The secret to working with high-end clients: agent of 30 years

Article by Camilla Jones 5 June 2025

Michael Pallier, Managing Director at Sydney Soothby’s International Realty, has worked in the real estate industry for almost 30 years, after transitioning from the elite car market. 

“I started working in real estate sales in September 1997, but I was originally a motor mechanic working for Rolls Royce and Mercedes, which I did for 14-years,” Michael said. 

“I spent seven years in the sales department for both Rolls Royce and Mercedes Benz. I had a client who lived in Point Piper who was buying a Merc off me and suggested I start selling houses because I already knew everyone in the area. 

“This client said I could do really well financially because I provided people great service and had developed a strong rapport with them — so that’s what I did! I started selling houses in 1997.” 

Despite his unusual transition to property sales predominantly across Sydney’s eastern suburbs, Michael says the key to his success is purely relational. 

“I’m in the people business — all real estate professionals are. For me, whether I’m selling a house, a car or an aeroplane, it’s all dependent on the relationships I have with the customers,” Michael admitted. 

“Because I had worked in the eastern suburbs’ clientele for years selling cars, I knew lots of people and it was very easy to transition to go from cars to houses because instead of representing Mercedes Benz and Rolls Royce, I was representing the owners and their homes. 

“I was selling homes to clients I had sold cars to in the past.” 

Although Michael already had an extensive database of clients from his previous sales job, he had to learn how to really understand the “psychology of people” to get them the best property results. 

“When I first started, I didn’t really understand the psychology of people — it took me a few years to really understand the elite and that’s because I had a really simple life growing up in Wollongong,” Michael revealed. 

“I caught the train back and forth to Sydney for 10-years… I had obviously worked very hard as a mechanic for 14-years but when I started dealing with people from affluent areas, they were saying they had an ‘expensive lifestyle’. 

“I just didn’t understand them. They’re buying expensive cars, expensive houses and going overseas for holidays and thought ‘I don’t understand why people want to live like this?’” 

For Michael, it was hard to comprehend the desire to live affluently as he grew up “living a simple life” with his parents — and they were happy living a simple life. 

“A lot of people I first started selling houses to would walk into houses and shirk ‘it’s too small!’. The thing I learnt growing up was to have not too much is a good thing as it’s a simple and happy life,” he said. 

“It felt like people who had too much, from what I could see, had complicated lives and they didn’t seem very happy. So, I just didn’t understand it at first.” 

But it was one small attitudinal shift that helped Michael overcome his differences with his affluent clientele. 

“I just tried to understand where they were coming from and what I learnt was it didn’t matter if you’re on wages as a tradesperson or if you’re a billionaire — it all pretty much comes down to your family,” Michael said. 

“Everything revolves around your family — your kids, your wife, your parents and grandparents — that’s the nucleus, that’s what everyone works on. 

“So, with family being so important, so too is where you home them. That’s why it’s so important to provide them with a very beautiful apartment or home. You spend a lot of time there and you raise your kids there and so it’s very important to have a suitable house.  

“That’s when I started to understand it.” 

Michael said the typical high-income buyer “varies greatly” but they usually have very high standards, high attention to detail and can be quite temperamental. 

“A lot of people that are very successful want what they want. They also want to get what they want. So, you must facilitate for their requirements,” Michael said. 

“They’re generally quite demanding — they know they’ve got a high budget, and they know they want to get their own way. Don’t get me wrong, a lot of them are quite nice most of the time, but you do also get a few of them that can be challenging.” 

His advice on how to manage demanding yet important clients is simple — don’t react when people are stressed and angry. 

“Just stay calm when you’re dealing with them… just be a really patient person — that’s the secret,” he revealed. 

“Just listen to what they want and try to get them get them what they want. Always work in the best interest of both the owner and buyer — never compromise your integrity.”