Avocadorable

Hi everybody,
Just joined here; pleased to meet you all and hope this is a friendly place to be
I have decided to employ the services of a buyers agent to by my first principal place of residence PPOR in Australia. I will be interviewing a potential buyer's agent in a week; and would like to prepare for our meeting.
What would you put on your list of questions to ask?
Thanks in advance.

Tom Sawyer

I would think it is more about what they ask you. If they don't ask what you want to get across as your priorities then to me they are not interested in finding you the right place, but more getting their commission and flogging you any old house their mate in the industry has for sale.

Why use a buyers agent? If you are a newcomer to Australia, I think you'll find houses very different here to what you are used to. Some good points (size and layout), some bad (building quality is not as good here in my opinion). Do you want to renovate something, or just move on in? Air Con? Pool? Garage? Location? Amenities? Transport? Go and have a look at some open houses and get a feel for what kind of thing and area you are looking for, and maybe save the agents commission??!!!!

abner

That's the key question.

I am told (by some well-off senior in-laws--it's all way too exotic for me) that they can useful for cashed-up locals at the very top end of the market (high 7 figures and beyond) where price signals are murky and/or the seller is not necessarily committed to sell, or doesn't want the sales process to be too public, e.g.
- "EOI" type sales; or
- where a buyer wants to deal prior to auction; or
- where potentially available properties are not (yet) formally listed.

Buyer's agents might also be useful for a time-challenged senior overseas expat transferee, especially if the company is picking up the tab for the agent's fee.

AFAIK, this little sub-sector of the RE industry is unregulated. So, in either context, I'd want to be asking careful questions about what their fees cover, whether they accept commissions or any other consideration from any other party to a potential sale involving you, their privacy policy regarding your personal data, etc. And I'd want the answers to be documented, and contractually enforceable.