Buyers Agent FAQ’s
What is a Buyers Agent?
A Buyers Agent is a property professional that acts exclusively for the buyer in Real Estate transactions. Buyers Agent’s can specialise in Owner Occupied Residence, Residential Investment or even Commercial Property purchases depending on their skillset and experience.
Another way to think of a Buyers Agent is the mirror image of a Real Estate Agent. We search for properties rather than potential buyers, assess those properties against a pre-defined criteria and negotiate the lowest possible price, rather than the highest.
What does a Buyers Agent do?
An experienced Buyers Agent performs a pivotal role in purchasing real estate.
In a real estate transaction, the Buyers Agent is responsible for clarifying the clients needs, sourcing off-market properties, assessing those properties against the clients brief, negotiating a lower price and project managing the exchange process.
If the client is an investor, the Buyers Agent may provide strategy, asset selection and ongoing portfolio advice to help the client build a portfolio over time.
How much does a Buyers Agent Cost?
There are many ways a Buyers Agent can earn their fees. Some Buyers Agents charge their clients a small ‘advice’ fee and place their client in a new-build asset where they also receive a much larger commission for ‘selling’ that property by the developer.
This produces a conflict of interest.
The only fees we earn are those which we charge our clients. This ensures that when working with us, your best interests remain at the forefront of our relationship. The fees we charge our clients are tailored based on individual needs and preferences and thus there is no standard fee model.
Why do I need a Buyers Agent?
The truth is, you can absolutely purchase a property on your own.
Most of our clients work with us to turn a complex, drawn out process into a simple and enjoyable experience.
Can a Buyers Agent attend an inspection for me?
Of course. When selecting a Buyers Agent, it's critical to verify that they have agents with a detailed understanding of the localised area. This ensures that your Buyers Agent is physically inspecting the properties they’re advising on, and guarantees that you’ll receive the best advice possible.
Comprehensive & Negotiate Services
When working with a Buyers Agent, it’s critical that you see more properties than everyone else in order to get the ‘edge’ you’re looking for. That’s where our off-market approach comes in.
We leverage the relationships we’ve built with Real Estate Agents to identify and assess properties not available on the real estate websites. We send over 400 emails and make a similar number of phone calls every month to find these properties earlier and more often than the average buyer.
The result: More properties in a shorter period of time, means a better result faster.
How long does it take to find a property?
As long as it takes for you to feel comfortable to buy. We’ve had clients purchase a property in as little as 1-2 weeks and others that have taken 5 months. Our goal is to secure the right property, not the first property, and we’ll continue working with you until that goal is achieved.
What if I can’t physically inspect the property myself?
Our boots-on-the-ground approach means that we’ll be there in your place. Our detailed inspection videos typically run for between 7-15 minutes and shed light on the good, the bad and the ugly of every property we inspect. This is your way of getting past the glossy marketing photos and into the cobwebs, so that you can feel comfortable to make an offer, sometimes without having stepped foot in the property yourself.
If I’m able to make inspections, can I still come?
Absolutely! We often perform mid-week inspections on your behalf, providing a video inspection report for your review that night. If you like what you see, we’ll arrange a second inspection at a time that suits you.
The best part? You only spend time viewing properties that have already been pre-vetted.
What is included in the 67-Point Due Diligence Assessment Report?
Ahh, the trade secret!
Our Due Diligence Report includes more than just a review of Building & Pest Reports. You’ll also find flood & fire risk assessments, proximity to public housing checks, development potential, investment feasibility assessments, local amenities & school zones review, and of course a Comparative Market Analysis report.
What is included in the Comparative Market Analysis (CMA)?
A Comparative Market Analysis is an analysis tool used by Real Estate Agents & Valuers to determine Fair Market Value of a property. The process involves comparing the property in question to recently sold properties of a similar nature in a localised vicinity. This is where the art-form meets science, as unique factors of a property such as the orientation, slope, internal configuration and quality of finishes all play a part in delivering an accurate estimate.
Our approach relies heavily on data and evidence, rather than opinion, to determine the fair market value of a property, and we do this well in advance of implementing a negotiation strategy on behalf of a client.
How can you negotiate a better price than me?
Three simple factors; experience, frameworks and relationships.
Experience: Where most property purchasers negotiate on 2-4 properties in their lifetime, our team could be negotiating on 2-4 properties a week. Every conversation is in essence part of the negotiation so it's critical to know what to say and when to say it.
Frameworks: While every negotiation is different, the principles remain the same, which is why we follow a detailed framework to exhaust all possible options to reduce the purchase price before making our initial offers.
Relationships: Without a relationship, it's unlikely you’ll uncover the information you need to implement an effective negotiation strategy. Having developed robust relationships with agents across our areas of focus, you can be assured that if there's valuable information to be shared, we will acquire it.
What happens when we have our offer accepted?
Up until contracts exchange, the property is still available for sale, so it's critical that no time is wasted. The final component of the journey involves signing the contract of sale and handing over your deposit.
This can be the most stressful part of purchasing property so it's helpful to have experienced professionals working as a team to deliver the right result. We’re on hand throughout the process, acting as the glue between your legal representative (usually a conveyancer or solicitor), mortgage broker, building & pest inspector and other professionals involved in the transaction.
How long does the property settlement process take?
A standard contract settlement term in NSW is 42 days or 6 weeks. Like almost everything when it comes to buying property, the settlement term is negotiable. We’ve negotiated settlement terms as little as two days (yes two days) and as long as 6 months on behalf of our clients. Sometimes we leverage information we’ve uncovered about the seller to offer appealing settlement terms in order to reduce the purchase price.
How long would it take for us to move into the property?
When we agree to work together, the first step is completing our Align To Buy meeting. From that day forth, the average time it takes to find a property is between 6-8 weeks, although we’ve had clients purchase in as little as 1 week and take as many as 20 weeks to find and secure the right property.
Once we exchange contracts, we also have to consider the settlement term agreed. Therefore if we found a property in 6 weeks and negotiated a 4 week settlement, you could expect to be moving in 10 weeks from now.
How long before an auction should we engage you?
We can be engaged as little as 48 hours before the Auction, although it's preferable to have around 7 days to prepare. This gives both you and us enough time to discuss the property, present a bidding strategy and complete the administrative component of registering for the auction.
Will you tell me if my budget isn’t enough before we agree to work with you?
While this is a subjective question seeing as we don’t truly know what price the property will sell for before the auction occurs, if your budget is materially lower than Fair Market Value, we’ll make that clear before you decide to engage us.
What if we don’t win the auction?
What’s meant to be is meant to be. If we don’t win, you’ll have certainty that you gave it your very best shot.
The added upshot relates to our fee structure, of which there are two components. One to present our strategy and physically bid on your behalf, the other only due if you come out on top. Where you don’t win, we aren’t remunerated.
Do I need to be there on auction day?
Not at all.
If you’re physically unable to be there in person, the Real Estate Agency will issue an Authority To Bid form for you to complete. On that form, you’ll tick a box that authorises either us or the Auctioneer to execute the contract of sale should you be successful.
How do we know you won’t bid more than we want you to?
This is where implementing a structured bidding strategy becomes critical. Before the auction starts, we’ll agree on a walk-away bidding amount which will become your upper limit. This will be confirmed in writing beforehand so both you and we know exactly where to draw the line.