How Cohen Handler Buyers Agent Michael Panto Secured a Kingsford Sub-Penthouse for a Retiring Couple
After three months of searching on their own and coming away empty-handed every time, a retiring couple came to Cohen Handler with a clear brief and a frustrating problem: the stock they needed in the area they wanted simply wasn’t there.
Five months later, Michael Panto had found them a three-bedroom sub-penthouse in the heart of Kingsford, negotiated the price down from $1,750,000 to $1,715,000, and settled well within their budget. This is how it happened.
The Brief and Why It Was Harder Than It Looked
The clients’ requirements were specific but not unreasonable: two to three bedroom townhouse or unit with courtyard or terrace to entertain, two bathrooms, parking, minimal maintenance, and a location in Sydney’s south-east, centred around Kingsford. For a retiring couple who had previously sold their home and needed a property they could genuinely settle into for the long term.
The budget sat at around $1.75 million. On paper, workable. In practice, the combination of their requirements and the limited stock in the area made it genuinely difficult. Most three-bedroom properties with the right configuration were coming in over budget, and the townhouse options that appeared along the way either fell short on layout or stretched further financially than the clients were comfortable going.
Before engaging Michael, the couple had been searching for three months on their own and had nothing to show for it. The Kingsford and south-east Sydney market had not been producing the kind of stock they needed, and without the agent relationships to surface what wasn’t being publicly listed, they were working from an incomplete picture of what was actually available.
How Michael Approached the Search
Stock was the core problem, so finding more of it was where Michael started. Rather than limiting the search to what was actively listed on the market, he contacted every sales agent and every property manager across the relevant complexes in the area, calling through a contact list of over 100 people to identify whether any landlords were considering a sale.
It’s the kind of groundwork that a buyer searching independently simply can’t replicate. Most people don’t have those relationships, and even those who do don’t have the time to work through a list of that size while managing everything else involved in a property search.
“I checked every sales agent and every managing agent in each complex to see if they had one to sell,” Michael said. “There wasn’t a lot of stock, so I did everything I could to find what was out there.”
That approach is what separates professional buyers agency from an independent property search. The on-market listings are only part of the picture. The rest sits with the agents and property managers who know what’s coming before it’s ever advertised.
The Property: 3/51 Willis Street, Kingsford
The property that ultimately stood out was 3/51 Willis Street, a sub-penthouse apartment in the boutique Alto complex, a block of only six. Three bedrooms, two bathrooms, one car space, and a floor plan that delivered everything the brief called for without compromise.
The apartment itself is well above the standard for the area. Travertine flooring throughout, Smeg gas appliances in the kitchen, ducted air-conditioning, and an oversized terrace-style balcony with district views. Single-level living, lift access, and a secure parking space made it the right fit practically as well as aesthetically. For a couple buying with a long-term view and no appetite for future moves, the layout and the building ticked nearly every box.
The location added further appeal. Parklands, beaches, UNSW, light rail and shopping hubs all within minutes, with the kind of walkability that makes day-to-day life easier and the property more resilient from an investment standpoint.
The seller had been close to pulling it from the sales market and putting it back into the rental pool if the right result didn’t come through. Michael moved quickly when the opportunity arose, which proved to be the deciding factor.
The Negotiation
The seller was asking $1,750,000 and prepared to accept $1,720,000. Another buyer had pushed to that number but their buyer fell through and instead request for a four-month settlement that was rejected. Michael moved in with a shorter settlement and an offer of $1,710,000. The deal landed at $1,715,000, well within the clients’ budget and $35,000 below where the vendor started.
A saving of that size isn’t something a buyers agent can guarantee on every purchase, the outcome depends on the brief, the market, the competing interest, and variables that shift from one transaction to the next.
What a good buyers agent can guarantee is that they’ll do everything within their power to get there. In a market where buyer confidence is low and most people are sitting on their hands, that drive, the 100 calls, the short settlement, the read on a vendor who’d already watched one deal collapse, is what produced this result. Most buyers who don’t engage a buyers agent will never know what they left on the table, because they’ll never know what was possible.
What Made This Purchase Work
A few things came together to produce this result, and it’s worth naming them clearly. The first was access. By working through property managers as well as sales agents, Michael surfaced an opportunity that wasn’t being widely circulated and secured it before it went back to the rental market or attracted a broader competitive field. The second was timing. The previous buyer’s finance falling through created a window, but only for someone who was already in position, had done the preparation, and could move on a short settlement. The clients were ready because Michael had prepared them to be. The third was the negotiation itself. Coming in below the vendor’s floor price and landing at a number that suited both parties required an accurate read of how motivated the vendor was and what the competing interest actually looked like. Michael had both.
For a retiring couple who had spent three months getting nowhere on their own, the outcome was everything they’d been searching for, in the right location, at the right price, with no stairs and no reason to move again. If you’re searching for property in Sydney’s eastern suburbs or south-east and not finding what you need, Michael Panto is worth speaking to.
Speak to the Cohen Handler Eastern Suburbs team.
FAQ
The most significant difference is access and ground-level intelligence. An experienced eastern suburbs buyers agent like Michael Panto maintains active relationships with both sales agents and property managers across the suburbs they operate in, which means they can identify properties that are available but not yet listed, or approach landlords directly about a potential sale. For a market like Kingsford and the surrounding south-east suburbs, where stock is often limited and the best properties move quickly, that access changes the entire search. Independent buyers are working from whatever appears on the major listing platforms, which is only part of the picture.
By contacting over 100 sales agents and property managers across relevant complexes in the Kingsford area to identify whether any owners were considering selling. This kind of systematic outreach is how off-market and pre-market opportunities get surfaced, and it’s work that takes both the time and the established relationships that most buyers simply don’t have access to on their own.
Yes, and this case illustrates why. The property at 3/51 Willis Street was technically available on the market, but the outcome still depended on Michael’s knowledge of the competing interest, his read of the vendor’s position, and his ability to move quickly when the previous buyer’s finance fell through. The negotiation alone brought the price from $1,750,000 to $1,715,000. The preparation, relationships, and timing that made that possible aren’t things an independent buyer typically has in place.
It varies depending on the brief and the available stock. This particular search took approximately five months from engagement to purchase, reflecting a detailed brief and genuinely limited stock in the target area. That said, the clients had spent three months searching on their own before engaging Michael without finding anything suitable. The right search takes the time it takes, but having a buyers agent working the full scope of the market, on and off it, means the search is as efficient as the conditions allow.
The first step is a conversation about your brief, your budget, and your timeline. From there, the team can give you an honest read on what the current market looks like for your requirements and whether professional buyers advocacy is the right fit. You can reach the Cohen Handler Eastern Suburbs team through the website or by phone.