With a career spanning from Port Hedland to Perth, and from franchises to conveyancing companies, Barry Pound has seen every side of the property industry.
Now, he’s channelling that experience into beagl, a buyer’s agency that’s changing how Western Australians purchase property.
From humble beginnings to industry veteran
Barry’s real estate career began in 1981 when he and his wife moved to Port Hedland, where they initially ran a tyre service and service station before starting in real estate.
“I was raised in Perth. I went to Applecross High School,” Barry said.
“Then my wife and I went up to Port Hedland in ’81 and that was my foray into real estate.”
After returning to Perth in 1995, Barry built an impressive portfolio, operating offices in Mount Pleasant, Carine and Fremantle.
In 1999, he founded a conveyancing company that continues to operate today.
He also established West Coast Conveyancing Company 20 years ago, later rolling both conveyancing businesses into a law firm before entering semi-retirement.
A new venture
Three years ago, Barry identified a gap in the Perth market after receiving numerous calls from clients unhappy with buyer’s agent services on the East Coast.
“It was obviously prevalent that a good buyer’s agency in Perth was needed,” he said.
Together with his son Matthew, Barry launched beagl, a buyers agency that also offers a platform for other agents, which allows clients to access a portal from anywhere in the world.
Before starting beagl, the father-son duo travelled to New York to meet with directors of Compass, a US agency comprising 40,000 agents split evenly between buyers and sellers.
“We wanted to look and see how they had scaled their business,” Barry said.
“And we’re doing very, very similar here.”
Tapping into the off-market advantage
Barry’s decades of industry relationships give beagl a significant competitive edge.
“At the moment, one in five properties are being sold off market,” he said.
“We work closely with a lot of real estate agents in Perth that provide to us their off market and pre-market properties.”
beagl now operates with six buyer’s agents, serving first-time buyers, upsizers, downsizers and investors across Perth.
Championing professional standards
Barry serves on the REIWA committee for buyer’s agents and is passionate about elevating industry standards in Western Australia.
He said that many buyer’s agents in Perth are registered rather than licensed, often affiliated with New South Wales-based law firms.
“To me that doesn’t supply and provide the support and mentorship that a brand new buyer’s agent requires and needs to service properly their clients here in WA,” he said.
Barry said it is important to understand WA’s unique property transaction process, which differs significantly from the eastern states.
“The contractual way that property is contracted in WA is completely different to that of Victoria or New South Wales,” he said.
“In WA, the conveyancer doesn’t get involved until the contract has been completed by the selling and buying agent.”
REIWA has developed a five CPD point program specifically for buyer’s agents to ensure proper training in WA’s distinct processes.
Building on relationships
For Barry, success in the buyer’s agency space comes down to one fundamental principle.
“Our business is built on relationships over many, many years,” he said.
“We’ve developed great relationships with selling agents and we really want to educate selling agents on how we can work hand in hand.”
As the buyer’s agency industry continues to grow in Perth, Barry is focused on ensuring it develops as a professional service while scaling beagl’s operations.
“We look to be Perth’s best, biggest, and most accepted buyer’s agency here in WA,” he said.
Buyersagents.com.au celebrates the achievements of professionals like Barry Pound, and helps connect trusted buyer’s agents with more buyers across Australia.