We Are Selling with Lee Woodward

How Glen Coutinho Retooled His Business for Global Success

• Realtair • Episode 43

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We discuss restarting a real estate career in a new country, building relationships, and succeeding through people-first practices.

• Glen shares his move from Melbourne to Beverly Hills, restarting without a database, reputation, or local market knowledge
• highlights how relationship-building, daily prospecting, and genuine human connection remain universal success drivers
• explains differences in the US market, including higher commission structures, dual agency, and agent-paid advertising
• outlines how auctions are reshaping the US market by creating urgency, certainty, and faster sales outcomes
• emphasizes the importance of personal branding, especially through social media, in competitive markets like LA
• reinforces that listing focus, disciplined follow-up, and consistent communication outperform tech alone
• shows how small gestures, personal care, and remembering details build powerful referral networks
• stresses the need to return to basics when entering a new market—prospecting, learning fast, and staying humble

A powerful reminder that regardless of location, success in real estate comes from human connection, consistent effort, and mastering the fundamentals while adapting to local market systems.





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Lee Woodward:

Hello and welcome to the podcast we are selling. My name's Lee Woodward of Realtair. Realtair is the one platform of choice of real estate professionals allowing you to pitch, sign, and sell real estate. One of our famous agents from Melbourne is Mr. Glen Coutinho. And if you keep up with what's going on on Facebook, you would see he's transitioned. He's in a brand new country. And doing a reset restart in another country where nobody knows you, you don't have all those leads and wonderful return business would terrify anyone moving over there. But he joins us today, Mr. Glen Coutinho. Welcome to the program.

Glen Coutinho:

Hey champ, thanks very much for talking to me.

Lee Woodward:

Congratulations on the new book. What is the new book?

Glen Coutinho:

Uh it's actually called The People Lover.

Lee Woodward:

Tell us about the People Lover.

Glen Coutinho:

I just signed a publishing deal with a big American company called Balboa Press, which is going to go out through America, Australia, and Montreal at the moment. Yeah, it's really a book on real estate, how to be a great agent, fatherhood, how to be a good person, you know, just motivation, bringing up your children, and giving them the right skills in life. That's really what it's about. And uh, you know, if you if you want to take yourself to the next level in real estate, it'll it'll guide you right through it from start to finish. Very simple.

Lee Woodward:

Well, Glen, let's tap into that topic because that was my fascination of getting you back on the program. Your career in Melbourne was massive, very well known. You appeared on everything, everyone knew who you were. Our listener that missed that audio may not know, but your children are in the music industry, and that was really the catalyst for the move over to the States.

Glen Coutinho:

Eventually I ended up with children that came to me and said, We don't want to be in real estate, Dad, your business up. We've got to be a music. So I think uh they decided they wanted to be in uh rock stars and had a talent for music, so Simone and I reluctantly, you know, sold out of the business and house and cars and walked out of a pretty profitable, friendly, easy business in Melbourne, moved into Beverly Hills and basically started again. Which would be you would say that's madness on the back of a twelve-year-old boy.

Lee Woodward:

But anyway, we uh And the music industry is a tough gig. Like getting the boys cracked over there without the contacts, prospecting for houses or prospecting to try and break in the music industry, they're as hard as each other.

Glen Coutinho:

It's really hard. And look, I think the thing is that the same in the music industry, which the boys have been taught by me, nothing I give them no musical skills, but they have taught how to prospect and hunt and follow up. So, you know, they do what I do. They get out, they dress up, they meet people, they shake hands, they send chocolates and flowers, you know, they like follow-up letters. They do exactly the same thing in the music industry as I do in real estate. You know, we hunt all day and then we spoil people everywhere we go. And that's what I've done since I've got here for probably five months. I decided to walk to work, um, not drive. And so I walk to work every morning, all suited up, stop in an every cafe, restaurant, lawyer's office, banker's office, hairdresser, shake hands, kiss babies. I'm the only agent in town in a suit and tie with a badge on. So anyway, that's a start.

Lee Woodward:

But let's get to this way real estate sold. There is a significant difference between the American selling system and Australian selling system. What have you learnt most and what have you had to do to adapt?

Glen Coutinho:

Well, a couple of things that I have learned, taking a little while to get my head around it, but really the fees are great. So the fees here are six percent, between five and a half and six percent, there is no fee discounting here. And you represent both sides. So I'll represent the seller at three percent and the buyer at three percent. So the difference here is the agents don't necessarily work for the vendor, they work for themselves because they're getting paid by both parties. That's in that's an interesting thing. We offer three percent to every other agent, so we knew this the house, every agent in LA will come through. So you have to have great relationships with your competitors, which I've always done anyway. We built our business pretty fast. When I took over the Harcourt's Beverly Hills business, which I bought in January, we had two brokers, we now have 42. So we've gone from a staff of zero to virtually 42 in six months. Wow.

Lee Woodward:

And what was their attraction of joining Glen Coutinho from Melbourne in LA with our New Zealand brand?

Glen Coutinho:

The attraction is that I think that I've just been out doing what I do, which is you know, I meet somebody, I get on well with them, I spend a bunch of cows, and you know, I make really great connections with people. I make sure I know their kids' names, their wives' names, all those little things that make a big difference. And all the people that have joined me have all been all coming now by recommendation. So, you know, it's um word of mouth, we've got six branded hardcots cars, all staff drive them around, little minikeepers with hardcodes on the side. We've got 42 people walking around Beverly Hands in blue, in blue suits and ties with you know the blue scarves or the blue ties. We're the only branded agent in Beverly Hills.

Lee Woodward:

How did the American consumer take to Glen Coutinho, the auctioneering suited-up agent? Did they find it different? Breath of fresh air, because it's very different to what the American market typically is.

Glen Coutinho:

I'd like to say it was a breath of fresh air, but I have had to tone myself down just to touch in Beverly Hills just to make sure that I didn't trample on anyone's footsteps just to get started. I just thought, you know, I'll just do it under the radar for the minute and just see if I could build my brand. You know, I'm building my own personal brand, and so I had to be a little bit more conservative. But, you know, we sent, you know, Thanksgiving just came up here and I think we sent out only ten chocolate towers to our ten best lawyers and bankers and clients in the area. They didn't receive anything from other agents that they'd made here for 20 years. So those little things make such a difference, and I've had referrals from people that I've bought their pets a gift or their children a gift, just little which I I've never done for business. I do it because I like people anyway, right? And and it just comes back to me now. Like I've built a referral network already, and you know, our office has got uh we've got fifteen or sixteen listings running, we've got two options for ten million each. The fees on those are substantial at five percent. So we're building something which is good, and I would suggest by June next year we'll I should have a hundred sales people working under my brand.

Lee Woodward:

Absolutely phenomenal.

Glen Coutinho:

But the boys are out doing music and they've released their first single, second single now in USA, big video just came out, so they're on their way to doing what they want to do, and I'll keep selling houses.

Lee Woodward:

So, Glenn, in this adapting to the different environment, would you say and let's take something as classic as the listing presentation, what modified in that? What messages or signals do you get across to win business with a consumer who's definitely got to be thinking international because you're not from the local community, uh LA's wide anyway, but what have you had to do to win business?

Glen Coutinho:

Well, to win business, I first we have to make it look like I look like I'm better than the other age. So dress better, turn up on time, well that's a win. The second thing is that nobody here in all of LA does pre-state hits which I deliver in 30 minutes, and nobody here does a follow-up letter, which I believe straight up with. So really, nothing different than what I did in Melbourne. And to be honest, the Melbourne market, for me, it's 10 years, 15 years ahead of what they do here. Phone calls, follow-up, nice to meet you texts, client birthdays, nobody does that here. So, you know. I was getting you know, in Melbourne, there's a lot of people doing that because maybe I trained them all as a lot of, but here it's like I'm I'm famous again. It's interesting. No one does that.

Lee Woodward:

It's interesting you say that. I just got back from the UK and that was my learn as well. It was like, wow, this is 1985 compared to the effort that's going into an Australian real estate practice business, the standards, the competition, the level.

Glen Coutinho:

Well, yeah, and and the thing is that um you know, the way the market is here, there's so much opportunity here that they make an income and build a brand. And you know, like, you know, sending out things to customers is totally unheard of. Like keeping in touch with the client for a long period of time, it's pretty rare. Like in Melbourne, there's lots of us that do it. But here there's very, very few that do it. So when I came here, I thought, Jews, I'm gonna be miles behind the top agents in town. I realize I'm not.

Lee Woodward:

How powerful. So, Glenn, in this broker model where you know all the agents have got access to your properties and you're good with that, you're a collaborator. It's probably one of the downfalls of the Australian industries we don't collaborate. With the fees being at that level, how does that affect the VPA, the value performance advertising as we call it now?

Glen Coutinho:

No, it's different because the agents pay. So if I list your house leave for two million dollars, as an agent, I would pay. Well, the agents here pay the advertising money up front for every listing. Having said that, I didn't know that. So when I listed my first two properties, I actually got advertising money because I didn't know that nobody else did it. So you can get it, but nobody asks for it.

Lee Woodward:

Right. And and as a fine with that, it's just been the way it's always been done.

Glen Coutinho:

Yeah. Yeah, I don't know any better, so at least you know the better sometimes. But um it's not, you know, it's a lucrative market, there's plenty of opportunity here, you have to get out and ask. So I haven't done much different except for you know making my calls every day. I don't go to the office, I go and sit in cafes and dress up and make friends with people and hopefully sell their houses. I mean, that's that's the game. It's actually no different. And it's you have to just reinvent yourself. What's my sales pitch? You know, I've been in real estate 35 years, nobody asks me if I've been here or not, so they don't ask me, I just say, okay, international company, that's great. If I don't ask, I don't bring it up. But generally, if I go into a listing and I've had a pre-listing kit, follow-up text, pre-listing email, I turn up on time and I'm in a suit, I've probably got the job if I get there.

Lee Woodward:

Glenn, tell me the buyer side of it. Was that different? How does that feel working in a different country, working with buyer management? What's the difference?

Glen Coutinho:

Not really. There's a lot of agents in LA that don't list, they just look after buyers and they drive people around all day and make an occasional sale. I don't do that, I don't even touch that, none of my staff do. We just focus on one thing for sure: if you own the listing, you make money in real estate. So we just focus on getting listings, we completely drop the buyer's side and we focus on the listings because if you've got the listings, the buyers come to you and you get paid both sides. So the list that always wins, same in Melbourne, same here. The difference is here, when the lister lists a property and the buyer comes to the open conspection, in most cases unrepresented, uh, then you can represent both sides and take your six percent. So get the listings and you're gonna make money.

Lee Woodward:

And in that buyer management side, is it the same sort of ratio for buyer-sellers, for the people you're meeting, you're locking them in the database? Is that different or the same?

Glen Coutinho:

Exactly the same. Nobody does it here, but it's the same. And look, the good thing about hard courts is which I think is a great feature for hard courts in the States, is we have 40 offices here, so I've just got the Beverly Hills one, but we do auctions here. I think last year we did 1,100 auctions in California, sold a thousand of them. There's not another company here that's done non-distressed options. We're the only one that has a really great system in place for it. So it's not like the guys down the road do the auction, nobody does it. So it's you know, we are miles ahead of that game here.

Lee Woodward:

Why is the American agent never taken to the auction system?

Glen Coutinho:

Uh I just think because it's in in the American system, it's considered a distressed auction when you broke and everyone's selling up on you. So they're really worried about that system. But now that we're doing it, it's starting to open doors and people are coming to us like in flocks saying, hey, you guys can auction and sell in the house in four weeks. Wow, the other agent took four months. And there's no legislation around quote pricing here. So bidding starts from one million when you're chasing one and a half or one point six, that's fine. And it brings a crowd to your house fast.

Lee Woodward:

And that was my next question. Are you auctioning on the streets, in rooms? What are you doing?

Glen Coutinho:

No, in rooms. We do everything in rooms because in LA you just couldn't make a I couldn't get from one house to another in thirty minutes. Impossible, you know, with the traffic. So everyone options here in rooms. You know, we get a crowd and they get a bid online and all those sort of things. Because the difference here is when you sell a house normally, after it's sold, the buyer's got 30 days to renegotiate the price or get out of the contract with no penalty. You know, they find termes or they find a problem with the house. They come back to you and say in the first week, oh look, I bought it for million, but I found termite, so let's make it 950. And so they have that escrow period where they can haggle again. With an option system, it's done, out, no change. So people really flock to that as a because you know, you can get sell a house and 30 days later buy this as well, I don't want to set all them out, and they lose nothing. Not with the option system here, but the auction system that we set up, there is no way out, it's a water-type contract. So, you know, people are coming to us and going, hey, you know, this where's this system been? Where why why is nobody doing it? So Harcourt's have you know launched it a decade ago and it's really taken off now.

Lee Woodward:

So, Glenn, what's been your biggest learns that you would share with our listener that could bring into their own real estate world, regardless of where you sell real estate in the world? And the more I speak to people like yourself who go from one level in Australia and then go to another country, it there is so much the same. Yep, laws you've got to learn, some adaptations, but as you've experienced there in LA, you've brought a whole better version of real estate to them versus, well, that's the way it's always been done here. But what's been your learning?

Glen Coutinho:

Well, for me, I think understanding where you're at in your own cycle. So, you know, I came here, and obviously when you come to LA and everyone in hard court's new me anyway, you can come overrated, you know what I mean? I know it's like a football player with their overrated. I walk in, you think, wow, this guy's queueing, you know, stuff, but I have to really go back to basics, right? And that is what I have to think. Shit, I've got to go back to what I did when I was started in real estate in 1985. I have to go back to pounding the pavement because I come here with a huge reputation, and I actually don't know what I'm doing. I couldn't tell you land per square foot, I couldn't tell you one street from the other. Do you know what I mean? So I really have to step up fast and learn my game. And once you understand that, you don't get ahead of yourself. Because if you get ahead of yourself in real estate, you're done. Before you start, you're done because you're over overconfident in what you do.

Lee Woodward:

And Glenn, was that a confronting time of what if it doesn't go the way I I think? And I'm, you know, the older we get, the better we remember ourselves. Did that go through your mind?

Glen Coutinho:

Uh a little bit. I mean, you know, I'm a realist about it. I mean, uh, you know, one thing I was with I I think I might be the mind in my own business is I'm great with people. I just love people, getting to know them, getting to know their life story, nobody ever asks, you know. So that that I didn't need any coaching on. And then learning the house. You know, a lot of people don't give me the house and they say, Well, you're not from town. I said, Yeah, I understand that. But you know what, you're the most efficient agent we've ever met. We want you to handle our house. We get, but we're okay, Glenn. We understand you don't even know where the beach is, but we still want you to handle our house.

Lee Woodward:

You know, hence your book, The People Lover. The one thing you've got confidence in is your ability to communicate. But you're not afraid of people, and I think some people hide behind tech, and tech and technique are two different things.

Glen Coutinho:

Look, there's a bloke at the end of the street here that I stop and take a good morning to every day, and I bring him a coffee every couple of days, and he uh his name's James, and he stands outside a jewelry stop. He said to me the other day, and he he's already recommended me to some people, but he said to me the other day, he said, You're the first person I stood here for ten years, you're the first person that asked me my name. And I bring him a coffee every couple of days. He said, No one's actually ever stopped and talked to me. Do you realise, Glenn, that I run one of the biggest jewelry shops in Beverly Hills for the owner, privately? I'm always going to recommend you. I'm the first person to stop and talk to him. Can you believe that? How crazy is that?

Lee Woodward:

Well, it's a great lesson that the world's become a bit cold. That never goes away. That human connection, the power of human connection, is the greatest action that you've got.

Glen Coutinho:

I mean, to be honest, I'd never have and I never will. I just don't like houses anyway. I'm not about houses and probably, you know, I like people. That's what's made my business we're not going away, so we're here to stay.

Lee Woodward:

So, Glenn, as a leader, what's on your focus list moving forward? What gets you up early in the morning to think about uh what you're doing next?

Glen Coutinho:

Well, we want to build our sales business to 100 salespeople, that's first. The second thing is I'm trying to be more famous than much of them. I can't. They're beating me famous, so I've really got to pull my finger out and move fast.

Lee Woodward:

Love it, love it. Final questions for you, Glenn. Your communications plan on the street, you've done massive on social. I see you everywhere, hence you're on this program. What's your focus in communications now? What are you social's been huge for you. What else is working?

Glen Coutinho:

In LA, unless you're big on social media, you get cleaned up. So people always check your Instagram number one before they employ you in LA, right? It's just a town. So I had to work that out fast. So now I've built I I make sure that I've worked my Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook every morning, ten minutes and done without uh one post. And it builds your brand. And I think my social media has gone from you know 10,000 to nearly a hundred thousand people in LA already fast. So that's built a strong following, and so I can put my name in front of a hundred thousand people in a second. And um, so I've made sure the social media is important, I make sure I always walk around with a hardcourts bag, a hardcourts car, hardcore's tie, and just hustle all day.

Lee Woodward:

Well, you're definitely engaging, and it's been great to watch it from this side of the world. I know when you were going over there because we did that interview prior, and it was like, okay, this will be interesting to watch, but sure enough, the people lover cuts through as he does, and I love that that face-to-face, eyeball to eyeball, human connection is still your most powerful tool. Glen Coutinho, we wish you all the best with the book, and your incredible real estate career continues. And thank you for joining us on the Real Estate Hot Topics program. Okay, mate. Thanks, buddy. Appreciate you. Thank you, Glen. And that concludes another edition of We Are Selling. Just two weeks ago, our CEO, Peter Matthews, was over in LA, had the opportunity to catch up with Glen and share with him what we have done with the platform of pitch, sign and sell. As we listen to Glen's story, I just can't help thinking how powerful timed options and timed sales could be within that country, within that situation. So watch this space. I'm Lee Woodward. Thank you for joining us, and thank you for choosing wheelchair. We'll see you next week on the podcast We Are Selling.