Emma Oliver spent more than a decade as a successful sales agent in Perth before a growing discomfort with the role pushed her to switch sides.
Ms Oliver’s journey into real estate was far from conventional.
After building a successful career as an architect and becoming coordinator of building services for a local council by age 30, the arrival of three children in 18 months – including twins – changed everything.
“I had a pretty much a photographic memory for house prices,” Ms Oliver said.
“So the houses are my hyper focus. I’ve just always had an interest, and I store that information somehow in some weird corner of my brain.”
From selling to buying
After compulsively renovating properties, her husband suggested she return to work, leading her to real estate as a family-friendly career option.
Ms Oliver quickly made her mark as a sales agent, winning service-driven awards for renovating clients’ properties prior to sale and handling complex transactions that other agents wouldn’t touch.
She even secured a coveted spot on the Water Corp list for selling Water Corp land.
But after more than a decade as a successful sales agent, Ms Oliver felt increasingly uncomfortable with the inherent conflict in the role.
“People didn’t understand that a sales agent works for the seller,” she said.
“And my job as building rapport made me feel a little bit uncomfortable with the trust put in me by the buyers, which actually was part of my job.”
A different approach
Coming from a family with a disabled mother and having dealt with many vulnerable people, Ms Oliver made the switch to representing buyers instead.
She’s now focused on helping clients in aged care scenarios, divorce situations, and other emotionally charged circumstances.
Her commitment to this work runs deep – she’s an accredited grief counsellor and is undertaking additional mental health training.
“I believe that houses are not just bricks and mortar,” Ms Oliver said.
“They are an emotional transaction that involve a very careful use of conversation as people transact between properties.”
She believes people’s mental health is intrinsically tied to their concept of shelter and the bonds they form with their homes.
“I tend to connect very well with clients, and they stay with me for the journey whether I’m selling, buying, or being a trusted adviser in any way, shape, or form,” she said.
Protecting Perth’s buyers
Ms Oliver is particularly passionate about helping first-time buyers and those who can’t afford traditional buyer’s agent services – the very people she believes need protection most in Perth’s competitive market.
“They think that they probably can’t afford a buyer’s agent. It’s considered something that is maybe only for prestige properties, but I think they’re probably the people that need it potentially the most,” she said.
With decades of industry relationships and comprehensive knowledge from both sides of transactions, Ms Oliver leverages her experience to navigate Perth’s limited stock market effectively.
She’s also concerned about the varying quality of buyer’s agents in the market and has partnered with BuyersAgents.com.au to help raise standards across the industry.
“There’s a huge discrepancy of training in buyer’s agents and abilities and service level,” she said.
“There’s people out there that are getting licenses out of a cornflakes box who have never bought properties, have never been a selling agent.”
Ms Oliver said that transitioning from selling agent to buyer’s agent required significant retraining.
“It took me a good six months to retrain myself from being a successful selling agent to a buyer’s agent.
It’s not the same thing. And it’s essentially opposite sides of the way that you do things,” she said.
Education and advocacy
Beyond her client work, Ms Oliver has plans to become more of a resource for real estate information, offering pro bono advice to help people navigate the market.
She’s particularly concerned about first-time buyers who have been thrown into an extremely competitive market without proper education.
“Everything that they wanted to buy that was $600,000 overnight became $850,” she said.
“And now brokers are saying, oh, borrow $100,000 off your parents to put you the next step above.
The education isn’t there for this.”
A former real estate trainer herself, Ms Oliver believes the fundamental purpose of real estate agents is to be educators, taking clients through the journey and explaining how things work.
“We’re actually really lucky to be real estate agents because we get let into people’s lives,” she said.
“It’s got nothing to do with houses most of the time. You walk out of it being those people’s friends.
“Being a trusted adviser is probably the highest compliment that anyone could ever have, I think.”
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