Domi Antalfy started Domination Buyers Agents in February 2023 after a successful career as a selling agent, where she sold over 250 properties across Sydney.
But it was her experience on the selling side that revealed a gap in the market – buyers were being left to navigate the property market alone.
“Selling agent gets paid by the seller. So everything is geared towards helping the seller sell for a really good amount of money that was leaving the buyers hanging,” Domi said.
“They were looking for properties on their own, struggling, missing out, not knowing how to price properties properly or why certain ones sell for cheaper than others.”
From reception to buyer’s advocate
Domi’s journey in real estate began in 2015 as an admin support receptionist before progressing through her certificate, class two and class one licences, and auctioneering qualifications.
She worked across five different offices in Sydney, including Epping, Darlinghurst, Balmain, Castle Hill and Panania, eventually becoming a standalone agent.
Throughout her selling career, she noticed buyers consistently appreciated her approach of asking questions that helped her understand their story and needs.
“The buyers really liked it, and they started bringing up that this is something you should do more of or if there’s a role that caters to the buyers,” she said.
When several selling principals approached her about opening second offices or leading teams, Domi realised she was about to make a decision for the wrong reasons.
“I came home one day and said to my husband, I feel like I’m going to make a decision for the sake of making a decision. I’m just not overly happy where I am, and I want to change,” she said.
She resigned from her role and took two weeks to decide her next move – launching Domination Buyers Agents.
Understanding the full picture
Domi primarily works with owner occupiers and developers, with a smaller focus on investment properties.
Her strength lies in understanding the complete situation and reading the play – skills honed from working on both sides of transactions.
“Because I’ve been on both sides now, I am across how agents operate and the different sales approaches they use, and when to push and pull and when to pause,” she said.
She’s particularly focused on helping clients understand the process, not just the price.
“With a lot of them we’re finding they understand the basics of home buying, but they don’t understand how it all ties in together,” Domi said.
“How do we position them for a stronger offer? Not necessarily on price, but more on the conditions.”
Domi isn’t afraid to tell clients when a deal doesn’t make sense, even if it means extending the search period or reducing her own fee.
“We’re always working towards their best outcome, even if that means that we’re shaving $10,000 off our fee in the end,” she said.
This approach has paid dividends, with 45 per cent of her business generated through previous happy clients and 55 per cent through her professional network of solicitors, conveyancers, accountants and financial planners.
“It’s just a really tightly held network that I work with and, you know, we help each other a lot and what that means for our clients is that they have a strong team of professionals working for them,” she said.
Choosing quality outcomes over volume
Domi is also cautious about off-market opportunities, which she says are often heavily overpriced.
“It’s often highlighted how many off-market purchases someone does, but just because it’s an off-market purchase doesn’t mean it’s a good deal,” she said.
“Even with off-market opportunities, they’re always very heavily assessed. And only if it works for our clients’ price point and situation, we will entertain those.”
Looking ahead, Domi plans to grow her team slowly and deliberately over the next five years, aiming for around 10 team members specialising in different areas including owner occupier purchases, development, commercial and investment.
“I’d love to grow it with people who really genuinely care about the buyers’ outcomes because that’s what we’re really here to do,” she said.
A mother’s perspective
Domi credits her drive and passion for the business to her role as a mother of two daughters, aged 10 and 12.
“I started in real estate when they were both very young. And I think it was just that hunger of not just providing for the family, but also to help those clients move in the right direction that really helped me be the way I am,” she said.
This perspective has shaped her business philosophy – providing the same level of service regardless of the property price.
“Whether that property has one extra or one less zero, the service is always the same,” Domi said.
“For us, it’s not the big clients that we aim for. We’re just here to help people who need help and it doesn’t matter how much they’re purchasing for.”
Domi has recently listed on buyersagent.com.au, which she believes will be beneficial for connecting with potential clients.
“There’s not really too much out in terms of buyer’s agent registries or directories for people to look up,” she said.
“I think it’s a really good step going forward to have something like that, a more of a centralised platform to make it easy for people to make a decision.”
Buyersagents.com.au is proud to support the professional growth of buyer agent Domi Antalfy via a platform to connect them with more buyers. Discover more at Buyersagents.com.au