Hi all,
I used Metropole to help me buy a first property in Melbourne in the last couple of years.

The good:
– I have reasonable confidence that they do a reasonable job of downside risk mitigation at least to the extent related to suburb and property selection.
– They take the reins and do all the running around in the process all the way to settlement. This saves a fair chunk of time.
– In my case they helped force me to commit to buying a property. Up until the point of using their services I’d been stuck in analysis paralysis.

The not so good:
– Ahead of the auction of the selected property I felt pressure to raise my willingness to pay. I didn’t feel confident at the time nor now that this was in my best interest.
– The due diligence missed some things. As a result I missed out on a negotiation tool (the property was passed in at auction) and have some thousands of dollars of unforeseen maintenance costs to now factor in.

I probably won’t use a buyer’s agent for a property purchase in my home state. Partly as I now feel I have the confidence to go through the process on my own. I wouldn’t advise against the use of Metropole or others but I would caution to approach dealings critically.