Should I be using Buyers Agent?

Newbie here, I'm trying to rationalise whether a BA would be suitable for my current situation. I'm looking for PPOR in the Sydney Upper North Shore suburbs, houses at <2.4m range but the lack of listings, and the general competitiveness, means I spend most of the time refreshing realestate/domain instead of going to inspections (which tbh I enjoy, to workout what I like vs what i dont).
Would engaging a BA improve the 'stock' so to speak? Especially with the blue chip suburbs, no one seems be in a rush to sell.

On the other hand, putting my vendor hat on, why would I agree to sell off-market (assuming thats one of the biggest value add a BA can bring) when as most observers would see that the bidders and auctioneers are positively frothing every Saturday? The payoff would almost certainly be bigger if they wait ~1month or so for their sales campaign.

Not to mention the cost, which from research seems to be a % of the sale price? at 1-2% of 2m, it racks up awfully quickly...

 

Good questions and there are quite a few answers to a lot of them if you have a search of the the forum.

To get to the main point, no a BA will not necessarily have access to 'more stock', however they will generally be presented with pre-market opportunity where sales agents will email out properties that are soon to come to market which gives the BA a head start as such. You're right, in a rising market there is no reason for a vendor to sell off or even pre market to a BA client when creating competition would possibly get them a better price.

However, plenty of vendors simply don't want the stress of a sales process and if the price the BA offers is fair and in line with their expectations, many will happily exit. Remember, there are plenty of different reasons for selling and more often than people may realise, vendors are looking for short settlements and quick transactions to remove the uncertainty and for all other sorts of reasons.

As for the price and as with most of these things, try to look at what it will cost you, not what it will cost you....confusing? There is obviously the up front cost which a lot of people look at, but what will it cost you by not engaging a BA in terms of both your time-cost, stress (workload) and direct cost. Many a time I have seen people over pay for property by more than the fee they would have paid a BA to do it for them to get a better price through experience, in addition to saved time and ground work to get through the process.

Buying property can be a time consuming process and as with anything, the more you do it the better you get at it. If you feel you can do it yourself then it can be very rewarding although for my money (I have used BAs all over the country for my own purchases), it is a relatively small fee to likely get a better result overall.

Good luck!

- Andrew

 

You're paying for experience with a BA. It's the old story about the engineer that sent the invoice to the client for $10k for knowing where to tap the machine. $10 for the tap - $9990 for knowing where to tap.

To a BA - buying a house is like going to the store and buying a loaf of bread. It's an every day thing for them, they know exactly what to do, when to do it, who has leverage at what point, etc. I used a BA for just the negotiation process of a house I found and it was well worth it.