Feedback on BA process

Hi everyone,

I would like to find out if anyone has any experience on dealing with a Buyer's Advocate? I'm wondering if anyone can perhaps tell me what the process and how the experience has been.

I have a couple IP's so far in VIC. (1 commercial + 1 resi) which I bought hoping for capital gains. I'm thinking of looking for another one possibly outside of VIC as land tax will be high if I add in VIC.

Being unfamiliar with property outside of VIC, I am considering using a BA.

My questions are
1. How long does it normally take for a BA to find a property?
2. At which stage of the process do I apply for finance?
3. Do we pay per property suggested, or per transaction?
4. Do we have to pay if offer gets knocked back?
5. What happens if we don't like the properties suggested?

Appreciate any input on this.

 

Cost is per transaction. Best to contact a few BAs directly and ask some questions.

You should really have finance approval first. You are wasting your time and the BAs time if you don't. Finance approval will likely set your budget.

I used a BA in Greater Brisbane earlier in the year. Overall process was about 12-14 weeks including the 6 weeks for the property to settle.

I was quite active in the selection process, often feeding listings to the BA. Although they did identify some candidates. In this sense I was using the BA for doing the groundwork of contacting agents, checking areas, viewing and photographing properties. They were also useful for bouncing ideas on strategies, offer amounts, changing focus areas etc.

Make sure you find a truly independent BA. Ideally a member of Real Estate Buyer's Agents Association of Australia - REBAA

 

Thanks @wombat777

I have contacted 1 BA so far, and asked very basic questions. Trying to do a bit more reading and asking around now. Hopefully I can come up with more in-depth questions for the next one. Will look into REBAA as per your suggestion

Cheers

 

Hi Adele

Some answers to your questions are below. Hope it helps. The process each BA will use will differ. Check what the service covers so that you understand which parts of the contract process you would need to monitor yourself without someone checking on you or doing that part for you (for instance,some will help with checking through the contract itself, others will leave that to you to sort out with your legal rep. Some will help you read through your building and pest report, others may not). There is no wrong answer as to what is provided in a service... you just need to be clear in your mind which parts of the process you need help with and check that the BA does include that component in their service for you.

This will depend on how many clients the BA takes on at once, and how tight your criteria is. The more open the criteria, the more stock/areas there is to choose from which speeds things up.

As someone else has already mentioned, most BAs will want to see that you've got a pre-approval ready to go before the shopping commences. Nobody wants to deliberately charge you a fee to acquire a property for you that will never make it to settlement due to inability to get finance. Similarly it is incredibly disrespectful to offer on someone's house, put it under contract, thereby taking it off the market for a few weeks, if finance is never going to fly.

Normally per transaction.

It depends on the boundaries the BA has set out in their terms and conditions. There would normally be a limit on number of properties that "you" say no to but not a limit on number of offers that get knocked back.

This is answered in #4 above. There is usually a non-refundable component of the BA's fee which is their safeguard against people never liking anything and the process dragging on for years. Normally a discussion up front about what is achievable for the budget etc manages expectations and keeps people on track.

 

Hi @JacM ,

That certainly explains a lot of things for me. It also brings up another point that I had not thought of.

Do I get legal representation at the state I'm buying from? And can this be done remotely?

Many Thanks

 

Hi @Adele

Generally speaking yes, most conveyancers are based in the state they are licensed to operate in. There are some that are licensed in more than one state, but most are not.

Yes, in 99% of cases conveyancing is done remotely. Communications are done via phone and email.