Beagl’s Operations Manager Emma Francis reflects on three years of growth, navigating market changes and building a resilient buyer’s agency focused on better outcomes.
Three years ago, Beagl was three people, a big idea and a belief that buyers deserved better representation.
Today, we’re a team of 12.
But for me, the most interesting part of that story isn’t how quickly we’ve grown. It’s what we’ve built underneath that growth, and what happens when the market suddenly tests it.
As Operations Manager at Beagl, my role has largely been behind the scenes. I manage and support our team, develop the systems and procedures that keep the wheels turning, oversee compliance and best practice across the business, and help make sure every deal and every client receives the standard of service we expect.
I've had a front-row seat to Beagl growing from our original team of three into a genuinely diverse operation, including eight Buyer’s Agents, our directors and licensee, BDM, CTO, CFO, marketing and HR support.
And importantly, it has been organic growth.
We haven't wanted to build the biggest buyer’s agency. We've wanted to build a great one.
Then May 2026 happened.
We came into this year with significant momentum.
Our numbers were strong. Our team was growing. We invested significantly in a new office and fit-out to give that growing team a proper home. We hired based on the business we were doing and what the numbers were telling us was ahead.
Then, as real estate has a habit of doing, conditions changed, almost overnight.
The Federal Budget significantly impacted a major segment of the buyer market: residential property investors. Add successive interest rate rises, global fuel and economic uncertainty, war and an ongoing cost-of-living crisis, and suddenly buyer sentiment in WA looked very different.
For a small business in an emerging industry, these are very real risks.
You can plan. You can forecast. You can build systems and budgets and projections.
But you can't control the market.
What you can control is the business you've built to withstand it.
And I think that's where the last few months have made me particularly proud of Beagl.
A good market can make everyone look good.
When property is moving quickly, buyers are everywhere and confidence is high, there is plenty of opportunity to go around.
A slowdown is different.
It exposes whether a business has genuine relationships. Whether its people can adapt. Whether its systems work. Whether its service actually provides value, or whether it was simply riding the wave.
For us, the fundamentals haven't changed.
Our relationships with selling agents, mortgage brokers and advisors are still incredibly valuable. Our team is still on the ground every day. We're still sourcing opportunities that never make it to the major portals. We're still analysing properties, conducting due diligence, negotiating hard and advising clients when not to buy.
And our diversity has become one of our greatest strengths.
We're not reliant on one type of buyer or one part of the market. We work across residential, commercial, owner-occupier, investment and SMSF purchases. We work with first-home buyers through to experienced investors and business owners.
That breadth matters when conditions change.
We're still growing.
Since the Budget, we appointed our eighth Buyer’s Agent, Emma Oliver.
Emma hit the ground running, two new clients and two deals done by her second week.
For me, that says a lot.
Not because growth for growth's sake is the goal. It isn't.
But because even in a more challenging environment, good people, strong relationships and a valuable service still create opportunity.
And I genuinely believe professional buyer representation is only going to become more important as the market matures.
The fundamentals of what we do haven't changed.
Buying property is one of the largest financial decisions most people will ever make. Yet traditionally, the professional on the other side of the negotiation is being paid to represent the seller.
Having an experienced professional exclusively in your corner, assessing value, identifying risk, accessing opportunities, negotiating terms and sometimes telling you to walk away, just makes sense.
Arguably, it matters more when the market becomes harder to read.
So, where to from here?
We have big plans.
For our team, for Beagl and for buyer representation more broadly.
But after three years, I'm probably less interested in talking about how big we can become and more interested in how good we can become.
Better systems. Better training. Better information. Better relationships. Better processes. Better outcomes for our clients.
Because growth is exciting, but sustainable growth is something different.
You don't really know how strong a business is when everything is going its way. You find out when the market changes, and you keep moving forward anyway.
I'm incredibly excited to see where the rest of 2026 takes us.
There will undoubtedly be more changes, challenges and opportunities along the way. That's real estate.
But the goal remains exactly the same as it was when Beagl was just three people:
To represent buyers properly, help more people secure homes they love, help our clients create financial security through property, and build a business and a team we're genuinely proud of.
We've come a long way in three years.
And it still feels like we're only getting started.
Emma Francis Operations Manager Beagl Buyer’s Agency