Hi all,
Just wonder what proportion of people use buyers agents when sourcing Investment properties?
Are you always going to buy better with the aid of a buyers agent than going at it alone?Does anyone know any buyers agents for SA/Adelaide area?
thanks
I've never used one and never will, as I like to do all my own Due Diligence and save the 5 grand or whatever they charge. Some charge by a percentage of the purchase price.
I equate the cost of the B.A to how much time I would spend sourcing a property. Their charge is equivalent to about 4-5 weeks wages for an average person. I reckon I could find a property in about 40 hours or less. That's one week's full time work, so to me; the money is not worth the time they would spend to source it.
I've seen a few buyer's agent websites and I don't think they could do a better job of finding I.P's (that have the right numbers) than I could. I've even seen neg geared properties on some websites. What a joke; you are paying them 5 grand to find you a bad investment? No thanks. It would have to be pos geared for me to even think about it at those prices.
For people who are too busy, or too lazy to look for themselves for either I.P's or PPoR's then I suppose the money may be worth it.
Some high income earners believe that it's financially more economical for them to keep working and simply pay the buyer's agent.
Marc, I cannot flaw your arguement about the time it takes you to find a property, it makes alot of sense!
We run a buyer's agency and also a real estate agency which does normal sales. There is alot more work (many many hours more) that goes into finding the right property for an investor than goes into selling a property. A few open inspections on the weekends will sell a property, but finding the right investment property may require looking at 100 to secure one. We can only work with one client at a time in a given area because of the scarcity of properties with good potential.
The commission earned in both the sales and buyers agencies is the same, although there is much more revenue earned in the sales agency because we can take on as many sales as we can get. This is the reason why there are fewer real estate agencies finding properties for investors, infact we are the only one in SA that will deal with investors.
Being in the market looking at properties all day every day really helps in identifying what is a great investment and what isn't. Real estate sales people will label anything as a good investment without even knowing what the word "investment actually means".
We have had real life situations of investor clients bringing us properties to look at which were $40,000 overpriced. They would have bought that property if they were not using us as a buyer's agent! This was not a mum/dad investor either, this was a big investor from interstate that was not aware of the SA market.
We would appreciate some comments on our buyer's agency website if anyone has some time:
http://www.creativerealestatesolutions.com.au
There is also some general information on the SA real estate market which may help people who want to look themselves.
Okay, I used to work as a Buyers Agent and I loved my job at the time. I knew my market well and could always get the best deal possible for my purchasers but it did take a lot of work. Often investors don't know the difference between an investment and a liability, get swept up in emotion and don't realise that a lick of paint required can get them a great buy. I would suggest that if you don't know the area you are looking at purchasing in intimately, track down a Buyers Agent. I was only ever paid a salesperson's commission but I did a great job, made sure my purchasers got their moneys worth and they bought through me time and time again.
Time to do your own due diligence on this I think.
I wish you well.
Debbie
Hi everyone,
I used a buyers agent at the end of last year to source my first IP. It left a bad taste in my mouth. Looking back the BA was happy to unload a property to me to get me off his books. Often ignoring my specifications, and showing me properties I was not interested in. My puchase was nothing special, however I had no idea about the market and was keen to buy close to my work. Bad mix,
We live and learn… I wont be using a BA again. For those who require this kind of service ask around and have a friend refer one.Cheers
AJ
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