@tristan1 thanks for your trouble of providing these detailed comments! Can you answer a couple more questions?
Did your BA also organise a property inspection?
Did you have a rental yield target in mind which the BA advised on?
How did you find the BA, did you get a recommendation from someone?

I was recommended my Buyers agent through the somersoft property forum. A BA can have a number of rolls you can employ them for. Full service, partial service, single inspections, negotiating and buying at auction.
I got mine for the Full service- As it sounds they will do every thing from start to finish. Starts with a Buying brief specific to your circumstances/strategy. It may include price range Under 300K, rental yield 6.5%, immediately rentable, maintenance free, target suburbs. Then they will inspect properties that fit the criteria. Write detailed reports and valuations of each property inspected. They also have lots of advice to give as they have the local knowledge, aswell as getting a better gauge of the selling agents. Then they will negotiate or attend an auction on your behalf on properties you like. Mine even short listed a number of property managers for me.

Hope info helps, If your interested call or email a few buyers agent. You will know which one to go with after talking to them and reading reviews.

Cheers

Helen,

I’m just in the process of using a Buyer’s agent in Brisbane to purchase my second IP. Just received confirmation on my unconditional approval for a house in Marsden, QLD. All going well the purchase should go ahead.

At first I was very hesitant to use one. The cost was a little more than I wanted to pay ($8800 Full Service) and given the fact I was looking for a property priced under 300K it was hard to justify. I was also very keen to learn the process of buying and negotiating for future investments. Everyone seems to say you need to do it yourself to learn. I was looking to buy interstate and after looking on the property websites I realized it was going to be quite a daunting task to go alone. Cost of flights and car rental would quickly add up if I was to inspect properties over a couple weekends.

So I added up the pros and cons of doing it myself or employing a Buyer’s Agent. I figured if I can find a good buyers agent I’m sure they would be a far better negotiator then myself and be able to save me a couple+ thousand on the purchase price. Then I factored in all the properties they will inspect for me and the thorough notes on each property. In the end it was a no brainer. I’m a novice investor and probable likely to pay a higher price and more easily manipulated and guided by agents that would not have my best interests at heart, as well as having limited local knowledge.

So I employed my buyer’s agent. It’s been the best thing I have done. My Agent has inspected close to 30 properties within my target area. Extensive notes on each property and lots of photos to show you every angle. My property brief was Logan area, 600m2+ Block, rental yield above 6.5%, purchase price below 300K, rental ready with minimum work needed and purchase price under market value. Fantastic advice was given on which properties to offer on and why. I ended up offering on five properties in total. I had my prices that I didn’t want to go above to stay in line with our briefing figures.

Points to consider for people wondering if they should employ a Buyer’s Agent:
-A Buyers agent will generally have better local knowledge of an area then you. -A Buyers agent will generally be a better negotiator than you. -A Buyers agent is a great way to keep the emotional attachment out of the purchase as they are crunching numbers as well. –You will generally not have as much time to spend looking for properties as what a Buyer’s Agent would. -You will probably not have as much access to properties as what Buyer’s agent will.

So, definitely worth it for my situation. Charge around 2% of purchase price, some might negotiate. For me payment is $2200 on engagement and $6600 on settlement.

Enjoy the read, so far it’s been a fantastic learning experience.