Is a buyers agent worth it?

For the majority of buyers, absolutely yes.

But if a buyer spends their free time researching property, is up to date with economic and market trends, has free time to inspect properties during the week and on weekends, is well connected with local agents, understands their local market, understands risk factors and where to avoid them, has bought properties several times in recent markets, is a strong negotiator, knows property fundamentals, and knows how to invest in property — then they might be able to get a similar result to a professional.

Will a buyers agent save you more than they cost? It depends on the purchase and your criteria. Most of the time, yes — but property involves a lot of emotion, and that can create varied results.

If you’re specifically searching for a good value buy, then absolutely — that’s a lever we can focus on.

But if there’s an on-market property that’s highly appealing to a broad, affluent target market like families, there’s only so much the right strategy can do. In this case, a buyer’s agent’s role is to safeguard against inexperience, hold back poor emotional decisions, and walk away from properties when the price becomes unrealistic.

The core of what we do is provide professional advice. Every deal makes sense, until it breaks at a certain point. Most buyers don’t know where that line is.

Zoom out and look at the process as a whole, and there’s a lot more a buyers agent does than the final purchase price. It’s the legwork. The ability to bounce ideas back and forth. It’s walking away from bad deals, properties with high risk, high insurance premiums, poor property fundamentals, bad building reports, bad investments. We provide clear vision that cuts through the noise.

Anyone quoting a guaranteed saving is quoting against an asking price — a number the vendor’s agent chose. Data can be manipulated to push a narrative. The more defensible measure is whether you bought at or below fair market value given comparable sales, and whether you bought the right property. That compounds far more over ten years than $20,000 on the purchase price.