About

What We Do

‘Land will not reveal itself easily or quickly. It must be sought for patiently, over time, by many people, employing a wide range of skills and sensibilities. Discovery is a long, drawn-out process, which can have no final conclusion.’

Ray Erickson, quoted in The Dig Tree, Sarah Murgatroyd.

Secret Agent is regularly asked, ‘What is it you do?’ This is a fair question, and one worth exploring.

Most prospective clients arrive with a rough idea of what we do. They know they’re looking for someone to act on their behalf in the purchase of property. But the full picture of what that means, what it demands, and what distinguishes one firm from another, is less understood. This piece is an attempt to clarify these aspects of our work.

Definition

The acquiring professions include Buyers’ Advocates, Property Advisers, Acquisition Specialists, and Buyers’ Agents. All these are independent people or firms that specialise in the selection and acquisition of worthy properties on behalf of their clients, and they employ different methods to obtain these objectives.

The best acquiring professionals search for good properties compatible with a client’s needs and discard the many poor ones that come their way. They have the appropriate experience, are well read, and possess the right sensibilities for acquisition work. They carry out prudent due diligence and analysis; are discreet as to their client’s identity and personal information; are shrewd when required; and are multidisciplinary by necessity. They always protect their client’s best interests. They are used to operating — and thriving — in the grey zones of human social affairs.

Naming

A name is an important first clue to understanding the profession and what it is that we do, but names are not always reliable guides to the quality of the services received or the spirit under which they are provided. Two businesses may both call themselves restaurants, one focused on mass-produced cheap food, the other on careful cooking and quality ingredients. Both are restaurants in the conventional sense. They are not, however, the same thing — in quality, in philosophy, or in what they deliver to the people who walk through the door.

The same applies in property. Unlike ‘barrister’ or ‘pilot’ — terms with rigid parameters — the names used in the buyers’ representation profession carry hazier meanings, and different firms have very different ideas about what those names commit them to.

In Australia, the two most common terms are Buyers’ Advocate and Buyers’ Agent; ‘Advocate’ is the more common variant in Melbourne, ‘Agent’ in Sydney.

When professional services for property buyers first emerged, they were received with hostility by many of the professionals on the selling side of the industry, who felt advisory services threatened the smooth progress of sales. Many selling agents felt they had been disintermediated. It was not long ago that even a building inspection was frowned upon by selling agents.

Before buyers’ advocacy established itself, buyers engaged people from adjacent professions who understood property and could offer independent counsel, such as lawyers, architects, and builders.

Over the past few decades, professional representation for buyers has become widely accepted by the community, even desirable, and it has become its own independent service.

When Secret Agent began in early 2008, the profession scarcely existed. The handful of firms offering buyer representation still had to explain what the service was. In the late 2020s, that explanation is no longer necessary; the role is understood, even if the actual service delivered varies widely.

The pendulum has swung firmly in favour of using an Advocate or Agent.

This has been largely a good thing, but the widespread adoption of buyers’ advocacy has brought its own problems. Many traditional selling agents have crossed the fence to become advocates or now offer both services simultaneously. The distance between the two sides has blurred. A certain degree of cosiness has developed between parties that were once, by necessity, at arm’s length — and this has not been without consequences for buyers who assumed they had truly independent representation.

Secret Agent does not sell property. The focus is entirely on the acquisition side. That separation is not incidental — it is the basis on which genuine advocacy is possible.

When Secret Agent tells a selling agent it is not interested in a property, the response is almost always the same: quiet disbelief, and then the assumption that the firm will bring the client around. The industry is structurally oriented toward completing transactions. The possibility that an advocate might walk away — deliberately, on the client’s behalf — does not compute.

Agent and Advocate

To our minds, the word ‘Agent’ implies that the services rendered for property buyers are simply the inverse of those provided by a selling agent. We do not think that is the case: the act of selling and the act of acquiring are two different roles, requiring very different temperaments and skillsets.

The meaning of the term ‘Agent’ according to the Oxford Dictionary is: ‘A person who acts for another in business, politics, etc.’ However, when the word ‘Agent’ is used in property, we usually understand an Agent to be someone who puts boards out the front of properties and sells them.

The selling agent has a clear job description. Usually, if you scan their leaflets or websites, it is to obtain the highest price for their vendor. Some agents will offer strategic advice, or are highly specialised, but most have a simple task: to advertise a property and extract the highest price from the purchaser.

While we accept the term in certain instances, ‘Agent’ is probably best abandoned when referring to a professional appointed by the prospective purchaser. That our own firm carries the name Secret Agent is not a contradiction; the name draws on older connotations, the idea of a quiet advantage held on someone else’s behalf, which is closer to what the work actually involves.

Of course, many Buyers’ Agents operate within independent firms and act purely for buyers. And the word ‘Agent’ is acceptable in its pure meaning, but the word is very general and does not delineate any real difference between the professions. It does not tell us who the end client is. The true end client is the one who pays the fee.

The Mind of an Acquirer

There are major differences in both the skill and temperament required when providing professional services to a potential purchaser compared with a client wishing to sell.

Because an agent who sells property is in pursuit of the highest bidder, the job is the search for the largest financial offer. It is marketing. On the other hand, to acquire property correctly requires discernment, method, and skill. The acquirer must synthesise a great deal of information and work alongside numerous other professionals to achieve a successful acquisition.

The mindset for selling is optimistic. It is certain. In contrast, the mindset that is well suited to acquisition is prudent; it can often be sceptical, and it can even be uncertain, at times doubting itself. Overconfidence is a trap for those in the acquisition profession.

Our preferred word over ‘Agent’ is ‘Advocate’, the predominant variant used in Melbourne. In general terms, the definition of an Advocate is: ‘A person who pleads, intercedes, or speaks for another.’

The term ‘Advocate’ might suggest that the Advocate performs a supporting role on a pre-known matter, but Secret Agent usually acts for those who have not yet found what they are looking for. The search itself is where the work begins, and where most purchasers need the most help.

What the Work Requires

The question to ask is what should be expected of a person or firm that considers and acts in a prospective purchaser’s best interests? What is it that one does when setting out on an acquisition?

Both client and advocate must embark on a process of discovery. The future property, even the general location of it, is generally unknowable from the starting point. The process unfolds under great uncertainty, and the initial conditions matter enormously. A different starting brief, a different set of assumptions about what is needed, and the eventual destination can be an entirely different property in an entirely different place. Secret Agent’s role begins here: shaping those initial conditions, offering new ideas, and setting a path that gives the search its best chance of arriving somewhere worth arriving.

Any Property Adviser or Advocate should say ‘No’, a lot. Sturgeon’s dictum, that ninety per cent of everything is crap, is maybe too kind when applied to the state of Australia’s housing stock. Most properties are not worth buying; the few good ones are offered infrequently and hard to come by.

The acquiring of property is often as much a process of rejection as of selection. It is the relentless search for an underlying substance in a sea of generic building structures and compromised locations. It is possible that many operating under the name of ‘Agent’ or ‘Advocate’, do not hold those same standards. Like the earlier example of a restaurant’s style, careful selection and assessment of the quality of a property may not be what is delivered.

An Advocate should have a vastly different approach to a selling agent. In day-to-day terms, an Advocate in the field of acquisition will spend their day sourcing properties, and discarding most of them. They will review title documents, source off-market opportunities, carry out due diligence and feasibility studies. They will enter and break off negotiations, and bid at auctions. They will make recommendations where appropriate.

They will liaise with all other professionals who specialise in property: lawyers, builders, architects, surveyors, financiers, estate agents, accountants, etc., who need to be called upon to increase the likelihood of success and to limit the risks for their client.

An Advocate should be ambidextrous in their skills, relying on other domains of knowledge to tackle the complicated tasks of understanding buildings and their ecology. They will advise on value, and they will apply a financial mind to the price to be paid. They will put their clients at ease and help them through what can often be a trying time in their lives. They will even make things fun.

They will extract meaning from information, getting to the real marrow of issues where others stop at the surface. The capacity to synthesise, interpret, and exercise sound judgement is what separates an advocate from a search engine. Data is not wisdom. The advocate’s edge is knowing the difference.

Secret Agent prefers to use the term Acquisition over Purchasing or Buying, as ‘Acquisition’ has a favourable quality to it. Referring again to the Oxford Dictionary, Acquisition means: ‘1) The action of acquiring something or someone, 2) A thing gained or acquired; a useful or welcome addition.’

An Acquisition should be something that is worthy of being acquired; it should be a ‘welcome addition’. To conclude an Acquisition, we should be well advised in the process. The Oxford defines ‘Advised’ as: ‘1) Having considered something, 2) Deliberate, wary, cautious, 3) Deliberate, considered, intentional. Also, well considered, judicious; sensible, prudent.’

Perhaps either an Acquisition Adviser or Acquisition Specialist may be the more appropriate terms to use, for services provided, over Agent or Advocate.

Other terms circulate — ‘Fiduciary’, ‘Consultant’, ‘Broker’ — but none fits comfortably. ‘Fiduciary’ is overworked by the hedge fund industry; ‘Consultant’ evokes a drab office tower; ‘Broker’ feels American, or like someone dealing in second-hand boats. Nothing in the existing vocabulary quite captures the role.

Another key attribute for success in any advisory role to purchasers is to be discreet on their behalf. This has been a highly valued trait since ancient times. Cervantes even heaped praise on ‘go-betweens’ as ‘an office for the discreet’ which filled a highly valued societal need.

Whose Interests?

Beyond the names and definitions, what matters is how the work is done, and in whose interest.

An advocate should open the field of vision for their client, They should not simply take orders, but put forward recommendations, and advise against properties that, however attractive on the surface, have characteristics that could compromise a client’s interests over the longer term.

The advocate must take the longer view. They should carry out the acquisition process in a level-headed way, provide counsel, and use their built-up, hard-won acumen to the benefit of the client, professionally, without fuss or complaint. The client should even enjoy the experience.

Acquisitions move through various timepoints: the time to press ahead with negotiations, the time to exit from them, the time to wait. Understanding these, and handling the significant moments of transition with composure and discretion, is part of the skill.

Transitions

Secret Agent began within buyer’s advocacy. That is where the firm was founded, and the term is not wrong; we do advocate for buyers, and we always will. But the work has moved beyond what that label typically describes.

A conventional buyer’s advocate searches for property on a client’s behalf, negotiates, and transacts. Secret Agent does all that, but also publishes independent research, examines financial cycles, and has at various points withdrawn from the market when value could not be found. That is not advocacy in the usual sense. It is closer to property advisory — a broader discipline that begins with whether to act at all, not simply how to act.

The distinction matters because buyer’s advocacy has become a crowded field, and not everything in it serves the buyer’s interests in the way the term implies. We do not think the answer is to argue about labels. The answer is to do work that speaks for itself.

If you call us a ‘Buyer’s Advocate’, we will not object. But the fuller description of what Secret Agent does — the research, the cycle thinking, the willingness to say ‘No’ to the market itself — sits more comfortably under the term ‘property advisory’. That is the term we prefer, and the one that best reflects where the firm has arrived.

We started with an opening quotation that has always stayed with the firm and been a guiding principle of ours. As it reminds us, land does not reveal itself easily, and one can extend the thought beyond land to any property pursued on a client’s behalf. Client and adviser set out together toward an unknown destination — one that will require patience, skill, and sound judgement to reach. This is what gives the destination reached the best prospects of being the right one.

The working vocabulary of the firm

These are the terms that can recur in the conduct of an acquisition, set down as they are used rather than explained:

client; enquiries to contacts regarding properties for sale; revenge strips; title reviews; covenant reviews; price analysis; building structure investigation; negotiate terms with vendor; withdraw bid; site topology; planning checks; neighbourhood residential zone; flood zones; traffic implications; air pollution; distance to train, tram and bus; school zones; take legal advice; yield calculations; risk-free rate; insurance check; planning overlay; easements; defective title; momentum pricing; documentary evidence; submit offer; brief and strategy; overheated conditions; prudence; contract review; underlying substance; water views; bond yields; financial cycles; international virtual meetings; settlements; financing; deposits; signed contracts; caveats; Boom style Victorian terrace; architecture; indoor air quality; craftsmanship; electronic transfer; Federation; Robin Boyd; LVR; margin of safety; northern orientation; seller reputation; boom bust; exchange; Roy Grounds; on the market; cutting it fine; special conditions; encumbrance; mortgage; title transfer; due diligence; inspection; integrity; leaking balconies; pools; tenant; cashflow; r-star; monetary economy; modernism; sealed bid; blindsided; overpriced; value; cantilever; retaining wall; gazumped; credit growth; brick; foreign resident; land tax; the Torrens title; leasehold; consumer price index; fixtures and chattels; hydronic heating; Glenn Murcutt; creditworthy; instinct; building permit; air rights; up zoning; speculative; appreciation; depreciation; occupancy permit; long-term lease; compounding growth; Sea Ranch; passed-in; acumen; title insurance; high-rise; inflation; ventilation; high ceilings; capitalisation rates; Richard Leplastrier; Hoddle Grid; sub floor.