5 minute read.
What is a buyer’s agent?
A buyer’s agent is like your real estate wingman, looking out for your interests in a property deal.
They’re not in it for the seller – that’s the seller’s agent’s gig. Instead, your buyer’s agent is all about helping you secure a place that ticks all your boxes.
They dive into the property search and inspections, handle negotiations, and tackle the paperwork, making sure your needs come first.
So What does a Buyers Agent Do for their Clients?
Navigate Your Path to Success
As Benjamin Franklin once said, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!” During your initial meeting with a buyer’s agent, their objective is to grasp precisely what you’re looking to purchase and determine if there are properties, both on and off the market, that align with your preferences.
If you lack a clear plan of what you want, no worries. Your buyer’s agent, who can help narrow down a few options for you.
If you have a clear idea of what you want, your buyer’s agent needs to assess the likelihood of success or identify areas where changes need to be made.
Speed Up Your Home Purchase
As any first-time homebuyer can tell you, purchasing a property is often a lengthy and exhausting process. Many of our clients report spending over six months attending open houses and dealing with unsuccessful auctions before turning to a buyer’s agent.
A buyer’s agent simplifies this process by curating a selection of properties that best match your preferences, eliminating the overwhelm of endless options and saving you time. They handle all the due diligence, from conducting property inspections and shortlisting top choices to liaising with real estate agents and coordinating with conveyancers and building inspectors. This ensures you receive clear, concise information to make informed decisions.
Buyer’s Agents Specialize In
- Choosing properties that are less likely to have maintenance issues, increase your chances of higher capital growth, and offer better resale potential.
- Obtain accurate appraisals to determine the true market value of properties you’re considering, avoiding the risk of underquoting by agents.
- Avoid the stress of auctions and prevent emotional decisions that could lead to overpaying. Our real estate buyers’ advocates use effective strategies to help you acquire the right property at the right price.
With a buyer’s agent, the entire process can often be shortened to a number of weeks.
Access to Off Market Listings.
With access to more listings, you can definitely increase your chances of buying a property. You’ll have more options to choose from thanks to a buyer’s agent who is able to access private property listings or off market listings.
These private listings don’t usually show up on regular platforms like a real estate website. Private listings are generally only handled by real estate agencies. So it’s only the customers of real estate agents that usually get access to these properties.
However, a good buyer’s agent usually fosters working relationships with these real estate agencies. That’s how they are able to access these private house listings and share them with you. Another method of finding private properties is being subscribed to private listing databases.
You’ll find many buyer’s agents have subscriptions to these databases for your benefit.
Stress Free Negotiations
The overwhelming fear of participating in an auction or contending with an unseen buyers while presenting a private offer can be set aside when your using a B.A.
A buyer’s agent can manage all aspects for you, leveraging their wealth of experience in similar scenarios and implementing adept bidding strategies to outperform competitors.
Are There Downsides to Using a Buyer’s Agent?
How to Interview a Buyer’s Agent
Do you specialise in a certain area?
You’ll find many buyer’s agents have experience and expertise working in certain areas. There may be three to four suburbs they have been operating in for years. The more specialised a buyer’s agent experience is, the more likely they are to be useful for the services you require. So what if a buyer’s agent admits that he offers his services to a wide range of suburbs spread throughout the state? If that’s the case, then there’s a good chance he can’t offer you the same competitive advantage that other buyer’s agents do when they operate in smaller service areas.
Are you exclusively a buyer’s agent?
In some cases, a buyer’s agent may also work as a real estate agent. This can be a potential red flag and a very obvious conflict of interest. It can be a sign that they don’t have your best interests in mind. They could be working closely with a real estate agent to help them sell properties. With your best interests taken out of the equation, you could end up paying far too much for a property that’s been rigged to help the buyer’s agent get a higher commission out of the purchase.
How do I pay for your services?
Most buyer’s agents charge a flat rate when it comes to the purchase of a standard owner-occupied or investment property. The industry standard today sits around 1.5-3 per cent of the property’s purchase price. So for a property worth $700,000, you could be paying a fee of around $21,000.
While it may seem like a lot up front, consider that using a buyer’s agent could help you save at least $100,000 on the purchase price by simply finding you the best property that matches your needs.
Too often than not, a buyer can be blissfully unaware of how much money they can save when they spend a little more time looking at all available properties in an area.
Are your fees tax deductible?
In some cases, it may be possible to claim buyer’s agent fees as a tax deduction. A common property type that allows you to do this is an investment property. If a tax deduction is the only thing making it possible for you to afford using a buyer’s agent then it’s essential you confirm your eligibility to do so.
Are you a fully licenced real estate agent?
Most real estate agents you encounter are actually working under their boss’s license as an Agent’s Representative, meaning they aren’t allowed to run their own agency. To qualify for this role, they need to complete the CPP41419 Certificate IV in Real Estate Practice, which is the educational standard set by the Victorian Business Licensing Authority. No practical experience is required to have a licence to practice real estate at this level.
To become a fully licensed real estate agent capable of running their own office, however, they need to meet more stringent requirements. This includes additional higher education and at least one year of work experience as an Agent’s Representative. This licensing process ensures that fully licensed agents have real, verifiable experience in the field. For more information on buyers agents qualification.
To find out what type of real estate license your buyer’s agent holds, take a look at the Consumer Affairs public register.
Here are some extra questions to consider asking during an interview with a buyer’s agent:
- How many years of experience do you have?
- Why did you choose to be a buyer’s agent?
- Do you own any property yourself?
- Will you confirm in writing that you receive no additional commission or income from the properties you recommend?
- Have you ever owned an investment property and managed tenants?
- Have you ever renovated a home or investment property?
- Do you have strong connections and access to off-market properties?
