When you sell your property you usually pay an agent to get the best deal for you while you go on as usual in your day job. But have you ever thought about paying someone to find your dream house when you want to buy?
It may sound like a foreign idea but when you’re spending hundreds of thousands and maybe millions of dollars on a property, when you think about it, it makes a lot of sense to take every step to get it right.
A buyer’s agents’ job is to find the kind of property the buyer is after at the best possible price. They are there to protect the interests of you, the buyer. Seeing as it their profession, they will hopefully have excellent skills in negotiating and will know the market intimately and the tricks of the real estate trade. They may even have access to markets and property others don’t.
Seeing as we only generally buy property a small number of times in our life, if we’re brutally honest most of us have limited skills in the area as a result so getting help from an professional could be an expenditure well worth the while.
How much to spend and things to look out for
It’s important to spend an amount on a buyer’s agent that is a fair reflection of the service level they deliver.
Like anything else in life, you generally get what you pay for, some charge a flat fee, others charge a percentage of the purchase price.
You really can’t go wrong if you are clear about what your needs are and communicate with them to see if they can meet these needs at a price you both agree on. Communication is key so the agent is chasing for you exactly the sort of property you want, and that you both understand and are happy with how much their fee is.
It’s important that your buyer agent is only accepting payment from you, and not a developer at the same time. If they are it represents a conflict of interest and really, they are now selling to you on behalf of the developer.
Equally important is to make sure your buyer’s agent has the necessary real estate qualifications. There have been cases of people acting as buyer’s agents who don’t have these qualifications and actually take commissions from developers for essentially selling property on their behalf.
If a buyer’s agent suggests that you buy a property but doesn’t charge you a fee you need to tread carefully – they are making money from the sale or they are being paid a commission from the vendor.
