Five ways a buyer’s agent will help you

While buyer's agents in Perth have traditionally helped investors, there are more home buyers turning to buyer's agents to help them make the right purchasing decision.

Not only would you have a professional negotiator on your side, you'd also have an unbiased third party to prevent you from paying an emotional price for a property and avoid that fed-up purchase.

Here are five more benefits of using a buyer's agent.

1. Help clarify your goals

Your buyer's agent will help you stick to your budget whilst still finding something that ticks all your boxes. They will understand your family's housing needs and the style of home you'd like, so they can prioritise this in their search.

When it comes to the specifics like bedrooms, bathrooms, living areas and the extras you may want, many buyers just glance at the photos on the internet, then go to the home open and discover the house doesn't have enough space for their family.

They will also take time to understand the more subtle things, such as how the house should feel, what sort of spaces and flow you like and what you'd consider the right quality home.

A buyer's agent will go through your needs in detail, separating the essentials from the wish list and not waste your time on properties that don't suit your lifestyle needs.

2. Use their database and contacts

A good buyer's agent would be able to work their network of selling agents, whom they may have dealt with in the past, to get in the know about properties before they hit the public domain.

They will search through the databases to shortlist the best properties, including publicly listed and off-market properties, with local knowledge and the benefit of research and industry contacts.

This can take anything from days to weeks as often hundreds of properties need to be reviewed and many selling agents contacted.

Being able to also view off-market listings will open your doors to even more properties to choose from with your chances being higher as these listings are not in the public eye.

3. Conduct due diligence

A buyer's agent checks out the property thoroughly, from the buyer's point of view and examines such things as property history, zoning and contamination. The buyer's agent is seeing things from the buyer's point of view, and not just aiming to sell the property.

In a similar way a good selling agent might advise their client against accepting a particular offer, even though it is the highest priced. If the due diligence raises certain concerns about a property, a good buyer's agent will advise against going ahead.

For example, Anne was looking for a block to build on in Floreat. Her buyer's agent checked out the block Anne liked and found it and its neighbouring properties were proposed to be rezoned to a higher density. As Anne didn't want to build in a higher density area they avoided going ahead with this purchase.

4. Know your preferences

Whether you want to be closer to schools and parks or be more centralised to shops and restaurants, your buyer's agent will keep this in mind when shortlisting properties for you.

Maybe you want to be closer to work, or being next to a train station is critical, whatever it may be just let you buyer agent know and this won't go unnoticed.

A buyer's agent will be able to use their sound knowledge of the property market to suggest good areas to buy in that also meet your budget and long-term goals.

While they will always put your preferences first, in addition they will be able to identify the suburbs you are more likely to afford the house you want as an option to consider.

5. Bidding at auction

An experienced buyer's agent may help you navigate the street theatre of an auction, and represent you when bidding. Bidding at auction is like public speaking, so if you feel nervous and you show it, that may work against you when trying to secure your dream home.

With online auctions more and more prevalent, a buying expert who has experienced these selling methods many times would be a welcome guide to hold your hand through the process, whilst ensuring you don't pay too much.

Other ways a buyer's agent can help

A buyer's agent has the know-how and experience to help you transition from your current home to your new home smoothly.

From everything from negotiating the price and your terms and conditions to building inspections, your buyer's agent won't leave your side until you feel settled into your new home.

How a buyer's agent helped Bridget

Take the scenario of Bridget, who was an elderly widow on a large acreage property in Helena Valley, who wanted to sell her home and downsize to a smaller home closer to the Kalamunda town centre.

After hiring a buyer's agent to help her to organise the sale of her current home and to buy her next one, the buyer's agent put Bridget in contact with some of the more active sales agents in her suburb and a decluttering specialist to prepare her home for sale.

Whilst this was occurring, her buyer's agent shortlisted viable properties, refined her requirements to include other properties she may be interested in and teed up property inspections to get a sense of her preferences before successfully finding her new home.

Bridget's next home was found prior to selling her Helena Valley home, so her buyer's agent negotiated the lowest price for her and structured the seller's right to consider other offers only after a month of offer being accepted. This gave Bridget a decent timeframe to try to sell her home, which ultimately sold.

More information

To get the help of a REIWA buyer's agent, refer to this list of REIWA's Buyer's Agent Network Committee members.