Buyers Agent - Melbourne

Hi,

Have any one of you heard about buyers home base buyers agent in melbourne (Buyers' Agent | Buyers Advocates for Buying Property or A Home in Melbourne) . The main reason i am looking for a buyers agent are

1) I am new to investing
2) I am overseas right now - but want to buy in Melbourne for long term ....

i am looking for a buyer's agent and they seem to be the cheapest on the market at the moment.

Any reviews? feedback?

Thanks

 

As suggested to you previously, contact our resident Melbourne expert @melbournian via a private message. You'd learn more from the guy than you can imagine.

 

Let me start by saying that I don’t know the buyers agent you’re asking about. Then I’d like to ask you one question. “What result are you hoping to achieve or do you think you’ll get where the only criteria you’re using to make a selection is ‘the cheapest you can find’”?

 

I've met Jo-Anne from Homebase. I'm not sure if this is the same person that you're referring to as my understanding is that they have a number of consultants. Overall I'm reasonably impressed with Jo-Anne, she appears to know her stuff. I'm happy to recommend her when I think it's a good match with the purchaser's needs.

That said, I'm not sure the Homebase model is something that would suit a new investor or an overseas investor, especially in the tough market that Melbourne currently is. They certain are cheap, but this is reflected in their business model.

As I understand it (and I'm happy to be corrected), Homebase is a very low cost model compared to most BAs and they have a comparatively 'light touch' when put against some of the BAs I know. This certainly suits some people, but if you're investing from overseas I'd be looking for something a bit more thorough.

If you've got some properties in mind and you'd like help with the purchase as you're dealing remotely, the Homebase model will work quite well. If you're wanting really deep assistance in strategy, sourcing and securing a property, there's other BAs I'd suggest are more suitable.


The other question that needs to be asked is how confident are you regarding finance? It's a really tough environment for expat and non-resident investors at the moment. Even when I've had finance pre-approvals I'm very nervous about the finance under these circumstances. If you're earning income overseas, even if you've been told you've got the finance, don't assume that the lenders will actually deliver.

 

Did you end up engaging Home base buyers as your BA?

 

Agree. Just clicked on the link to check out the BA offer. Took me about 2 seconds flat to find a typo on the websites main page. Hopefully they put more care & effort into selecting properties for their trusting clients.