Kosma Comino: from earning $250/week to becoming a suburb attraction agent

Episode 03 of Raising the Bar is live! 🎙️

George chats with Kosma Comino, once a young mechanic earning $250 a week, now one of Brisbane’s most recognised suburb specialists. 🔧➡️🏡

Kosma is a partner at LJ Hooker Property Partners (Mt Gravatt and Sunnybank Hills).

They talk backing yourself, the power of mentorship and why doing the hard yards early can pay off big time. 💪

🎧 Listen now.

Transcript

Welcome to the Raising the Bar podcast, where we story tell excellence in Queensland Property. I'm your host, George Sourris from Empire Legal.

 All right guys, the Raising the Bar podcast. So, we've got Kos Comino from LJ Hooker Mount Gravatt / Sunnybank Hills. 

Yeah. Property Partners, but it's two locations. Mount Gravatt and Sunnybank Hills. 

Yep. You're basically based out of Mount Gravatt now, correct? 

I'm, yep. I'm based there.

Yep. Yep. So look, fun fact, Kos and I have known each other since we were 17, 18, yeah. 16, 

17, 18, something like that. Yep. 

Yep. Fun fact, our families are from the same Greek island, 

the best island. 

Shout out to Kythira - all these other Greeks don't know. They give us a hard time. Hey. Yeah, the Kytherian's cop it. 

We cop it 'cause we're stingy.

So. 

Well that's the stereotype anyway. 

Kytherian cocktail. 

Yeah. If you know, you know. Alright, so Raising the Bar - where we story tell excellence in Queensland property. So I think you're pretty excellent. 

Thanks bro. I worked very hard. 

Guys, we're just gonna run through a few main questions with Kos, I want to start with maybe a 30 second elevator pitch about you.

Yep. Okay. Do it for yourself. Who are you now? Okay. Who am I now? I'm a father. Yes. I've got a little 2-year-old.

AJ. 

AJ. I am happily married. I'm now a partner of two offices, and, well, I do a lot of auctions. That's sort of my, , my bread and butter these days.

And, uh, I love real estate. I love cars. I love dealing with people. I think I'm a people person. That's me pretty much. 

When we've been together and we'll jump into this later. Yeah. You've been called the "Wishart killer" by people we don't know, by randoms in a shopping centre. Yeah. True story.

Yeah. 

Um, well look, the first thing I'd say, from a mechanic making what, $10 bucks an hour? Yep. Maybe even 

less. $250 a week, I think was my first year wage. 

Rock on when you were 17 or something? How old? I was 

20 years old. 20 years old. 20 years old. 

So from 10 bucks an hour to top real estate agent. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Let's just go down memory lane a little bit. Yep. Explain to me, I guess from then to now, I know it's a huge 

mm-hmm. 

time gap mm-hmm. But just maybe when you were a mechanic to getting into real estate, how did that happen? 

Yep, yep. I've actually got a pretty , uh, pretty amazing story of how I started.

So I was a mechanic, and I loved cars and I thought being a mechanic would increase my passion with cars, but obviously working long hours, miserable hours, getting paid a minimum wage, I kind of, it killed my passion being a mechanic. Did you say 

$250 bucks a week? 

$250 a week? A week? Yeah. Not, yeah.

So you're living a day, a week, you're 

living on mum and dad's, 

uh, living at mum and dad's, but barely even 

eat for $250. I 

was spending all my money every week on smoko. So I was working to, I was working to pay for my smoko lunches. Wow. Wow. Yeah, and I, I still remember to this day, and I tell everyone this story, I was driving, I was test driving a car.

I was qualified. I did my four years, I was test driving a car around West End. 

Yep. 

And I thought, man, I'm over the shit. I was driving a van. I'm like, I'm over the shit. I'm sick of working long hours. And I think it was winter and my, my hands were all bleeding from, you know, trying to fix cars and yeah.

Yeah. I thought, I've gotta do something else. I've gotta do something different. And my uncle was in real estate at the time who had done very well. 

Yep. 

And I thought, you know what, I'm gonna, I just popped into my head, I'm gonna leave being a mechanic and I'm gonna be a real estate agent. And I knew nothing about real estate.

And I drove the car up into the workshop, ripped the handbrake up, walked out and saw my boss and said, I'm leaving. I'm going to be a real estate agent. 

What off? No counsel, nothing. If you haven't spoken to your uncle. Nothing. Nothing. You hadn't thought about it? Nothing. Nothing. You're like, it wasn't like, oh, you should definitely go and do this Kos, no, nothing.

You just like, I'm gonna be an agent. 

Nothing. I knew nothing about it. Yeah. The only thing that I did slightly know was, we had a client who we used to fix a lot of his cars and he had Porsches, Ferraris, and you know, I love those types of cars. Don't we all. And don't we all, and. And I built a bit of a relationship with him, and I thought, oh man, he, he seems like he's doing really well, and he's a really nice guy, and he is a bit of a peoples person.

You know, I'm sick of working behind these bonnets, dealing with, you know, engines. I want to go and talk to people. I want to deal with people. So I thought, you know, I, I, I could see myself doing what he does. Yes. Even though I didn't know what the process of being a real estate agent was, so. Yeah, I remember it and I thought my boss was gonna gimme a bit of kickback and, 'cause he only just got me qualified.

Yeah. 

And he goes, no, get outta here. Go and do what you wanna do. Do what makes you happy. That's what, so that was a bit of backing. So it was, it was good. Yeah. And then I, I've gone into real estate 

and then obviously you're at LJ (Hooker). Mm-hmm. Is that where you started? No. So were you a different office first? I 

was at a different office.

Yep. I was there for about a month. And when I, when I went there, I didn't click with a lot of the guys there just because they were a lot older. Yeah. Okay. They were in a different point in their career. They were all like semi-retired. Yeah. It was a very small boutique brand. Yeah. I won't say the brand or, yeah.

Fair enough. Same. Fair. To be 

honest, I actually had no idea. I always thought you were an LJ. Yeah. Everyone thought I was at LJ 

Hooker so I was, I was there. I never sold anything while I was there. 'cause I was there for like a month, month and a half, whatever it was. And then. I did a little bit more research while I was there.

Like I need to be, I want to be a top performer. Yes. I need to be surrounded by top agents. A top office did a bit of research and saw that LJ Hooker, Sunnybank Hills at the time was the number one LJ Hooker office in the country and there was, you know, 80 staff. And I thought, wow, I need to maybe go and have a look at that office and delve a bit deeper because I can see there's more winners there.

Yeah. Okay. And I 

wanted to be a winner. 

Yeah. And I guess like attracts like, doesn't it? 

Mm-hmm. Like, exactly. 

We work with a lot of real estate agents at Empire Legal, obviously. Mm-hmm. And I've noticed that these, these killers, these top performing agents mm-hmm, they seem to, to bring other guys in that are also cut from the same cloth.

Yep. Correct. And I, and I wanted to, I didn't want to be the top performer there, like, you know, straight off the bat. Not that I wasn't going to be straight off the bat, but I could see that I didn't have to do that much business to be a top performer there. So I thought, I'm gonna get limited, and I'm gonna spend all this time and effort building a, a, a business there, and then I might end up moving.

So I thought, I, I need to make that plunge early on. 'cause to make that plunge later on when you established it's, it's very hard. It's like turning a big ship. It takes a lot more time and effort. Yeah. 

So did you then get put with like a mentor?

So, I went and approached the office. Yeah. Spoke to one of the guys there, who, who was my mentor.

Yep. Still is my mentor / business partner. And as soon as I walked in the doors, I go, I have to be here. This is incredible. 

Yep. 

And I did, pick a lot of brains there, like a lot of other agents that had done really well and still are there that do really well , and I felt comfortable there. Yep.

And I could see there was a process. How many have you been there? Uh, it's 10 years now. Just hit 10 years. So a decade. A decade. It feels like I've been there for 20 years. 

You maybe you've aged a little bit, man. You would've done probably the amount of hours of 20 years worth of work in 10 years. Yeah, yeah.

Correct. I thought it was ironic before when you said, I'm working all these hours as a mechanic. I mean, man, you probably do more hours 

now as a real estate agent. Not now, but when I started I was doing more hours. Definitely. Yeah. I was working seven days a week. 

Yeah. 

I was working like a dog from like 8am till 10pm.

I mean, I've never seen a guy's phone ring so much. 

Oh man. I just, like, even 

socially, we'd be out doing something on a, a weeknight or whatever, and then as your phone's going, I'm, man, what's, what's going on? 

It doesn't stop. My son has seen me so much answering the phone that he walks around pretend he's on the phone as well.

He's pretending. He's talking to someone he doesn't know who he's talking to. 

Future real estate agent. Yeah. Yeah. Um, alright, well next question then. I guess the whole reason of having you on for this particular episode mm-hmm, which I probably should have signposted at the start, is. Suburb expert. Yeah. Like the whole point of this show is storytelling excellence in property, right?

Mm-hmm. In real estate. 

Mm-hmm. 

For you, when I, when I thought about some guests that I wanted to get on the show, I know we've been talking about this for 

mm-hmm. 

man, over a year at least I've had this idea in my head to get this off the ground and thanks for being patient with me. 'cause we tried a few times, it just wasn't the right timing.

That's okay. And I, I think of a suburb or an area specialist and I just think of Kos Comino. 

Yep. 

I do, I think of you. 

Yeah. 

So I mean, did you choose to be a suburb specialist, or did you just evolve into one? Like was that ever in your plan? 

It, look, it was from the start. And as I started real estate, I would list a certain amount of properties in different areas, but I always wanted to be an area specialist, and I was trained to become one.

Yeah. 

But you know, earlier on in your career, you're, you're getting like whatever comes on your desk and whatever, if there's an opportunity in another is you are, you're taking what you can get. Oh 

man. Of 

course. Same with us, with the 

conveyancing, you know, sometimes we get stuff that's a tricky client,

Mm-hmm. Or something that's something we don't really maybe want to do. But in the early days, man, we'd take anything. Take anything. Yep. A new business where to survive. Yep. I would take 

on overpriced listings. I would take on listings where they weren't as committed. Just to, to, I guess, get experience.

But then as my career progressed, probably in my second to third year, and the third year is where I really started to increase my sales and my career changed dramatically, was when I started really not just a postcode. And and now I do a postcode and I sell and list anywhere, but yeah yeah yeah.

But it was a postcode and then it got to the point where it was a suburb and it wasn't even in a suburb. It became like certain streets. I honed in so much that I would pick 400 surrounding homes, and that, is that a 

small pocket? That'd be traditionally a small pocket, right? Small pocket, yeah.

And I 

chose the best pocket , the pocket that had the, you know, the prestigious properties, because I felt like if I got a few runs on the board with the prestigious properties, people would go, oh, did you see that expensive one? So they normally talk about the expensive one. 

Yeah. 

Yeah. So I, I was gonna fast track my process of becoming the top agent or being the agent that was talked about, the attraction agent, by listing those properties.

Attraction 

agent, that's a word you've said to me a few times. Yes. In the past, I guess. So that was part of the plan, right? Yes. And is that based off the mentorship that you received? Yes. Like, yep. Are we. Taking a stab - Peter Florentzos, right? Yep. We're talking about Flossy. Yep. So he's an attraction agent. Yep.

Yep. So basically how he ran his business from the start is how I've copied. Yep. I remember many years ago I went to AREC and I don't even remember who the agent was. It was an agent that sold along, I think it was New Farm, um, uh, not Tenerife, um, Norman Park along there and Oh, yeah. On Riverfront Properties.

Something, yeah. Riverfront Properties. Yeah. And this is 10, 11 years ago, she would pick, you know, she'd have her areas that she looked after. Same thing, like a postcode, but specifically not just a suburb, but types of, of properties, which was riverfront properties. Yeah, yeah. In this one little section of a suburb and got the recognition quite quickly.

So I, I copied that. So not only was it from my boss / business partner now, but also from other top agents. Focusing on an area and becoming an area expert, and then expanding and spreading. Like a disease, you're just spreading. And then, you know, it's, it's hard to then for other agents to get traction more as you're spreading and spreading and spreading and becoming bigger.

Well, it's funny you say that, you sold my house at Carindale. Mm-hmm. Probably what, just over two years ago now? Years ago. Yep. Yep. And I wanted you to do it. 

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 

And I knew you were Mr. Wishart. Mm-hmm. And I actually, I actually distinctly remember going, oh, I wonder if he will even do it because it's out of his area?

Mm-hmm. But 

I mean, we're talking a suburb, what, two suburbs away? 

Yep. Yep. 

And man, it was awesome. You were, obviously we were going down a different route, I wanted to auction my property. Yep. And that's probably a, a conversation for another day. I want to focus on suburb specialist here. Yep. 

Yep. 

And, um.

I guess you're not, you're not sandboxed to that environment, are you? Like you do still sell outside of the it's the 4122, is that Wishart? 4122? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Too many years in conveyancing, I know all the postcodes. 

But no, like, when you start off, you, you know, you, you are picking a certain pocket and area and like I said, you start to spread.

So, I know Alex Jordan is a, a perfect example of that. So many years in real estate. Had like 10 suburbs. He was writing $300,000 gross for years and years and years. And then he basically thought, no, I'm not going to dilute myself. I'm gonna hone into one specific area. Yes. And then, you know, dominated that area and then started to spread and writes what, 8, 9, 10 million now.

And now he's doing once again, you know, 5, 10, 15 suburbs. It's exactly what I did. So I, I took it right down to a small niche and then now expanded and now I'm doing all surrounding suburbs and, yeah. 

Yeah. Yeah. And I guess a bit of a different dynamic now as well with the Mount Gravatt office, you obviously like leading a team.

Yes. Coaching a team, bit a different dynamic from I guess being a practitioner to now being a leader. Yes. It's a whole different set of skills, isn't it? 

Uh, very different. Very different. Let's, it's all about you as being the lead agent and then, then being a, a business partner or having a team, you kind of, you want them to excel too, so you kind of gotta lift them up onto a platform and take a step back and it's hard when you're a control freak, you would know that, oh man, being good at what you do, they're totally different skills. Mm. When 

Abi and I started, we were just, you know, in a spare bedroom. We didn't even have an office and it was just the two of us. And I look now, seven years down the track and we got 20 staff, three offices.

Mm-hmm. 

Man, I had a little bit of leadership experience from Apple, but I was never a leader like I was a supervisor, you know, I had a group of guys that I would look after, but I always had like 2, 3, 4 guys above that that I could go to for counsel. 

Mm-hmm. 

And then all of a sudden it's just my business partner and I out in the big bad world.

Yep. 

, Abi's been doing conveyancing for a long time, she's amazing. She's probably the best conveyancer ever made. 

Yeah. 

But again, never led a team. Mm-hmm. So for us it was just these totally unknown skills. Yeah. You see it all the time with people in our world. Your world.

Yeah. They might be an absolute killer real estate agent. Mm-hmm. And then they decide to go and open an office and have a team. 

And 

they don't always succeed. 

No, they don't. I mean, 

I'm not gonna name any names, but I can think of some people with profiles that have gone and done it. And, you know what?

You look at it and you go, you know what? They actually just need to go back to selling. '

cause they're good at that because they're, they're, there's 

no one better doing that. Not everyone can lead. It's a whole different ballpark. 

Yeah. Because being, being a big agent, you've gotta be, once again, you're a control freak.

You're normally a bit more dominant. Alpha female, alpha male. And then running a team and, and being an owner, you've gotta then, like I said, take a step back. It's very hard to do. Very hard to do. 

Yeah. It's trust. It's trust and you've gotta have processes. Mm-hmm. And, you know mm-hmm.

Well that's, it's a whole nother rabbit hole. Yes. We could dive, dive into. Yeah. I've got something here that I've gotta read Kos, it says Kos, you're a Kytherian, meaning your family is from the island of Kythira, in Greece. Stereotypically, we are bullied by the other Greeks in our community saying we're tight-asses.

Would it be fair to say that you are a stereotypical Kytherian? Explain. 

I'm the opposite. I'm a spender. My wife is not Kytherian. I think maybe I've rubbed off on her. And she's be, she's playing the role of the Kytherian in the relationship. She's the, she's the tight one and I'm the spender. But look, shout out to Nina.

Yeah, shout out. She's your accountant as well. She, she's, she, she is my bookkeeper. Yeah. 

She keeps you, 

under control. Yeah. I think as I'm getting older and I've got a little one now, and I, I, we wanna have more kids and, and have a family and, I think now I'm starting to become a bit tighter and it's hilarious.

Like I'll spend all this money on bigger ticket items and then when it's like going to get batteries for my son's toy car, I'm getting the, the cheapest batteries. I'm like, that's the Kytherian in me taking control right now. Oh man. It's coming out slowly, slowly. I know the 

feeling all too well. By the way, guys, these aren't, um, Kos hasn't seen these little one one-liners I'm throwing out there.

I'm just pulling them out there. So, good job on that one, mate. I know you weren't expecting that. 

I've got a quick joke for you though. Oh, go on. Kytherian joke. how was the Grand Canyon created? 

Actually, I don't know this one. 

A Kytherian dropped a $1 coin down a rabbit hole. That rings true 

guys, that joke at the start, the Kytherian cocktail, um, the water, because it's free.

Alright, enough Greek jokes. Yeah, yeah. Back on track. Suburb specialist. Mm-hmm. I, I re, I recall a few years ago, I think just before you listed my house mm-hmm. You were talking about these pockets, say like, let's use Wishart as the example. Yep. You were selling in and it blew my mind. You said you'd look for things like, you know, mail overflowing in a letter box, yep. skip bins outs the front. Yep. Is this part of the recipe? 

Yes. When you're starting off, you'd look at any sign of a potential sale. You know, this is going into hunting mode as a, as a new real estate agent before you become the attraction agent. 

Well, that's huge, isn't it? I think that's where a lot of agents don't make it.

Mm-hmm. Because they don't want to do the hunting, the, the hard yards of the letterbox drops, the cold calls. Yep. That's the bit where the, the real guys push through (and girls) push through and become killer agents. Correct. That's where they all fall off. 

Correct. That's the non glorified part of the process of being a real estate agent, but that's gotta be 80% of the work.

And you know, any sign, like I was, I was relentless when I started on and looking at skip bins, door knocking, cold calling. If I heard of someone selling, I would wait at the front of their house till I got to meet them and build a relationship with them. So 

literally, so say you see a skip bin, you literally just get out of your car and just go knock on the door.

Go 

knock on the door. Find out. True. Track them down. Like I, I was, I became a freak with that. Like I would, I would wait, I would do whatever I can to get in front of them and then give them the quick pitch to organise to book an appointment. But any sign, skip bins, speaking to the neighbours, being immersed in that community, I would go and door knock at the start and it wouldn't be like, "Hey, do you want to sell?"

It would build a relationship with them, and then they would always, and where I got a lot of businesses, they would say is like, oh no, we're not selling, but we know around the corner. Or our neighbors are thinking of doing something. Yeah. And then I would pounce. And I got a lot of sales from that old school process from the start.

And letterbox drops, right? Yeah. I know that everyone would know your face in 4122. Mm-hmm. Because you just, you just drop letterbox drops, letterbox drops, letterbox drops. So then I guess when you do knock on their door, do you still go and do that? Do you still go and knock on doors?

I don't 

as much. Now it's, I don't, I don't door knock now, unless I've heard of someone selling and I don't have their details, then I'd go and introduce myself. Okay. As a soft approach and then go back to, to sit down and do the business with them if they're looking to do something. So I still do. Um, okay.

But it's a 

bit of a different dynamic now, isn't it? Because you are an attraction agent. Yep. I guess. Yep. They'll come to you. They know who you are. They've seen your name in the letter boxes, they've seen your stuff online. Like they know who Kos Comino is. 

Yeah. They see the sold signs. That's the most powerful.

You're trying to get as much data and as much potential sellers as you can by doing this process of honing in, and then once you've collected all the data and you know who's the potential sellers, you're managing them, and then you're growing it, and you're growing it, and you're growing it to a bigger scale.

Yeah. Okay. 



A lot of moving parts. 

Yeah. A a a lot, but, and as you get busier, then you stop doing that 80% of the work and it drops to 60, 40, 30. But the top agents are still doing 80% of the tough jobs, of the painstaking process of door knocking, calls Okay. On top of doing a lot of business.

You mean the, the reps of like, yeah. 

Yep, yep, yep. They're the guys that last the test of time. Yep, yep. 

And they're doing bigger volume, bigger business. 

Yep. I guess it depends what you want out of the job as well, Right? I mean, of course some people have, families have a bit of a lifestyle change. They don't want to sell 100 properties a year anymore.

Maybe they're happy to sell 50 properties a year. Yep, yep. I'd say the, the personality type, probably not so much. 'cause these guys that are killers, they don't wanna stop. Do they keep going? 

I've getting to the point where I want to slow down a little bit. But then it's hard. There's ones that I've walk away from a business that I walk away from now, but then, you know, I'll do it, I'll walk away from one and then I'll regret it after.

And then the next one that comes, I'm down. So I'm like, no, I'm not, I'm not walking away from that. So. I'm still in that vicious cycle where I wanna slow down, but I still want increase. I'm torn. 

I guess it's clarity on what you want. I mean, you've got a, a young family and you know, I'm sure you want to spend time with Nina and AJ.

Yeah. 

I can't wait to get home to see them and, and be with him. But it's different. 

Right. 

Like 

before AJ. When it was just you and Nina. 

Mm-hmm. 

Man, you'd just be working like crazy. Oh, I'm not saying you're not working like crazy now. Mm-hmm. But, it's different, right? Like you've got a, a, a different purpose.

A hundred percent. Yeah. When, when we got married in 2018, and I was already an attraction agent at that point in my career. 

Yep. 

I had enough business, I was doing well. I still wanted to increase, but we went on our honeymoon and came back and as soon as we came back, it was like 5:00 AM I went, got, got home, my suit straight to work.

It was a Saturday morning, straight to open homes. And then, what's jet lag? Yeah. Yeah. It doesn't exist when you, when you're Kos Comino. Didn't have time for jet lag and then I worked, I think it was 60 days straight. I didn't have a day off, 60 days. 60 days straight. No Sundays, nothing like, because I had that time off, I thought, okay, I feel guilty.

I've had that time off. I've gotta go and, you know, work harder. 

That's a curse man. I think it's all these high performers, they have it right. Of course. When you course have this, this guilt, I had this same issue actually, when I transitioned out of running the actual files for the conveyancing.

Mm-hmm. Because obviously, like in the early days, I would personally handle all your clients. 

Yep. Yep. 

Now, shout out to Nicole Currie from our office. I know Nic does the lion share of business from you guys. Yep. Man, I would have all this guilt if I wasn't sitting at my desk between 9 and 5.

Yeah. 

Now I've got a very different role in the business. You know, I'm, I'm a marketer, I'm a salesman, I'm a F grade bloody TikTok'er, I don't know what you want to call me, but, you know, I'm doing all this other stuff out of my comfort zone. Yes. But that's what the business needs right now. Of course.

But I wouldn't classify those tasks as "work". 

Mm-hmm. 

Even if I go to a meeting with a new real estate agent or a broker to try and drum up some business. Yeah. I'm like, oh, "that's not work". 

That's work. It took ages for me 

to realise you have to prep, you have to, I have to know the person. I'm not interviewing, but meeting. I have to understand where they sell, how much they sell, what motivates them, what's the pain point with that real estate agent, with the conveyancer that they're using.

Yep. 

That's research. That's a job, 

of course. But I would 

actually like almost poo-poo it and go, oh, that's not work. Work is sitting at the desk working. 

Mm-hmm. 

But now, years down the track, I realise that you can't do everything. 

What you were doing and what you, what you were doing and what you you're doing now, even more so is you're playing the long game.

Yeah. So many people in real estate, they wanna be heroes straight away, brokers, they wanna be heroes straight away. You have to play the long game and you have to do the painstaking parts of your job and if you're playing that long game, then you know you're going to get business later on.

You are setting that up for future business. 

It's funny you say that. I look back now we do a fixed fee structure, right? Mm-hmm. So we tell you what you're going to pay, and that's what you pay. 

Yep. 

We've stood true to that for, this is year 7 now. Mm-hmm. 

And 

I remember so many other people going, you've done 10 times the amount of work on that deal.

You need to charge more money. Mm-hmm. We're only as good as our word. 

Mm. 

And look, 9 out of 10 deals run smooth. But that one deal that doesn't run smooth, I've committed to you for this price and I'm gonna deliver. And I think that, that is where we hold onto that, and they tell their friends and family going, man, this deal went south.

They spent all this time on it, and he still only charged me what he said he would. Yep. That's the long 

game. Yep. I actually, same with you, right? A hundred percent. I actually had an old client come to my house last night and drop off some biscuits and I referred him to you because same thing. He bought a property from me, had a conveyancer.

That conveyancer, any little extra job that he had to do, that conveyancer would just stinging him, stinging him, stinging him. And it got to the point where he was like, this is outrageous. And I referred him to you. Oh, thank you. And you just gave him the fixed fee and said, look, I'm gonna bend over backwards.

You bent over backwards and he's a client for life now, so he's gonna be doing more deals in the future. A hundred percent. He's gonna get me. He's gonna get you. 

Well, man, I never understood like, okay, there's extensions or there's dramas. I know other mobs are saying, oh, that's an extra $165 bucks, that's an extra $110 bucks.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. 

I don't know how they hang their hat on the hook at night and sleep. 

Mm. 

Because if you tell someone a fee, that should be the fee. Yep. Yeah. I mean, look, not always the case. I do see instances where you do a lot more work and you don't charge more, but it all depends on what you, your goal is.

Mm-hmm. And for us, we wanna be the trusted choice. Mm-hmm. It's only one word for us, it's TRUST. 

Yep. Same thing. It's trust. That's it's trust from, we're not cheapest, 

we're not the most expensive. Yep. But you can trust us. Yep. You don't believe us? Google the competitors and Google us. Mm-hmm. And it's actually night and day.

Mm. 

Yeah. I, 

I run my business exactly the same. 

Well, man, I remember speaking of trust, I can only go off when you sold my house. Mm-hmm. That process you said: I've got the floor plan guy, I've got the stylist. Mm-hmm. I've got the auctioneer, I've got all these things. Right. 

Had all the tools.

Yeah. 

And you know, I'd say I'm a bit of a veteran in the property world. Mm-hmm. I live and breathe this stuff. Mm-hmm. I didn't question one thing. Mm-hmm. I just said, Kos I trust you. Yep. What do I need to do? And you're like, all my people will sort this out. 

Yep. 

And you did the right thing and you looked after me.

Yep. And you got me a bloody awesome price for the house. 

Yep. 

Yep. And I wasn't stressed about it. Mm. I'm not gonna sit there and ask, oh, how much is the stylist? And can I penny pinch and this and that, because I know you've already been through all those trials and tribulations to pick the right people for the job.

Correct. And you know what you're doing. 

Mm-hmm. 

You don't tell me how to be a property lawyer. No. No. I think it's rude. Just, I, I just trust you and 

I don't second guess it. If it's X amount, I'm happy because I know I'm getting someone that I can trust. That's it. We'll get the job done. Yep. Get the job done.

Yeah, a hundred percent. 

And who the hell am I to tell you how to be a top performing real estate 

agent? Mm mm 

We're Greek, we're pretty difficult to deal with, like my dad's involved and you know, there's all these other parties involved. It's classic. 

They're trying to protect you, but they are protect us.

They're, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But at 

the end of the day, mate, I engage you to do that job. Mm-hmm. Because I trust you. 

Yep. Yeah. Sorry. That's, and, and, and you only build trust by having the runs on the board, having crucial conversations that like I look, this is once another topic, but so many processes and doing it to perfection and not being, like a non-negotiable and doing everything to a high standard.

So important. So important. Anything? Anything. Oh, you have to do 

everything to a high standard. Yep. I was even saying, a little bit off topic, but I think it's super relevant. I've had some issues with tradies recently. 

Mm. 

Where man, people just aren't taking that pride in their work. Oh. Like, I know, I know.

With what we do and my team, they're bloody awesome. Like our team is excellent. They, they don't let poor work slip through. Mm. And we're all humans. Sometimes mistake happens. You get on the phone and you own it. 

Mm-hmm. 

You can fix 99 out of a hundred problems. Yeah. You just have to be honest and transparent.

Yeah. 

But I just can't believe, man, if it's from stuff with my car to stuff around the house. And, you know, I'm not here to bash tradies, but I've just had such a bad run of people just not taking pride in their workmanship. Yeah. 

I literally just got some electric gates installed and I'm happy, but at the same time, the job was a little bit sloppy.

And I thought if I was, if I was selling someone's property and I was sloppy, man, I would get eaten alive. But for some reason, trades get away with it. And I think if you want to make a lot of money today, be a tradesman and do everything to a high standard. You'll make so much money you'd kill it. I literally, you'd kill it.

Oh my God, 

man. I wanna open a mechanic shop. I reckon Be mad. You could make some mad money. Yeah. Because you know, it's just that level of service that's missing. Yes, correct. 

Correct. 

Uh, I've gotta ask you this now Kos. Yep. So, when we go camping, you always have the cheapest tent. A $20 popup from Kmart, a one use only.

Can you please explain? 

This is going back to certain things in my life I spend a lot of money on and the things that I skimp on. My wife just shakes her head. She's like, you spend so much money on that, but this is really important. I go and find, I researched the cheapest one. It worked. It only rained a little bit.

It only got wet a little bit. It was fine though. 

Yeah. Every time, brand new tent from Kmart, it's the best. Yeah. Man, look, I think we could chat for hours. I'm just conscious of time. I want to wrap this up. Yep. So, we are here to raise the bar. That's the whole point of this. Giving the listeners and the viewers a little bit more context, I truly believe that in my industry, in your industry, in property in general. Yep. There's a lot of cowboys. Yes. The government and REIQ are doing a lot to try and make that barrier to entry a little bit higher. Yep. But there's a lot of people that we work with every day mm-hmm. That just aren't doing that, that five star service job.

Yep. Yep. And, and my goal, our goal at Empire is to raise that awareness of people that are doing a good job and those nuggets and those lessons. 

Yep. 

So I'm putting you on the spot. Mm-hmm. But what would be a golden nugget, and you can have a few seconds to think. Just to put out to the listeners about Kos Comino,

Suburb specialist. From $10 an hour mechanic, to top performing agent. What would you want to just tell to anyone that might be listening to this, whether they're an agent mm-hmm, or just anyone in property. 

If it's someone that's wanting to get into real estate or someone that's studying at the mument and maybe want to change on what they're studying and maybe get into law or something like that, I think that in life you have to, first of all, to become good at something, and excel in it. You have to enjoy it and have, be passionate about it. I was passionate about cars, but then I wasn't, and I became passionate about real estate. And because I'm passionate about real estate, I enjoy it and I want to get better and improve.

So I think first of all, you need to be passionate. Yes. Once you're passionate about, could be real estate, could be anything. The second thing is getting a good mentor. Like I could have, and I still think about this today, I could have stayed where I was at that other office. 

Yep. 

Earning 30 grand a year as a mechanic, maybe at that other office.

Doubling my income, tripling my income, making a hundred, 150 grand a year thinking that I had made it and I, and staying there. 

Yeah. 

And not realising that that is not on, you know, not good enough. Yes. So by me moving and getting into a good office and being mentored by someone. That has really, um, changed.

It's changed my life, and I think for anyone else who was me 10 years ago, and wants to change their life or get into real estate or get into something that they're passionate about, they need to have a good mentor, that can teach you the right thing, because like you said, in our game, there's cowboys everywhere and it's very easy to be unethical.

Yeah. Like I've been offered, especially in real estate, it's a bit harder, especially 

in law. They'll catch you if you're correct. If you're a lawyer, you, you still can. You still can. But in real 

estate it's very, very easy. I've been offered bribes on the side. Really? Yes. I won't go into the story, but one specific listing I was, yeah.

And I, I stayed true to myself. You know, I've, I've been brought up the right way for my belief from my parents to do the right thing. And that one deal could have destroyed now, the next 10 years of, of hard work. So I think, yeah, your 

career. Career, your livelihood, your reputation. Yeah. Reput trust. You'd have no trust.

No trust. If you're the guy taking bribes on the side, there's no trust there. Game over. Yes. If that come, if that leaks. 

Yep. I know other, I know personally I'm not gonna say names as well, but big agents who have taken bribes and now are not big agents anymore. Mm. Because you know, the marketplace hears about that.

Yeah. And the trust is gone. So, being passionate about what you do and then having a mentor, and just doing the right thing. 

Well, just before we close this out, let's jump into the mentor thing a bit more. Mm-hmm. 'cause I reckon that's severely underrated. Yes. Everyone should have a mentor. Mm-hmm.

Doesn't matter what level you're at, there's always someone, there's always a bigger dog, I like to say. Yeah, yeah, of course. And you can learn. You took on an associate a few years ago Yep. Who is a good friend of mine. And when I saw you had a job ad I called my friend.

Mm-hmm. And I said, man. This guy, this Kos guy is a killer. You need to go and work with him. Mm-hmm. And it's the great circle of life. Right. Of course. You used to talk about Peter that was mentoring you and you are mentoring people in the industry. Yep, yep, yep. So, and, and I thought that has to be Kos, like this, and this is my friend, like, I want my friend to do well.

Mm-hmm. I paired him up with you. Mm-hmm. And man, learned awesome lessons. Yep. He got to work with you. 

Well, going back, back in the day when I started, we, we weren't, sales associates, we'd get in, get a desk and go, go do real estate, and the turnover rate was astronomical. I think in that first year we had 18 agents that started, oh, sorry.

My first year, 18 agents that started and uh, 16 of them left. Two stayed and, and two made it - myself and one other agent. Not even 10%. Yeah, not even 10%. So, you know, the, the turnover is extremely high, but as we've found now, getting young guys coming in and mentoring them, the, that percentage now was, we've probably had, I'd say, uh, 10

in the last 12 months, and from the 10, we've probably had 6 that have stayed and done well. 

Night and day. 

So night, night and day. Yeah. 

The retention rate's a lot higher. 

A lot higher. So, what, because 

they're feeling valued, they're learning. They've got a path. 

They've gotten a bit more purpose as in, they've got a process with the bigger agent and they've got a purpose where they're following that agent.

Whereas going out on your own straightaway, you dont know what you're doing. You're making mistakes and you're not getting as many runs on the board. Like being a sales associate with a big agent, you're getting lots of runs on the board. 'cause that big agent's yes, selling a lot. So you are a part of that process.

So you are, you are busy and you're learning at a rapid pace. But I think that's so important. If I, I'm telling you right now, if I didn't move office or have a mentor, I would not be in the position I am today. I, I say this to my wife all the time, I said. You know , financially we're, we're doing all right , but, I probably wouldn't own a property. I'd probably be renting and I'd probably never own a property. So now I own multiple properties because of that, yeah mentorship and guidance and being in the right place. Full stop. 

You can pay for your smoko. 

I can pay for my smoko. 

Thanks guys. Kos Comino.

Thanks for tuning in. 

Thanks Georgie.