ALWAYS CURRENT

8 q’s to ask before you engage a buyers agent

BY TONY COUGHRAN  —  8 MIN READ

Anyone can buy a property. But you don’t want just anyone to help you buy a property. You want the best… So where do you start and how do you choose THE Buyers Agent that’s right for you?

Anyone with a week to get their license and someone else’s cheque book can be a Buyers Agent, right? But does that get them the same results 20 years of experience, thousands of inspections and hundreds of negotiations does.

If you’ve done your research and we hope you have, and shopped around – you’ve probably got 5 or 6 emails sitting in your inbox from various Buyers Agents by now all saying a pretty similar thing.

“Book your FREE Strategy Consultation” or “It’s great to hear you’re considering investing in…” I know, I know. Sounds familiar doesn’t it.

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The No-Bull Approach

Marketing spiels and glossy brochures aside, here’s 8 questions you should be asking before you decide which Buyers Agent is the right fit for you.

02. What industry associations do they have?

Are they a member of the REIQ – Real Estate Institute of Queensland. Are they a member of REBAA – Real Estate Buyers Agents Association, which is the national buyers agents association.

Not all industry associations have a very high entry point. Fill in the forms, pay your fees and you’re in the club. So although there are many associations out there, if they’re not a member of the two above I’d be asking why.

We’re a member of all of the above plus:

Given that Tony is a Certified Property Valuer, he’s a fellow of the Australian Property Institute [API] and of course he’s been registered Valuer on the Valuers Registration Board of Queensland [VRB] since the year 2000 (that’s 20 actual years valuing residential property day in day out in South East Queensland).

03. What tertiary qualifications do they have?

It’s not the letters behind ones name – it’s the time they’ve spent learning their area of expertise. Like you wouldn’t see a surgeon that didn’t have formal qualifications, I wouldn’t trust my hard earned cash with a property advisor that wasn’t formally trained.

As long as it’s property related – need I say more.

Pro-Tip: With so many start ups coming into this advice space – be wary of anyone who has time in the real estate industry but has only just got their qualifications as a valuer. Tony has valued thousands of properties on the Gold Coast in his career and it’s the depth and scope of these many different valuations that gives him the competitive edge when it comes to conversing on property values with savvy selling agents.

The team at Gold Coast Property Advisors have attained the following qualifications:

Tony graduated from his Batchelor of Business Degree specialising in Property Studies in 1997.

04. How long have they been in the industry?

I don’t mean how long have they been a Buyers Agent, although that’s a good starting point – and we all have to start somewhere. But how deep is their knowledge of the market. How many times have they tried, failed and then tried again. How long have they been refining their negotiation skills. Nothing like runs on the board…

Every day is a new day and the industry is always changing but property is a long term game so I wouldn’t trust my money with anyone with less than 10 years experience buying property.

The team at Gold Coast Property Advisors have a combined 30+ years in the industry.

You can meet our team and read their stories over here…

05. Do they have the skills and expertise to deliver what they promise?

Proof is in past performance. Ask if you can talk to some of their past and present clients. Ask for some real examples of what they have purchased in the past and how it has performed.

In the last 5 years alone we’ve transacted over $350 million in property, so it’s fair to say we know a thing or two about buying property on the Gold Coast.

No two property transactions are ever the same. Buyers briefs vary, as do their budgets, but this just gives you an idea of the kinds of results we’re striving for, for our clients. You can read more about our clients over here and we’d be more than happy to put you in touch directly for a chat with any of them too.

While we’re here – here’s a few examples of how working with us has paid off for our clients.

Take the Lett’s family for example; last year (at the time of writing this) they called over the moon that they had just had their place re-valued with the bank (we secured it for them before it hit the market just over 3 years ago) and it had increased from their purchase price of $700,000 to a tidy $1,000,000 (full disclosure they had done about $60k worth of renovations to tidy the property up). They’ve since sold the property for a tidy $1,155,000 – that’s a return of $450,000 over a 6 year period.

The Morrison’s who we’ve helped buy 4 properties now, had one of their properties which was purchased in 2015 for $650k and in 2018 valued for $950k. We’ve just secured them their 5th property which is a commercial premises for their business to operate out of. 

06. Do they specialise in the area you’re looking to buy in?

Or do they claim to specialise everywhere? This is such a biggie that is so often over-looked. We only service the Gold Coast which is around 125,000 homes and I would question how someone even specialises in the whole of Brisbane let alone all of South East Queensland.

Be wary too, there are many Southern firms that have seen the value Queensland is offering and are ‘basing’ teams in Queensland (they might fly in once a month) to service investors that want to purchase here. The stories of Agents buying sight unseen are pretty S.C.A.R.Y. Buyers Agents flying in to buy properties on behalf of their clients are no different to you flying in to secure a property – selling agents know they can demand a premium and they’re getting it.

Where do we specialise?

In the Gold Coast of course, we’re Gold Coast Property Advisors!

From the Coolanagatta in the South to Pimpama in the North and as far West as Mount Tambourine – the Gold Coast is our home, it’s where we know and love.

Want to know which suburbs love to buy property on the Gold Coast? In the South, we love the likes of Palm Beach, Burleigh Heads, Miami, Mermaid Beach and Broadbeach. Heading further North, we’ve purchased plenty of homes in Southport, Runaway Bay, Paradise Point, Sanctuary Cove and Hope Island.

To the West, we love areas around Robina, Mudgeeraba, Tallai and Currumbin Valley. We’ve shared more on our pick of the Gold Coast’s suburbs here…

07. How established are their networks?

This too comes back to location, a good Gold Coast buyers agent won’t just have an intimate knowledge of the local market he’ll have a deep connection with a large majority of selling agents which will open you up to more opportunities just coming onto the market.

We get calls all day long from selling agents asking if we have any qualified buyers that might have a brief that fits with a property they are about to list. Selling agents love working with a Buyers Agent – it’s a less complicated sale for them and they don’t have to support the buyer as well as their seller.

We’re always putting our best foot forward and being proactive so when we start working with a new client we also take their brief out to our 1000+ database of selling agencies to open up the conversation and uncover anything new coming onto the market.

1 in 4 properties we purchase are secured off- market

On market, pre-market, off market – we’ve spent years forging deep connections with the best selling agencies on the Gold Coast. If there’s a chance it’s for sale and it fits your brief we’ll be the first to know about it before it hits the open market.

08. What do Buyers Agents charge?

A truly independent buyers agent will always charge you a fee for service, which means a selling agents PA that calls themselves a buyers agent probably isn’t working in your best interest. Nor is a selling agent doubling as a Buyers Agent and conjuncting with another selling agent so you don’t have to pay a fee.

Remember you get what you pay for so the cheapest option today might be the one that ends up costing you the most in years to come.

We’re fiercely independent which can only mean that we charge a fee for service. 

Just like your favourite pair of boardies, your brief is unique and one size never fits all. Our approach and process allows for this, and is tailored to suit your specific needs and butt size.      

We don’t have a stock-standard fee structure. AND we’re not cheap, BUT we do offer immense value and our fee’s won’t be beaten for same service.

So what’s the investment?

We charge a fixed fee which ranges from between 1-2 percent of the purchase price with a retainer fee payable upfront and the balance on successful purchase. Our full service starts at a base rate of $12,000.

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Curious how it all works? Want to know how you can get the Buyers Advantage?

Download our complete guide and we’ll walk you through our expertise, approach, process, and packages so that you can ultimately decide if partnering with a qualified professional (that’s us!) is for you.

Where to next?

If you’re just starting out on this journey, keep your ears to the ground and that spring in your step and remember to always go with your gut, if it doesn’t feel right, it’s probably not right and there are plenty more fish in the sea.

→  If you want honest property insights;

→ If you understand the value of professional advice;

→ If you appreciate a transparent process with an experienced professional; AND

→ You’re looking for an experienced Buyers Agent that specialises in the Gold Coast.

Then we may just be the perfect fit for you. And that’s what it’s all about – finding someone that you can trust.

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We do what we love…

Here’s a little clip we made that dives into what it means to us to be helping people make big decisions for their life + livelihood.