Meet the Team

Our Team

We’re Australians with deep local market knowledge and meaningful time living overseas. We know what it’s like to make high-stakes decisions from another hemisphere and why clarity beats proximity every time.

AutoMate Advisory exists because buying property from overseas compounds risk. We built a boutique buyer representation service to remove that risk.

Paulo Velho

Head of Growth

Paulo grew up in Australia and now lives in New York. Buying property in New South Wales from the other side of the world showed him how easily clarity breaks down when distance, time zones, and incentives get in the way.

He worked through a buyer’s agent, but what stood out was not just the complexity. It was the lack of rigor. Suburb selection felt driven by habit and opinion rather than structured analysis. Communication and support lagged. Data was thin. And too often, the process felt like being sold to instead of advised.

Before founding AutoMate Advisory, Paulo spent 4.5 years in Real Estate Advisory at KPMG Australia and KPMG US, working as a commercial and financial advisor to state governments, universities, and private capital. He was involved in infrastructure transaction advisory totaling more than US$2 billion - supporting Australian authorities including Western Sydney Airport Co., DevelopmentWA, and Property and Development NSW, and in the U.S; North Carolina Department of Transportation, Stony Brook University, and California High Speed Rail Authority. Earlier in his career, Paulo worked as a property analyst at FRP Capital, an Australian US$130 million private equity fund, focused on the acquisition, development, and management of neighborhood shopping centres, and previously, as a real estate sales representative - at SOCO Realty.

AutoMate exists because Paulo believes buyers deserve more than access. They deserve a framework that treats suburb selection like strategy, not guesswork. One that replaces distance with clarity and complexity with conviction.

Paulo holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Property Development and Valuation) from Curtin University and a Master of Commerce (Finance and Management) from the University of Western Australia.

Ben Drayton

Head of Acquisitions

Ben grew up on Sydney’s North Shore and spent eight years living in Vienna, Austria. That experience changed how he thinks about property - especially the cost of distance, delay, and imperfect information.

Before becoming a buyer’s agent, he worked in digital product, building systems where assumptions are tested early and execution matters. That mindset carries directly into how he secures property: define the brief, pressure-test decisions, remove noise, and act only when the asset holds up.

He bought the wrong property before. It was expensive - financially and emotionally. AutoMate exists to ensure our clients don’t repeat that mistake.

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