Forced to leave Kuwait with her family after the Iraqi invasion, Rhoda Barsalli’s journey to Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs has been anything but conventional. She rebuilt her life in Australia, raised a family and forged a successful corporate career but property was the thing she kept coming back to. Today, she’s the woman behind BBA Property Advocates, helping other people find the place they’ll call home.
A long way from Sydney’s East
Born in Kuwait, Rhoda spent her childhood there with her parents and two younger brothers. As the eldest of three, she jokes that perhaps being the boss was always in her nature.
Life changed dramatically in the early 1990s when the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait forced the family to leave the country they called home.
They eventually migrated to Australia and settled in Western Sydney, starting again and building a new life.
Rhoda married young and by 22 was already mum to two children, Ibrahim and Tala. While many people her age were still working out what they wanted to do, Rhoda was raising a family.
Once the children were a little older, she decided it was time to focus on building a career of her own.
The side hustle that became the career
Rhoda entered IT in the early 2000s and worked her way through project management, management and consulting, building a successful corporate career along the way.
But away from the office, one thing consistently held her attention: property.
She renovated, styled and flipped homes, researched opportunities and built the family’s own investment portfolio. Eventually, it became impossible to ignore that the “side interest” was actually the work she enjoyed most.
The book that changed the plan
Ironically, it was Rhoda’s boss who helped her work out what came next.
Hoping to reignite her enthusiasm for corporate life, he gave her a copy of Ikigai, centred around the Japanese concept of finding purpose and meaning in what you do.
It worked just not quite as intended.
“I think the idea was to motivate me in my corporate career. Instead, it made me ask myself: what could I actually do every day and still enjoy turning up?”
The answer kept coming back to property.
Buyer’s advocacy brought together the things Rhoda was already good at: property, research, negotiation, strategy, problem-solving and people.
BBA Property Advocates is born
In 2022, Rhoda backed herself and launched Barsalli Buyers Agency, which has since evolved into BBA Property Advocates.
Today, BBA works with first-home buyers, families, downsizers, investors and people relocating to Sydney, with a strong presence across the Eastern Suburbs.
Rhoda’s relationships with local selling agents can also give clients access to off-market and pre-market properties that buyers scrolling the major property sites may never see.
For Rhoda, it’s about making sure clients understand what they’re buying, what it’s really worth and whether it makes sense for them long term.
of the Year
Finding her place in Sydney’s East
For someone whose life has involved more than one new beginning, there’s something fitting about Rhoda now spending her days helping other people find the place they’ll call home.
Today, she’s a local business owner, mum and active member of the Eastern Suburbs business community, including serving as Vice President of the Coogee Chamber of Commerce.
She loves the sense of community across the East — the local businesses, families and familiar faces you bump into again and again.
“I work harder now than I probably ever have, but it doesn’t feel the same. I can spend hours looking at properties, talking strategy or negotiating a deal and genuinely enjoy it.”
“So maybe he was right after all. I just had to find the right work.”
For Rhoda, that turned out to be helping other people find home.
