By HEDGIE GUNDRY
With a natural flair for business and a shared love of property, buyers’ agents Mark and Nicky Cadry are making their mark on Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs real estate scene.
After successful roles in marketing and commerce, Mark and Nicky Cadry, a driven husband and wife team, turned their property pastime into a dream career, establishing BuyEast Buyers Agency in 2013.
“Before we went into business together, Nicky and I had bought, renovated and sold our own homes for years and loved the whole process,” Mark explained.
“Friends of ours started asking us questions. How do you do it? How do you negotiate with agents? How do you find the property? How do you know what makes a great investment? They couldn't understand how we could buy and sell property so easily.”
Nicky added: “We helped one friend, and then another and another, and one of the real estate agents said we should become buyers’ agents. It was a leap of faith, but the rest, as they say, is history.”
Strong market demand
Based in Rose Bay and focused exclusively on the Eastern Suburbs market, BuyEast is thriving.
“Despite the economic and social turmoil caused by COVID-19, 2020 was extremely busy for us in a very positive way,” Mark said. “The demand for our services simply exploded and last year was our best yet.
“Because real estate was deemed an essential service during lockdown, we could still go to inspections, whereas most of our clients couldn't or didn't want to. We worked right through.”
And this year is showing no signs of slowing down for the BuyEast team.
“Into 2021, the market is going crazy because interest rates are low, there are a lot of cashed-up buyers out there and not enough properties,” Nicky said. “There’s a huge buyer demand and the market is really hot at the moment.”
“We knew we’d have the most success specialising in our core market and focusing on our core service as buyers’ agents, rather than also branching out into property management.” – Mark Cadry
Local expertise
For Mark and Nicky, it’s their local expertise that sets them apart from other buyers’ agents in the market.
“When we started the business, we looked into what the competition was doing and couldn't understand how an agent could cover all of Sydney effectively, let alone the whole country,” Mark explained.
“We’ve lived in the Eastern Suburbs all of our lives and this is where we’ve bought and sold all of our properties. We knew we’d have the most success specialising in our core market and focusing on our core service as buyers’ agents, rather than also branching out into property management,” Mark explained.
BuyEast has reaped the rewards from this strategy.
“BuyEast now has an excellent name in the market amongst our clients and also local real estate agents,” Nicky said. “We’re trustworthy, confidential and go above and beyond, and therefore we continue to receive a significant amount of word-of-mouth referrals.”
Customer service
Another area of differentiation for BuyEast is its business model, which is built on customer service rather than sales.
“Many buyers’ agents are ex real estate agents, whereas our offering is very different,” Nicky said. “A sales agent is all about selling, whereas a buyers’ agent is all about customer service.
“We consult with our clients and provide all the information, knowledge and power they need to make an educated decision, rather than convincing them to purchase a particular property.
“We talk our clients out of more properties than we try to help them buy!”
Mark explained that the BuyEast team also does all they can to maintain their independence.
“Even though we’re allowed to take referral fees from agents and mortgage brokers, we just don’t,” he said. “We’re 100 per cent reliant on our clients for our income and, as a consequence, we’re 100 per cent focused on meeting their needs by delivering the highest levels of customer service.”
Team culture
The BuyEast team, a tight knit group of 10, including agents and support staff, is cohesive and no one competes internally for client business.
“We truly work as a team, with an open plan office and an open database,” Nicky explained. “We all share off-market opportunities and there's no hiding anything from anyone.
“During our team meetings, we all talk about our clients and help each other out. And because our work is collaborative, there’s a culture of trust, harmony and friendship. There’s no backstabbing, or stealing of clients or opportunities from each other.
“This open way of working creates a harmonious environment.”
Mark explained that they also make sure each client has two buyers’ agents working on their brief at any one time.
“It's very hard for a single buyers’ agent to be able to tap into the entire market,” he said. “We also like to offer a diversity of personalities to open up more opportunities.
“This structure also helps at negotiation stage. For example, if I have a better relationship with the real estate agent than one of the other people in our team, I'll step in and vice versa, so that we always get the best result for our clients.”
“During our team meetings, we all talk about our clients and help each other out. And because our work is collaborative, there’s a culture of trust, harmony and friendship. There’s no backstabbing, or stealing of clients or opportunities from each other.” – Nicky Cadry
Community
As lifelong Eastern Suburbs residents, Mark and Nicky naturally believe in playing an active role in their community and supporting local schools, events and community groups where they can.
“We’ve sponsored Rose Bay Public School over the past two years,” Nicky said. “I went to school there and our kids now do too, so we’re very happy to partner with them.
“More recently, we've also sponsored a room in Ronald McDonald House at Sydney Children’s Hospital and also support Courage to Care, an education initiative against racism and discrimination.”
Mark said that it’s a privilege to be in a position to assist.
“Ultimately, real estate and buyers’ agents tend to work very, very hard and we’re well remunerated as a result,” he said. “But it’s really important to give back to the community. There are always less fortunate people out there who need our help.”
Positive future
So what does the future hold for BuyEast?
“After winning the Communication category at last year’s REINSW Awards for Excellence, ur short-term goal is to win the Buyers’ Agent of the Year in 2021,” Mark said. “Watch this space!
“We're also looking to hire one or two more agents in the office to grow our team that little bit further. We want to continually improve the quality of service we give to our clients and to always do better.”
Nicky added: “We also just want to focus on our core market, offering quality services rather than trying to spread ourselves too thin. We want to be the best at what we do in order to support our clients and community every step of the way.”