S2 Ep 6 THE AGENT WHO UNDERSTANDS THE MIND - Meet KRISTAN JOHNSON

Behind every property transaction is a negotiation —but more importantly, a state of mind.

In this episode of Meet The Agent, we explore the psychological layer of real estate — the part that isn’t listed on a brochure, but quietly determines outcomes.

Because buyers don’t just evaluate property. They manage uncertainty, fear, identity, timing, pressure — and often, internal conflict.

And when those emotions escalate, deals don’t just stall — they fracture.

Kristan Johnson is an agent who understands that the role is not just to sell property, but to read the room — to recognise when a buyer is overwhelmed, when tension is rising, and when the smartest move is not to push forward… but to de-escalate.

This conversation explores:

• The subtle arts of empathy, de-pressurising and de-escalating in high-stakes negotiations
• Why creating emotional safety can be more powerful than creating urgency
• And how the best agents don’t just close deals — they stabilise them

Because in today’s market,  the advantage doesn’t always go to the most aggressive operator — but to the one who understands people.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Becoming upstarts. Becoming upstarts.

SPEAKER_03 0:05

First home buyers are in the news, and it must be a very scary process trying to buy a house. So today we have an exciting guest who has a very interesting background who's going to talk to us all about the psychology of buying, how to de-escalate, negotiate, using those smart skills to get a better deal. Welcome to Meet the Agent Podcast. I'm Wendy Clare of Jiu Jesus Interiors. Today, meet Kristen Johnson of Johnson Property Co. Welcome, Kristen. Thank you for joining us.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Wendy, thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_03 0:46

Let's dive in. How would you introduce yourself? Tell us who is Kristen.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

I I think I'd probably introduce myself as a relatively down-to-earth, likable guy that wants to really help people. That ultimately my my core philosophy is just helping people to buy property well.

SPEAKER_03 1:10

Oh, that's nice. That's simple, right? And that's really what it comes down to, huh? Just helping people. I love that. So I'm going to try to dig in a little bit deeper then. What do you what do you love doing then when you're not helping people buy a property?

SPEAKER_00 1:29

As you know, real estate is kind of 24-7. So there isn't much downtime, but when I don't have tons of hobbies, I just want to spend time with my family. For me, when I'm not at work, I just want to, I've got a an eight-month-old and I've got a three and a half-year-old, actually nine months old now, and a three and a half-year-old. I just want to I want to spend time with them. And that might be just hanging out watching a movie or going to the park and just running around. So yeah, really just family when I'm not in the grind of of real estate. That's nice. I think I think I find that I love what I do. Like I really love what I do for work. So I don't need to have tons of other hobbies because I'm kind of doing the cliche thing of living my passion.

SPEAKER_03 2:12

That's very good. So, you know, we have a favorite question. What music star or song would most fit your style or personality or vibe?

SPEAKER_00 2:25

So there's a song that my wife and I have that has been a running, I don't know if it's a joke, but it's a running theme since we met. And it's 50 Cent Candy Shop.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

Rock up in the soup, half fade, fresh jawline, clipboard contracts, master and borderline. You're looking for a place, I'm looking for your budget.

SPEAKER_02 2:44

You show me your approvals, I show you where to touch it. Action on a Saturday, I'm whispering your limit. You say you wanna win it, I say you gotta spin it. You like my little brochure, I like your little stance. You suckle the inspection, I suckle you in rep and dance. Take it to the off market, baby. Have a little talk. I show you what it's really for. You say you wanna buy it. I can catch you so much more. Let me be your buyer's sake, I'll secure the candy store.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

It's a song that we were joking about walking down the aisle to. It's a song that whenever we are asked to request a song, it's the song that we are always putting. So that'd have to be a 50 second candy shop.

SPEAKER_03 3:25

Yeah, it's it's a fun song. It's a bit of a banger, isn't it? I've got good memories of that song. So what is it about that thing?

SPEAKER_00 3:33

The themes are probably um, something quicker, less uh appropriate as I get older, and I've got to do it. But it's just it's such a fun song, and it's got a really a good thumping beat throughout, and it's just yeah, it's just been fun.

SPEAKER_03 3:48

Right, okay, cool. So do you feel like that's a little bit of your vibe with clients as well, that you kind of like to just you know make it a little bit of fun too, if there's some parallel there, or am I am I reading too much into that?

SPEAKER_00 4:06

I'm a bit of a chameleon when it comes to clients. Every client is so different. Some clients we have, I feel like they're my best mate, and we're constantly in a level in a level of banter and we're we're making jokes. Other clients just are so nervous or are so analytical, they just need someone who can be that Sherpa through the journey. So, really, for us, it's not about yes, yes, I have a personality, but it's about really trying to mold that to make sure that the client gets the the care and the the attention that they need throughout that journey. So it's it's less about me being me in, it's more about adapting to to the client and making sure they feel really listened to and cared that cared for throughout.

SPEAKER_03 4:52

Right. That's interesting. So it's more about them being them and you kind of getting them and really working with their kind of style and vibe. That's interesting. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

Yeah, I think clients, clients come to us because they're they need help and they're there's we we as buyers agents have a real toolkit of things that we can help them with. But most of the time, especially with first-time buyers and people that are that are relatively new to buying, they need someone who can say, listen, I understand. And and that might be that they need me to be more friendly and jokey, or they might need me to be more analytical. And I'll just really lean into what helps them feel like their journey is is and that path to buying is as smooth as possible.

SPEAKER_03 5:40

Yeah, wow. So, where did you get these these skills? I mean, that's very empathetic, which I I really like. And I'm I'm curious to know like, can you tell us a little bit about what led you into real estate as a buyer's agent? What's your background and how have you got to this place and this spot where you're you're really helping people in that way?

SPEAKER_00 6:04

Yeah, great question. So I don't think I took the traditional, well, I didn't take the traditional pathway into real estate.

SPEAKER_03 6:11

What is the traditional pathway, by the way?

SPEAKER_00 6:14

I don't actually know if there is one. It seems to be a bit of a fail forward, but uh I I didn't get into real estate until sort of mid-30s. Yeah. Um before that, I'd taken a couple of iterations and a couple of turns, but I left school and became a mental health nurse for for a time. I did the kind of Australian dream thing. I went to school, I then left school, got a job, and then I went and bought a house. Unfortunately, that journey wasn't as smooth as what it should have been. And I ended up buying a pretty crappy investment in the in the grand scheme of things. Um I didn't know how to negotiate, and and yeah, through that I kind of sparked a passion for property.

SPEAKER_03 7:01

And and and then how did that end up going to being a buyer's agent?

SPEAKER_00 7:06

Yeah, so so that from there I kind of felt calling to to something more entrepreneurial. And I had so I was working in mental health nursing for a long time, and then I I got into it, I got offered a job in selling local newspaper ads. From there, that that skill of sales and negotiation kind of built, and that passion for property continued. So I kind of became a pseudo-buyer's agent for friends and family. I was always the guy that was involved in conversations around property, and I was doing what a buyer's agent does. I just didn't know that you could do it as a career path.

SPEAKER_03 7:42

Oh, interesting.

SPEAKER_00 7:44

Maybe through that, I kind of refined my skill set and the way that you articulate to agents, and and I learned how to sell and negotiate a lot more through that. And then in doing that, I ran into a buyer's agent who ended up becoming a really good friend of mine up on up in Newcastle who showed me how to go about becoming a real estate agent, then buyer's agent, and getting my license. And that's how Jobson Property Co. was was kind of formed and came about.

SPEAKER_03 8:16

Fantastic. So tell me, you know, how some of these mental health nursing background skills have made a difference for you right now in your career and in your work. I mean, there's there's obviously a whole lot that we have to talk about from negotiation to de-escalation. So much, I don't even know where to jump in. But you're the one in the field. So yeah, how how does this interplay the mental health and the actual buying of houses? Give me some examples if you like.

SPEAKER_00 8:53

Most real estate agents are crazy, right? No. No, I think I think it's it's really about the the um the emotional intelligence. I think it's when you're when you're buying a house, it's such an emotional journey, whether it's your first house or it's your third house, most people don't do this regularly. So having someone who understands the and has the the EQ or the emotional intelligence to be able to understand the emotional roller coaster that clients are going to go through. Yes, it's all well and good to be able to go and negotiate a great deal, but if you can't help the clients manage their emotions throughout that, it's really gonna leave them feeling this high and low and almost like a roller coaster. So I feel like the mental health nursing background and that kind of empathetic, nurturing side really helps clients and really helps me to Sherpa them or hold handhold them through what is a really stressful time.

SPEAKER_03 9:52

Yeah, I bet. Yeah, that's interesting. So do you wanna do you wanna tell me like an example that comes to mind? I mean, obviously no client names and whatever works for you.

SPEAKER_00 10:04

But yeah, I'd love to hear some situations of how that's I think that there's there's like there's lots of them, but there's one one that comes to mind. Uh they bought a house in Ashfield midway through the journey. They said to us um, I worked with a number of buyers agents in in our our office. They said to myself and my colleague, listen, we we're so glad that we got to work with you because we used to leave a property and inspection and just go home and kind of spiral and not really know whether it was a good property, whether it was great, good, bad, or a different. Now we get to jump on a phone call with you and we can just almost debrief around the property. And it's right, it's it's refreshing to have someone who understands the nuance of and and can and can decode the real estate agent's kind of speak in a way that the the average buyer can understand.

SPEAKER_03 11:02

Right. But yeah, I I I think what you're saying here too is that that simple thing of being able to talk it out with someone, like having a counselor or a therapist can be just so good, even if they barely say anything. But just having that listening ear and then someone at the end who kind of hones in on the you know the underlying issue or something like that that you couldn't get at because you're overwhelmed with all of these different thoughts and feelings. So you're in a sense almost like that that listening ear that they can talk it out to and then sort of zone in on where to next and and how do we deal with this? Wow.

SPEAKER_00 11:44

Yeah, definitely. And I think I think even before you start looking at at properties, most clients spend so long searching before they actually identify what they really want. And we spend a lot of time with them right at the front to really especially when there's two two parties, a husband and wife or partners, or we've got current currently working with with sisters that are buying. While you assume the other party has similar interests to what you do or the similar similar goals, without almost doing a we call it a deep dive session, but without doing that at the start, we end up spending time almost in conflict with with one party that wants a bigger bedroom, the other one wants a bigger living room. So we we do this deep dive, which is kind of like a counseling session where we get them really clear about what they're looking for before we even start searching so that we're not wasting precious time and energy searching for the wrong thing.

SPEAKER_03 12:44

Yeah, interesting. Or making the wrong decision because one person's had the stronger voice, the kind of stronghold over the decision, and then later it's all a disaster because the other person's needs haven't really been met.

unknown 12:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:58

Yeah, definitely. Wow. Okay. And what about managing that process for you? Like, do you have a person that you go to to kind of debrief and go, oh my God? I think I know that's interesting, like thinking about this parallel of like the agent is counselor. Counselors, from what I know, I'm not a counselor either, but they turn to another counselor, like for professional counseling for counselors. Do you have a do you have a go-to bud or or how do you manage that roller coaster? I think because your wife got that.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

Yeah, my my my lovely wife Sophie uh gets the to bear the brunt of it. But I as I mentioned earlier, I'm fortunate to have a a really great team of other buyers agents that work here. So my colleague Ben is is always someone who understands. Like it's good to have someone who understands the the highs and lows of real estate that you can talk talk with. And and we've got a new a new buyers agent, Jaden, just starting with us as well. So the having a team environment, I think, is so important to be able to because when we're making decisions in an echo chamber, it's really hard to understand if you're making the right decision. Having a number of other people who have a common interest and a common goal allows you to make sure that you're just split testing ideas and you're not just making decisions that feel right but are actually in the client's best interest.

SPEAKER_03 14:28

Yeah, right. And and kind of we can, I think, one one or the other lend more to acting on the head or the heart, right? So you've got that team around you to kind of balance out one or the other and yeah, be the devil's advocate. Yeah, interesting. Very quick. Okay, so if I buy in the future, I'm only going to find a buyer's agent who's got a team, I think. There's a lot of solo flyers out there, aren't there? So that's that's a very interesting point.

SPEAKER_00 14:58

Yeah, and there's nothing wrong with that, right? I think you've got to choose your path and what you want to do. But for me, business is a lonely journey anyway. So finding people that align with you allows you to have that support, but it also allows me to go as we were talking about off-air. I went away for four days over the weekend. And I had people that could still look at properties for clients and make sure that the common objective, which is to buy our clients amazing houses, could still continue. So when you're a key so key man dependent and the business relies solely on you, it becomes really difficult to detach.

SPEAKER_03 15:43

Yeah, right. And and I can imagine keeping that stress down for you and everyone is just going to be so much better in the long term. I learned a lot from our episode we had on boundaries and burnout with with Sky, where she sort of talked a bit about that. Just when when you have so many balls that you're juggling, the stress can really warp your decision making, can't it? Interesting. Definitely. Yeah. Let's just check how we're going there. We've got another 10 minutes, I think. So that's all good. So I mean, I mean, 10 minutes still it kicks us off. Doesn't mean 10 minutes to stop. Just we'll I'll edit that bit out of the podcast, obviously. Um so that that all sounds very, very helpful and important. I'm really interested when you mentioned to us again off-air in our you know discussions, you mentioned de-escalation and negotiation skills. And I've not yet had anyone really dive into that on our podcast. And I'm I'm personally very interested about that. Particularly first, I'm I'm curious to know your thoughts and techniques about de-escalation, because I've seen some, you know, videos going around on socials where, you know, people are starting to talk about these underquoting and so forth. And and really there is a time and a place to kind of be very frank and attack the issues, but it seemed to me there's a bit of escalating happening and a little bit of confrontation. And I can imagine that that really frontline battlefield of auctions must get very tense and it must be all about, well, actually, it's it's something they want to do is escalate the price, isn't it? I mean, I joked with one of our selling agents that there could be a motto for you know, auctions for selling agents. Well, that escalated quickly. You know, our office motto is well, that escalated quickly. So as buyers' agents, are you wanting to kind of de-escalate to perhaps keep that price from escalating as well?

SPEAKER_00 17:59

I think it comes down to so I guess there's a there's a couple of pieces there. Yeah. Um obviously the selling agents have a job to do, their job is to try and get the highest price for their vendor. And I think that once buyers understand that and they start to really understand that they're not sales agents are not there to, yes, they're they're there to help buyers get to a point where they can maximize the the vendor or the sale, the the owner's profits. Us as buyers and buyers agents need to realize that guide prices are completely rubbish, and we need to go and do our own due diligence. If if we can move away from what the agent is saying the price is, and we can go, okay, let's look at three-bedroom house in Marrickville in the inner west where I am. Three bedroom house in Marrickville, the price for the last three on the street was X. Okay, that means that plus or minus that number, this property should be worth around that price. Now let's then we go, okay, now we've got some tangible facts that we can work with and we can start to anchor our negotiations in. Once you start to get to the the real understanding of where value is and move away from the guide price being this almost made up number.

SPEAKER_03 19:22

Right? A kind of wishlist number.

SPEAKER_00 19:25

Yeah, well, so I think that they they're the guide price becomes so so low compared to where the property might end up that oh okay. It's the opposite. It ends up causing this frustration in buyers' minds because a property is guided at 2 million sells for 2.4, then they feel like the agent has slided them. And and in times there are, as as we all know, there are bad actors. But I I feel like most agents are trying to just trying to get to maximize the sale price for their vendor and they're trying to do their job.

SPEAKER_03 19:58

Okay, I hear you. It's actually the opposite. It's more that for a lot of people, the the the price guide is more like clickbait, and then the buyers get very frustrated when it's not what they expected.

SPEAKER_00 20:12

Exactly. And and and when we start to go, okay, let's detach the guide price from the property and let's go, okay, where do the comparable sales and where does the data sit? We can start to move move and take action from a place of empowerment rather than listening to the agent and getting frustrated with the agent, they're they're they're not in alignment with what you're trying to do. Yes, we want to buy a house.

SPEAKER_03 20:38

Right.

SPEAKER_00 20:38

Yes, they want to sell a house, but ultimately we need to figure out how we can get to the data in without the the sale of the or without the guide price being kind of a factor.

SPEAKER_03 20:50

Right. So kind of taking that off the table as like that's just a distraction, that's a red herring, we're not gonna get into that discussion about it, we're not gonna get shaken by it. You're kind of changing the topic in a sense, are you?

SPEAKER_00 21:04

Yeah, well, you're not not changing the topic. We we're we're just doing our own preparation. So we're making sure that we we come into it with all the facts. And then you can make decisions with without emotion. I think that's the most important. Once you start to take the emotion out of the decision, then it becomes a much more clear, binary yes or no. And and we always say to clients, if you're buying an investment property, it's very much a yes or no decision. Is this a good investment? Yes or no. If you're buying somewhere to live, there's there's probably a component of maybe two to three percent that we would allow for an emotional cost above where we see a fair value. And and that's kind of the we're gonna see our kids grow up in this house, therefore we're okay paying a little bit more. And our job is to help them come to those numbers logically with data and with our market knowledge on that street by street. Suburb by suburb basis.

SPEAKER_03 22:03

And these discussions about price guides, the negotiation side of it, that the client's not there with you. That's you, you and the selling agent one-on-one, is it right? So you're not having to like pre-brief that client to you know control their emotions. Kristen's not turning around and going, take a Valium.

SPEAKER_01 22:23

Yeah, no.

SPEAKER_03 22:24

It's but you must want to say that to the selling agent sometimes.

SPEAKER_00 22:29

If we're in an auction scenario, then the client is there and they they are. They're going to be there, there is going to be some stress there. But we will always make sure that we have a really clear plan with our clients before. So there's no, oh, we're just going to bid another$10,000 more. We've made a decision on a number days in advance. We've done a full due diligence, we've done a full comparable evaluation, and we know where we would be comfortable buying at. And our client has given us an indication of or no a clear indication that their max price is whatever it is. Say it's$2 million. If we get onto the auction floor and we hit that number, I would just say to the auctioneer, my client's instructions are to not proceed beyond this point. And that that's it. So that's there, there's no, or there's not no emotion, but there's a lot less emotion when you go into it with a really clear plan in place.

SPEAKER_03 23:26

Yeah, I like that. So yeah, it's setting really simple, clear boundaries that in that heat of the moment you can just fall back on and just go, well, this is the way we rock and roll. That's it. We're at that point. Yeah. I I was at an auction once and the the the client seemed very relaxed, but I could see the buyer's agent's neck go redder and redder and redder and redder. But I I must compliment them though. They they got they got the deal, they they won the moment, and he he he it was only the skin of his neck that portrayed the stress. So I guess yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:04

Everyone has a has a tell. And what I would say to clients that are not using a buyer's agent, go and spend if if there's an auction coming up that you're going to bid at, go and spend the week a few weekends before going to as many auctions as you can. The more you can watch, the more you realize that there is a pretty common cadence that most auctions will follow. And the more that you understand how that flows, the less stress that you will feel. Yes, it is you're spending a lot of money and it feels like a really daunting task. But the more times you can be through that and watch that, the less it'll start to affect you when it comes to option day.

SPEAKER_03 24:48

Right. Yeah, because you've you've seen it, it's not scary new territory. It it does remind me though, in in a in a wonderful way of something I just came across in social media. A buyer's agent had as their social media log line. It said, call me before you make a very expensive decision. And I thought, yeah, that's true, right? Because a lot of people haven't done that homework and you know, they're really jumping in the deep end, right? And you're there in a sense with that experience so that you don't make expensive mistakes.

SPEAKER_00 25:22

We pay money to go to a dentist, we pay money to when we go to sell a car, but people go into this most expensive decision-making process and try to do it alone. I just like I know it's my job to say that as a buyer's agent, but I just feel like it's mad that we would try to negotiate with trained professionals when we are not trained or expected to know how to do that.

SPEAKER_03 25:49

Yeah, well, you yourself were saying, I mean, you you, from personal experience, had made a mistake. You bought a home that turned out to be the wrong decision. And I I bet a lot of people can relate to that. So that was a that was a really good example from your personal life. Can you tell us another example from your experience?

SPEAKER_00 26:11

I always say to clients, auctions, I always lean on the Mike Tyson quote. Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face. And I think that most auctions are very much like that. You can go in with the most best laid plan, you just don't know who is going to be there on the day, who's going to be bidding against you, or how it's going to play out. I I guess a memorable auction would be a time that I actually bid against myself, essentially double bid to win an auction for a client.

SPEAKER_03 26:43

Oh, you you deliberately did that. You're not confessing to, oops, I was a newbie and I've just bid against myself.

SPEAKER_00 26:51

It was it was a deliberate intention, intentional action. So we were we're very good at being able to read other other parties. And I could tell that the person that we were bidding against was already overstretched. He'd left the auction floor to talk to his partner and come back. So he was at a point where he was was stretched. We were going up in$5,000 increments, and my client had a hard stop$2,5450,000. We got to$445,000 as my bid. And I realized that if they were to bid the next bid, they would get to our max before us. So I bid my bid, and then I realized on the fly and did another$5,000 bid. Essentially, so I went$5,000, then another$5,000 almost instantly. And it was enough to almost portray this level of kind of, we have so much money and we're going to keep bidding until we buy this property. It was enough to rattle that potential buyer and have them stop bidding. Little did they know that it was actually our last bid. So I'd spent every cent that my client had written down on a piece of paper that was in my pocket, but was able to buy the property for them at a at a price that that we still thought was an amazing deal. Most people would have been$5,000 short, and then someone would have bid to that point, and then the property would have sold for what their maximum budget was, and then they would have felt like what ifs. So our job is to make sure that we can take those what-ifs away for them.

SPEAKER_03 28:30

Right. So what you did sort of intimidated them out of the game, and you got the deal, even though you, in a sense, you might think you'd spent a little bit more, but it was likely it would have gone against you anyway. So it was like a a smart gamble at that 11th hour in that moment of absolute end game.

SPEAKER_00 28:53

Yeah, we we got to our maximum number that my client had had had already informed me before anyone else could. And I think that that's a really important takeaway. If you're in a getting close to your maximum price, sometimes it's better to get there before someone else does. Because if you were going to spend, let's say you had a hard cap at a million dollars and someone else buys the property for exactly a million dollars, you're going to feel really frustrated that you didn't get there first. So it's better to get to that number and know that either you buy it or you don't, but you gave it everything rather than someone else getting to that number and then buying it for that price.

SPEAKER_03 29:32

Yeah, because they might have a hard cap at that too, right? And as you said, it's the first one that got there who's actually got the contract. Interesting. Exactly. It's just been, you know, a really fantastic discussion. Very interesting. This is one of these episodes where I feel like I want to re-replay and I will, but maybe you know, people listening too, and just you know, re-listen again and reflect on some of these things because sometimes we chat a lot, but there's really big ideas that you know are worth mulling around for a little longer.

SPEAKER_00 30:06

You don't not everyone needs a buyer's agent, but I would I would encourage everyone who is looking at buying to at least explore the opportunity. Most people go into buying a property with this preconceived notion of how it will be. Get some advice, even free advice from a buyer's agent to start with, just to make sure that you what you're looking for is achievable and to help you get somewhat set on the right path.

SPEAKER_02 30:36

Take it to the off market, baby, have a little tour, open up the phone, and show you what it's really for.

SPEAKER_03 30:42

Well, that has been really helpful. Thank you so much, Kristen. And thank you everyone for listening in. Join us next week for another episode of the first time.