PHOTO: Lauren (R) lives and breathes real estate, and has been in the industry for more than 15 years.
For Brisbane-based prestige property buyer’s agent, Lauren Moore, she wasn’t afraid to ruffle a few feathers by swapping sellers for buyers with the intent of creating a more levelled playing field in her local marketplace.
Launching Lauren Moore Property in March 2018, Lauren, previously a sales agent, says she decided to “flip the switch” and advocate for buyers who she felt were underrepresented in Brisbane. And despite “buyer’s agents” being quite a new service in Queensland, she saw a gap in the market and decided to go for it.
“When speaking with local families, I noticed a huge frustration in Brisbane’s inner-city, local real estate market. There was limited stock and high buyer demand so buyers had little control or support.
“I knew buyers’ agencies were in their infancy in Brisbane and there was a huge gap in the market for someone to advocate for families looking to purchase a new home. The prestige market was missing a strong industry leader in the buyer’s agency space, and even though it made more sense for me to go back into sales, I decided to flip the switch and advocate for buyers,” Lauren explains.
Lauren is proving to be a real innovator in the industry – filling the missing link and helping buyers find their home or investment, and by doing so, she’s on the fast-track to success. Lauren’s experienced solid growth as her business has almost doubled year on year. “My business has taken off and it actually wasn’t something I expected or forecasted. I was inundated with clients wanting to utilise my service.” Lauren also grew her team in 2020, bringing on Jillian Breen who was also an accomplished sales agent, who’s now using her expertise to represent clients on the other side of the transaction.
Despite COVID-19, Lauren’s client activity remained strong. She says her role creates diversity in the property market, previously steered by sales agents. “The selling agent has always controlled the narrative in real estate. This for years has left buyers with no control in the purchasing process. Agents are there to get the best price for the vendor. Unless you have worked in the industry and been privy to how the sales, negotiation and auction process works, there is no way an ordinary buyer is on an even playing field or aware of the inside tricks of the trade.
“Buyer’s agents were traditionally used for investors, but with interstate migration at an all time high in the past few years, we have really seen the interstate purchasers drive the buyer’s agency industry in Australia for owner occupiers.”
The Real Estate Buyers Agents Association (REBAA), which Lauren is an accredited member of states that in 2014, they had a membership base of just 53. “Now we have 84 members (an increase of almost 60%). And there are currently about 200 buyer’s agency registered businesses nationally.
“We are currently receiving approximately 40 new membership enquiries per month nationally. Two to three years ago, this was around 15 per month,” a REBAA spokesperson explains.
And Lauren also acknowledges the growth in Australia, “Nationally, buyer’s agents are really starting to build merit. Buyer’s agents have been prevalent in the US for years and now time-poor Australian’s really understand the value of having a professional on their side of the property transaction, and I’m here to do just that.”
She says another often overlooked benefit of a buyer’s agent is that they provide buyers with property options not available to everyone. A good buyer’s agent generally has a solid list of off-market options, which Lauren does and contributes to her early success.
“I hold a long stock list of off-market properties where vendors come directly to me and bypass the agents. A lot of vendors do not necessarily want to go to market for varying reasons such as divorce, insolvency, privacy and so on, and the off-market space is giving people options to the traditional real estate process. Some seller’s aren’t in a hurry to sell as they may be considering downsizing but still have older kids at home etc and would sell if they got the right price. We can also match vendors to a sales agent should they need help with the sales process.
“My major difference is I prospect for stock like a real estate agent; I letterbox drop, door knock and cold call vendors to find properties. Buyers are now being represented and being presented with opportunities that aren’t offered to everyone, which is giving them power. It’s been long overdue and exciting to see the real estate industry evolve for the better,” Lauren concludes.
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