I’m Shiju Thomas. From 2015 to 2018 I ran marketing at Cohen Handler, one of Australia’s best-known buyer’s agencies. I write Find A Buyer’s Agent to help buyers with the decision I watched from the inside: whether to hire a buyer’s agent, and which one.
Inside a buyer’s agency
I joined Cohen Handler as Head of Marketing and Digital in July 2015 and built its marketing function from scratch. Over the next three years the business grew from $3 million to $12 million in revenue, and the marketing budget I managed grew from $340,000 to $2.4 million a year.
We ran a television campaign that put buyer’s agents in front of a mainstream Australian audience. It brought in $680,000 in three months, ten times what it cost. Over the same period, revenue from client referrals grew from $243,000 to $2.1 million, and digital and inbound revenue rose by almost 600%.
I also built the inbound sales team, launched Cohen Handler in the USA and Singapore, and started two brand extensions, CH Prestige and CH Investment Club.
Two businesses built for the industry
AuctionWiz was a marketplace for buyer’s agents. It broke even in 14 weeks.
The Buyer’s Agent Institute is an education platform for the buyer’s agent industry. It still runs today as an independent business under its own management.
Since then
I left Cohen Handler in 2018. Through my consultancy, Z10 Consulting, I have run growth for a proptech marketplace and for an events and property business. I still write about the buyer’s agent industry, from AML/CTF compliance to how agents use AI.
Why this site
Buyers ask the same questions on every property forum. Is a buyer’s agent worth it? What should one cost? How do I pick a good one? The answers sit scattered across Reddit threads, agency sales pages and fee forms that say “contact us”. This site puts the evidence in one place, in plain English, so you can decide for yourself.
Find A Buyer’s Agent is an independent guide for property and home buyers. Every article shows where its numbers come from.
I studied at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore and live in Sydney. You can read my other writing at shijuthomas.com or find me on LinkedIn.
General information only. This is no substitute for financial or legal advice. Find A Buyer’s Agent is an independent guide for property and home buyers.