way but you have to adapt, understand and appreciate what I see is going to be different to what you see. We always work that into the situation.
Acme: Did you feel you had to take a new approach to being a buyer’s agent compared to being a real estate agent?
Simon: It’s a lot less salesy and a lot easier knowing you are really on the buyer’s side. It’s a much more fun, smooth and easy ride. But at the start, was it easy? No, no one knew who we were, what we did or what we were. Anytime something new starts there is inertia, real estate agents are skeptical, and the market was skeptical too. The easy part was the transition to the role, the hard part was getting the market to adapt to us.
Acme: Were there potential customers in Sydney that had to get used to using a buyers agency?
Simon: There were my clients from when I was a real estate agent and I had to beg them to give me a shot. Fast forward to today and two of them are still clients. They are the ones who helped us kick things off. Most of our business is repeat clients. The first customer I had I bought seven houses for. Having repeat clients is the best thing I could ever ask for.
Want to read about more disruptors in the industry? Check out our interview with Harris Real Estate’s Phil Harris.
