Buyer's agent

It depends how much work you want to do. If you don’t have time but have the money…why not? But if you want to learn and understand the process yourself then you’ll have to do it yourself.

There is usually no market rate for buyer agents but $9k – 10k seems to be common. Legally they could charge as much as real estate agents.

Cheers
Andrew

Although I have not used a buyers agent nor have I purchased my first investment property I think a buyers agent could be an advantage for a person if they are no good at negotiating a better price for the property and for the terms of the purchase. In some cases the buyers agent could negotiate a price that will cover their 10k fee and even more in some cases. I was considering using one when I purchase my first investment property.

I think Rob means “I have been operating for 10 years” rather “They have been operating for 10 years”.

I am assuming his opening post on the forum is one of self promotion being the principal.

Cheers

Yours in Finance

Hi Helen

In such a direct way YES.

Normally courtesy is to offer a few months of forum contribution and help answer a few questions before giving yourself a plug.

Cheers

Yours in Finance

Helen de Walais wrote:

Yes I gathered that Richard since his name is Rob. Is it against the forum rules to self-promote?

Welcome to the forum Helen. The purpose of the forum is mutual education. In that spirit anyone in property related industry is welcome to post and comment and even mention their service but we try not to sell so much as to help. This way everyone learns, free of charge (which was always the intention of the place) and anyone interested in contacting a service can see the track record of posts, advice, information etc that has been offered by a service. Usually those only interested in selling don’t last too long. Those interested in property investing for the long term often hang around. See TerryW above for example, some of the best free legal wisdom on the forums with many many people who have been helped. Hopefully Rob is willing to participate on that basis and if so I am sure his business and reputation will benefit. As always doing your own research is a good thing, and there are often testimonials online (here and elsewhere) from happy, or not so happy customers.

That canberra story doesn’t make sense Banks generally do not care who the seller is, it may be the valuer who wanted to know for valuation reasons. The agent would be clearly on the contract of sale and whether a buyers agent was used or not sure be of no concern to a lender.

I have bought about 1o properties through buyers agents with fees of around 10k. It can be worthwhile on several levels – time, negotiating and knowledge. A very small percentage saved with negotiating can pay their fee for example.

As a lawyer and a mortgage broker I would say it isn’t true – or there is more to it.

You must have missed my comments about buyers agents above otherwise he wouldn’t be the only person you have heard from.

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.

DM Jake Milne is in Melbourne he is very good. Working with a company called Qura. Metropole also do good work in inner ring.