Australia's #1 Buyer's Agent - Simon Cohen #135

Simon Cohen says the first question he asks a selling agent is never the price, it is how they arrived at it. He describes himself as a litigator rather than a negotiator, whose job is to build a case, and he says most agents cannot defend their own number.

Simon Cohen is the co-founder of Cohen Handler. He started the business during the global financial crisis after five years as a selling agent.

What you will learn:

- The question he asks before anything else, and what the answer tells him about the campaign

- Why he thinks of the job as building a case rather than haggling, and how he prepares it

- How he works out why a vendor is actually selling, and why he calls that basic rather than extra

- What he did with no money and no network in 2009, and the offer he made his first clients

- Why he says he would never represent sellers, even now

Chapters

00:00 If you are not moving forward you are moving backwards

02:35 The Michael Jordan comparison, and what he makes of it

05:40 Watching the industry he helped create fill up

08:55 What makes the best in this job, and what makes the worst

11:41 Why stock quietly sells before it is ever advertised

15:26 What competitive advantage does a buyer at auction actually have

18:30 When a client falls in love with the wrong house

21:46 Starting in the GFC with no money and no network

23:21 Call ten people and offer to do it for nothing

25:08 The laziness argument, and the excuses he hears daily

28:23 Managing time when the day is already full

31:37 Why he will not represent a seller

34:38 Information is power, and the hundred million dollar ask

35:02 How did you get to that price

37:47 Doing your job instead of doing the agent's

42:31 Wanting the people around you to win

46:11 Seven days is not a strategy

49:11 What he has learned from clients more successful than he is

Simon Cohen builds a case before he makes an offer. Property should be bought the same way.

Most properties only make money if the market does. The ones that pay for themselves from the day you settle are bought differently, and it comes down to four points.

Get the free guide: https://go.bothsides.au/score

Bothsides:

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◼️ Dan - https://www.instagram.com/daniel_beardall/

◼️ Watch on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@bothsidespodcast

General information only. Not financial, tax, legal or credit advice. Bothsides is not a mortgage broker or credit provider.