News & Advice.

The housing market is showing no sign of cooling-off following last year’s record rise in home values. CoreLogic sales data shows that house price rises, though small, have remained on an upward trajectory during the first few weeks of 2022. Buyers are also still facing strong competition thanks to demand outstripping supply.

Whether you’re among the thousands of recent vendors searching for new homes or about to join their ranks, you may want to investigate engaging a buyer’s agent to help you navigate the increasingly tricky home-buying process.

Buyer’s agents are used widely by average home hunters. Initially they were misperceived as only for the wealthy, employed to source off-market mansions or purchase residences back on home soil for expats living and working overseas. Nowadays buyer’s agents are ideal for any prospective home buyer, from seasoned buyers to novices to the time poor—anyone aiming to get the best possible deal on a home they have set their heart on (and who doesn’t?).

This is because a buyer’s agents’ role is exactly what their title states: to act as an agent for the buyer. While a real estate agent aims to get the best possible (read highest) price for their vendor, a buyer’s agent is in your court, equipped with all the same skills and knowledge as that real estate agent to achieve the best possible result for you.

In short, a buyer’s agent gives you the edge over your competition.

What a buyer’s agent does

Buyer’s agents use their expertise to analyse housing markets and find clients the home they truly desire. Their tasks also include advising on the ins and outs of property buying, attending open homes, taking care of legalities, organising building inspections, bidding at auction on your behalf, negotiating with real estate agents on price and dealing with final contracts. They walk with you every step of the way.

Here are the 5 key benefits of using a buyer’s agent.

1. Buyer’s agents stop you making a mistake or—just as bad—overspending

“A buyer’s agent works to find you value in a crowded market,” says Reece Coleman, Head of Advisory at Maker Advisory. “It’s not always the cheapest property but it will be the right property in the right market at the fairest price.

“A buyer’s agent will stop you from doing something like buying a property that you later realise isn’t right in some critical way and then you have to get out in the short term.”

Having a buyer’s agent helping you buy your next home avoids the risk of you misunderstanding any part of the property buying process or becoming confused during what has been proven as among the most stressful times of anyone’s life.

“A key advantage is that buyer’s agents know how to manage a real estate agent’s ‘spiel’,” Mr Coleman says. “We are keenly aware of the psychology of a seller and a buyer.

“Buyer’s agents will ask the right questions of the selling agents to get the right answers for them and their buyer.”

2. A buyer’s agent helps you find the exact home you want—not the one you think you want

“We see many people who believe buying a property is a matter of finding it on domain.com.au or realestate.com.au,” Mr Coleman says.

“But my 10-year-old can do that.”

Instead, a professional buyer’s agent should ask for the specifics of your imagined dream home then hone into whether this vision will truly work for you, Mr Coleman says. “A professional agent should be able to drill down and challenge you on your brief,” Mr Coleman says.

All too often people buy ‘dream’ homes then, years later, realise they did not carefully consider how the property would perform as their families grew and circumstances changed.

“For instance, we often find buyers who with their previous home hadn’t stopped to think that it may not be close enough to public transport should they ever need it to get to a new job,” Mr Coleman says. “Or they didn’t look carefully enough at whether living spaces would be big enough when their kids grew up.”

Mr Coleman says it is also not uncommon for couples, when questioned by their buyer’s agent, to discover they each have completely different ideas about what factors constitute their next ideal home.

“I’ll often ask a couple to take some time to discuss their priorities in a home. When they come back to us it won’t be unusual to hear that the husband’s number one concern is having NBN access and a huge garage with storage, while the wife chiefly wants to be able to see the kids in their new swimming pool from the kitchen window. And then we find that the husband doesn’t want a bar of having a pool because he doesn’t want to do the maintenance.”

3. Buyer’s agents analyse property markets in their entirety

“There is a huge fallacy around off-market properties,” Mr Coleman says, adding that in the past two years a growing number of rookie real estate agents have been advertising properties as ‘off-market’.

“The problem is, it is illegal for an agent to advertise a property that does not have a contract, and that’s what an off-market property is,” Mr Coleman says.

“It means that either the agent doesn’t want to spend money on marketing the property, or that they’re trying to get price feedback before they take the property to a full marketing campaign. But a selling agent cannot legally advertise an off-market property—plus a true off-market property will attract premium price offers.”

A buyer’s agent should analyse the market properly, Mr Coleman says. “This means all property available—the property coming to market, at market, pre-market or post-market—and within a six-month window.

“If your buyer’s agent is looking solely at off-market properties then they are wasting your time.”

4. Buyer’s agents are experts in handling tricky property negotiations

“Most importantly, a buyer’s agent knows how to negotiate and pull together a transaction, so you don’t miss out or are gazumped on your dream property,” Mr Coleman says.

The average person buys or sells a property once every seven years, Mr Coleman points out, whereas a buyer’s agent can be buying up to seven properties a week.

That’s a lot of negotiating.

5. Buyer’s agents have everyone and everything you need at their fingertips

Property buying isn’t just about looking at pretty houses and apartments every weekend before deciding which one to buy. It also entails going through myriad processes such as acquiring building inspections, getting legal advice, checking stamp duty, organising quotes for any required repairs and more. For the uninitiated, this can be time-consuming, frustrating, and downright exhausting.

“Buyer’s agents already have these professionals around them,” Mr Coleman says. “We can have a team of lawyers, pest or strata inspectors materialise within hours—allowing us to quickly respond to the urgency involved in the home buying process.”

Contact the team at Maker Advisory today to learn how we can help you find your next property and guide you seamlessly through the buying process.