Who is the BEST buyer's agent in Melbourne

Hi all

Bumping this thread instead of starting a new one. Can anyone recommend some buyer's advocates for someone looking to buy a PPOR in the inner west and inner north?

Many thanks

 

@Lisa Parker- Buyers Agent is a good starting place.

 

My clients have been happy with @Wendy Chamberlain

 

I work for biggest the agency in the inner north and haven't heard of any of the above advocates. I would use Paul Osbourne from secret agent.

 

@andrew_de_a your agency network is big, that's why I've bought (as buyer advocate) and sold (as vendor advocate) multiple times with many of your agency colleagues. Just not via your particular office yet, but happy to when the opportunity presents itself.

 

Um Cate Bakos doesn't work for Buyer Solutions....she's got her own agency
Independent Property Buyers Advocate Melbourne, Cate Bakos,

 

Hi Andrew,
I would love to make your acquaintance! I have a handful of go-to agents who I have had a close relationship with for many years that always bring me a lot of off-markets. Now that I know that you are a top agent for that too, I will definitely be in touch. I will PM you so I can find out where you're located. If you're with the top agency in the inner north, I think I already have a solid contact there. But let's catch up and be a benefit to one another.

 

Thank you, Marietta, for your vote of confidence

I trust you are well and happy?

 

The best buyers agent in Melbourne is the one you trust the most. Make sure your buyer agent gives you that legal undivided loyalty you are looking for at a price that suits your budget.

 

My 2 cents here on what to ask a buyer's agent in terms of harder hitting questions:

• Besides education/completing a property investment strategy you don't understand (like developing or yield), most buyer's agents are aiming to get the best capital growth possible for the customer. Because of the numbers involved with property prices these days, I feel a buyer's agent should easily be able to justify their fees by showing you previous results. E.g. this property was bought at X% undermarket easily covering the outlay of our fee. OR this property was in the best performing suburb in the municipality etc.
• I love when real estate agents (both sellers & buyer's agents) say a property has development potential. A good buyer's agent should be actually able to quote you the planning scheme etc. as to why, not just mouth platitudes like 'the backyard is really big & flat'.
• If they are a strategy buyer's agent like 'only buy in Inner Melbourne', or 'only buy in this municipality', they should be able to justify to you why their strategy is better than others, ESPECIALLY IN NUMBERS. I find it amazing how many agents (selling, buyer's & property managers alike) cannot say how much they're preferred/local area grew in the past few years. If they are 'buying before the boom' then ask them what numbers they actually expect-some agents in my experience struggle with compound maths, that's okay (we all have flaws) I give them the benefit of the doubt & merely ask them to tell me what median price they expect.
• Personal preference: ask them about their failures. It will tell you something of the person if they are willing to say they haven't always got it right. Humans make mistakes but being able to admit it is another ballgame-I think this is one of the reasons why buyer's agents often don't publish all of their results.
• Ask them about their property management recommendations. Don't just accept 'he/she is great at what they do & you'll be fine having them manage your property'. Drill down specifically as to why they recommend that property manager. They should have at least surveyed a few & can read you the results of the survey.

A good property manager should save you even more in the long-run.

• Ask them why they do what they do-many buyer's agents are open about their own large property portfolios therefore one might question why they need the money? Many will tell you it is because 'they love it'/'want to help others'-that is fine but I still find it helps to hear people say it to see how believable it sounds. I have met individuals before who are actually quite open & honest about how it is merely about the challenge for them-which is also fine.
• Stigma honesty: if you aren't investing in a blue-chip area then an agent should be upfront about some of the areas stigma problems. If you are investing in blue-chip locations then an agent should be able to justify the stigmas as to why the suburbs will remain blue-chip=if they say inner city then quiz them on the effects of working from home or driverless cars, if they say great private schools (Brighton in Melbourne for example) then quiz them on the public versus private school debate.
• Finally, ask them how they continue to educate themselves-it can be anything from 'I read the newspaper', to PropertyChat, to even a course.

 

Justifying fees buy purchasing under market
The problem with the first point is two-fold. Firstly, every buyers agent that's been around a while, is going to have some success stories and they'll simply cherry pick those results. Secondly, how would you really know if they are being honest. Asking a BA to justify their fees in terms of 'purchasing under market value' is a rookie approach because the market value is set by the sale anyway. When people tell me their strategy is to buy below market value I think isn't that what everyone wants and how do they know what the market value is in the first place? If that's what you focus on as a client, you're going to go with the BA that has the best sales pitch.


Stragegy
Third point is important. Many BAs have a single strategy which they push onto their clients. A good BA will look at the clients circumstances and operate within that framework. I've seen some BAs only deal with blue chip inner suburb properties. One purchase and the client has used up all borrowing capacity and they're strategy dead ends for the next 5 years. I've seen others only invest as a slum-lord, but the client has the cash flow and resources for better longer term locations.

Keep in mind however that buyers agents are often location specialists to a degree. You can't expect a BA whose demographic area is inner Melbourne suburbs to be implementing a strategy around regional properties. For this reason I tend to prefer smaller specialised BAs rather than BAs in big offices covering multiple states and cities. With the smaller ones you're going to them because of a strategy rather than making you fit into a specific strategy.

If you're going to talk strategy, then you the client also has to understand a bit about the strategy rather than being lead to it blindly. A good BA will know what strategies are within their means to accommodate.


Failures
Ever prepared for a job interview? You'll have figured out what your weaknesses are and twisted it to a positive spin. A bit of a silly question. It's a little like my first point about success stories. Anyone in sales has prepared answers in advance (and everyone is in sales to some degree).

 

My comments:
Justifying fees buy purchasing under market
The point wasn't so much based around them cherry-picking results-knew they were going to do that. It is more a question for why you couldn't just buy the property yourself. If they are purely capital growth focused then why couldn't I simply buy the property.
Think about the second bit I wrote down=buying in the best performing suburb in the municipality is an okay question=I feel some buyer's agents won't even know which is the best performing suburb in the municipality over the last 3, 5, 10 years. If they were a Melbourne blue-chip specialist for example, they should be able to somewhat prove that they picked say a Collingwood over a Richmond or vice versa.
I don't doubt they will cherry pick results, but if everyone is then you are comparing best to best. This is also more an exercise in how quickly & comfortably they can respond=good to ask if face to face.

I too think buying under market value is a hilarious strategy advertisement.

Failures
Indeed, but I think it still matters & they are still asked at job interviews for that reason. For example, there are some buyer's agent experiences people have posted on here about things going wrong. Yet if you ask those buyer's agents I doubt they will quote those as their failures. I think if we asked some of the mortgage brokers here on PropertyChat what their failures are they might all apply the positive spin, but we would still learn something about them-some may say their previous aggregator choice (we learn that they don't get caught up in the moment/are capable of reflecting & making change), some may say their computer skills (we might learn they are good at self-learning-a positive if we want them to educate us) etc..
I think it is a good question (like the justifying fees question), if they are in an unprepared situation, as in you are sitting face to face & they have to respond immediately-or over the phone.

Cheers.