The following guide gives prospective property buyers an insight into the work of buyers agents and the buying process. It will enable you to decide whether or not you need to hire an agent to help you in the purchasing process and hopes to facilitate an informed and confident selection process when choosing a reputable buyers agent in Sydney.
What is a Buyers Agent?
- A licensed agent employed to represent only the buyer in a real estate transaction. All OH Property Group agents are fully licensed as real estate agents and property buyers agents and are members of the Real Estate Institute of New South Wales.
- An independent professional who helps to find, evaluate and negotiate the purchase of either residential or commercial property according to the criteria set by a buyer, at the best possible price. We at OH Property Group work exclusively for buyers as buyers agents and have no involvement in selling properties. We do not take any commission from developers, project marketing companies, sellers or their real estate agents as this would create a conflict of interest in representing our buyers.
- Acts as counterpart of the sales agent in a real estate transaction, who ensures the buyer’s interests are protected and who counter-balances the seller’s goals of maximizing the sales price. As Sydney property buyers agents we conduct detailed independent appraisals of target properties to ensure that the buyer fully understands the market and appropriate price level.
At OH Property Group we do not sell properties – our sole focus is to act as an agent for the buyers that hire us. Some project marketing companies claim to also be buyers agents or buyers advocates but in reality, many are out there selling specific stocks from developers and are biased towards selling the properties where they receive the highest commissions.
As professional full-time property buyers agents, OH Property Group has access to new stock from developers but we also physically seek out properties for you that meet your specific criteria. Often the best value can be found in smaller developments and secondary offerings that are not as widely marketed. In short, we have access to the entire marketplace and are not limited to commission-based developer-pushed products.
Do you really need a buyers agent?
Many agencies will make buying a property sound really complex without the assistance of an experienced and knowledgeable buyers agent.
However, we all know that buying a property is not rocket science and that most people could successfully manage the buying process, even if they don’t find it particularly enjoyable. Some important questions when considering hiring a qualified agency to act on your behalf as your buyers agent are:
- Do you have the time to locate the best property to satisfy your specified criteria within budget?
- Can you benefit from the extensive level of access to information that veteran selling agents enjoy?
- Can you negotiate best price possible for the property within the timeframe designated by the market and vendor?
Most sellers realise that they need a selling agent to maximise the sales price and speed up the sales process. Smart buyers realise that hiring an experienced property buyers agent is equally important in efficiently acquiring solid properties that will perform well at the lowest possible price. In an upward turning market, a slow buyer may miss out on significant capital gains by taking too long to commit.
Knowledge and experience are key in securing the right property at the right price, so the key question for buyers is not whether they can afford to use a buyers agent in Sydney’s competitive and dynamic property market but rather whether they can afford not to.
Time
As experienced buyers agents serving Metropolitan Sydney, OH Property Group agents are aware that in a typically hectic modern lifestyle, most people have full-time employment commitments and can only view properties on Saturdays when Open for Inspections are normally conducted.
At best you’ll see a handful of properties in a week and perhaps none at all when other commitments must take priority. There is nothing difficult about going to Open for Inspections, but do you have the time to do it thoroughly and efficiently on a consistent basis?
The best properties are always sold very quickly and missing one weekend may mean the difference between making a purchase and missing that golden opportunity. In the end many independent buyers who are not using a property buyers agent end up purchasing sub-optimal properties because they run out of time or tire of the search process.
OH Property Group Sydney buyers agents inspect between 30-50 properties weekly and therefore provide an inspection shortlist based on your specified criteria. We also regularly attend auctions in target locations to get a sense of the market conditions and buyer dynamics.
We obsess about data and research and subscribe to industry databases which are not available to individual buyers. All this research and analysis takes time but enables us to maintain our status as a leading property buyers agent and can, in turn, ensure that our clients get accurate pricing and any other up-to-date market information necessary to make an informed decision.
Access to Information
Our experience as buyers agents in the city and its surroundings is a powerful advantage for our client buyers. In property transactions, usually only the seller and sales agent have access to key market and historical information which leaves the buyers on an unequal footing when it comes to negotiation.
However OH Property Group is a buyers agent in Sydney that has all that vital information at our fingertips. We have access to the same databases and other sources of information used by selling agents Australia-wide. So we are able to show you, the buyer: how long a property has been on the market for; prior sales attempts which may have been unsuccessful; pricing modifications (for non-auctions) and other information which selling agents may not wish to disclose openly.
This information and our experience as property buyers agents facilitates unbiased comparisons of all recent sales which selling agents usually filter before showing to prospective buyers.
In other words, by having the same level of access to information as selling agents, we are able to level the playing field for buyers who have traditionally been at a disadvantage relative to sellers and their agents.
Best Price Possible
Our time and wealth of information means you can make an educated purchase in a relatively short time period. Importantly however, our buyers agents, as highly experienced and informed negotiators, can secure substantial reductions from the vendor’s asking or target price on the desired property.
In private treaty situations, we are familiar with selling agents negotiation tactics and know precisely how to counter them to achieve the best outcome. Likewise, when we are representing our clients as buyers agents at Sydney auctions, we know all the ‘tricks of the trade’ that auctioneers and selling agents use. We can save you money by bidding well and, just as importantly, by knowing when to stop bidding. Sometimes the best deals can be secured post-auction.
The right information and a good negotiator in the form of an experienced property buyers agent can mean a saving of at least tens and possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars – in most instances, OH Property Group’s clients save much more than the fee paid for our valuable expertise and service.
