rammygirl

Work out your start up costs and keep them as low as possible. Work out how much you can charge for your services. Work out ongoing expenses, tax, fees etc. then work out how many clients you will need each month to make a decent profit or at least break even to begin with. If you feel it all looks doable then give it a go.
Speak to real estate agents in your area too, they could be a main referral point after all.

Personally I wouldn’t use an agent for this as I have the time and experience to do it myself, having bought and rented in several countries, and buying and selling as a non resident in Greece and Australia. But plenty are cash rich and time poor these days and high end executives are poached from all over. Plying your trade to the big employers locally would be a good idea too as they need to re locate people all the time.

JJJHM

Thank you for responding, I take on board all of your points, watch this space 😁

Stuck in Auckland

Your value proposition is:

Controlling cost (i.e. being at auction without emotional connection, therefore removing temptation to blow budget in heat of the moment)

Negotiation skills outside of car buying or white ware discounting. This would be linked with intrinsic understanding of value and current market movements (getting in the heads of other agents).

Here is one of the countries best known buyers agents:

James Buyer Advocates - Melbourne's Property Buyer Agent

All could learn from some of the content and market reports.

My reasoning is for using is peace of mind in buying the right property at the right price. Some times the advantage is the buying agent not buying and getting you to walk away from a bad buy.

The joke is the people who skimp on buyers agent and building reports

I would be thinking its a investment in buying the right price right property not in saving % off market price.

JJJHM

Sound advice, I believe we have have those skills in abundance thanks to life!.. I will check out James Buying Advocacy too. Many thanks

spouse of scouse

Not true! There are loads of people who are very skilled at researching the property market in their areas of interest, and who are more than capable of negotiating their own deals!! I wouldn't dream of engaging a buyer's agent, but buying and selling real estate is a joy for me, not a task

I do think there's a place for buyer's agents though.

Beoz

Building reports are a joke. I had one done on a particular property and the joker wouldn't enter the roof because there was a chair under the man hole. Apparently he wasn't allowed to shift furniture.

I did my own building inspections. Pretty easier to spot asbestos, termites, old wiring if you can get under floors and in roofs - the expensive stuff. No access to floor and roof is the same for the building inspector. The rest is just factored in cost - ie loose door knobs, peeling paint, tap washer leak (yes seen all those in reports).

JJJHM

👍

Dorothy

al dente

we had to use one in Sydney on 2008 as we were out of town. House was on at 1.8mill, they were hoping for 2mill. We got it for 1.67mill. Mostly because we forgot about the time difference and were unavailable for an hour so he just kept negotiating once it got passed in.

rammygirl

Are there enough properties in Brisbane over 1.5 mil? That seems to be the level at which more people will happily consider agents. The reason why the Melbourne company seem to do well, their property purchases all seem to be well over a mil. Plenty of properties in Sydney too at this level.
Also how hot is the market in Brisbane now? How many transactions per month in the areas you will cover and more importantly what percentage of those could you realistically be involved in.