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In 2018, there were 350,000 first-time home buyers in Australia. Though home buying has seen some dips in recent years due to the Coronavirus outbreak, many Australian families have again begun looking for a place to call home. Moreover, many new home buyers are finding that buying a home in Western Australia is harder than it looks.
That’s where buyer’s advocates can help. A Perth buyer’s advocate differs from a real estate agent for many reasons. Namely, they’re less interested in making a commission and more interested in getting you in the right home.
Read on to learn how a Western Australia buyer’s advocate can make your home-buying endeavours easier than ever.
What is Buyer’s Advocate?
Buyer’s advocates- sometimes referred to as buyer’s agents- are not real estate agents. Buyer’s agents commit their time to the buyer instead of the seller. Some of the main responsibilities a buyer’s advocate takes on for the buyer are:
- Reviewing property listings
- Researching neighbourhood demographics
- Estimating taxes and other fees
- Determining the home’s potential maintenance costs
- Performing an appraisal to find the real value of the home
- Hiring a home inspector
- Checking the property’s history
One of the most important duties the buyer’s advocate handles is negotiation. Price negotiation for new home buyers can be intimidating. Often, they get stuck with an unfair deal.
But, when you hire a buyer’s advocate, they have the power of knowledge and software on their side. They can negotiate the property’s price so you don’t pay a cent more than it’s worth.
Buyer’s Advocate vs Real Estate Agent: What’s the Difference?
The main difference between a buyer’s advocate and a real estate agent is who they work for. The seller hires a real estate agent to sell their house. The buyer hires a buyer’s advocate to help them find the right house.
How Real Estate Agents Get Paid
Real estate agents work on commission. A portion of the home sale goes to the real estate agent for their services. Unless you’re looking at for sale by owner homes, all real estate agent fees are included in the final sale price of the home.
How Buyer’s Advocates Get Paid
But a buyer’s advocate charge a commitment fee, and a success fee. Depending on the agency, they charge different types of fees.
The three types of fees used by buyer’s agencies in Western Australia are fixed, tiered, and percentage-based fees. Fixed fees and tiered fees are similar in structure.
A fixed fee offers a basic package of services for one base price. Tiered fees refer to two or more fixed fee service packages that offer better services for increasing prices.
Percentage prices are like commissions, except instead of taking it out of the sale, you pay the agent after the sale is complete. The percentage fees for Australian buyer’s advocates range from 1% to 3% of the total home sale.
Benefits of a Buyer’s Advocate
So, no matter what if you aren’t buying a for sale by owner home, you will work with a real estate agent to buy a house. The real estate agent will not charge you, the buyer, for their services while a buyer’s advocate will. So, what are the benefits of using a buyer’s advocate when they “seem to cost you unnecessary amounts of money?”
Clear View of the Real Estate Market
First, buyers advocates provide buyers with more information than real estate agents do. The Perth property boom expanded buying options, so buyers should have full access to all the information on their property search. Buyer’s agents provide that, allowing you to have a better picture of the market and avoid getting swindled by shady real estate agents or sellers.
Moreover, buyer’s advocates help buyers find their dream homes quicker. Real estate agents can only show homes their agency has access to. But buyer’s advocates look at the whole market of what’s available so you can find the right home at a glance.
Buyer’s advocates even have access to off-market properties. They maximize your search beyond what agents and real estate websites can do.
Saving Clients Time and Money
Furthermore, buying a home is a time-consuming endeavour. Buyer’s advocates take that burden of time upon themselves and use different property acquisition strategies to get you the best deal possible.
For example, if you were to take on all the research of a buyer’s advocate, you could easily invest over 100 hours into the process. But, for a full-time working family, they don’t have that time to spare. A buyer’s advocate does have that time, allowing home buyers to relax and spend their free time however they choose.
Finally, buyers who use an advocate avoid feeling pressured into making rushed decisions by pushy agents. Instead, the buyer’s advocate steps up and handles the negotiations for them. Not only does this de-stress the buyer, but it helps save them money on the home purchase.
Perth Buyer’s Advocates
If you’re looking to hire a buyer’s advocate in Perth, Australia, you’ll have some choices to choose from. Some things to keep in mind when choosing from the buyer’s advocates in Perth, is their backgrounds and experiences in the real estate industry, their services, and their reliability.
Some Western Australia buyer’s advocates are in their infancy. Though you may find their fees are lower, they also aren’t as experienced as other agencies.
Moreover, you should be wary of the service-to-cost ratio when choosing a buyer’s advocate. Compare total prices and service offerings to get what you need at the best prices.
Finally, consider reliability. Buyer’s advocacy agencies that post reviews, extensive case studies, and customer testimonies show transparency, making them easier to trust. It also indicates a level of customer loyalty that solidifies their reputation.
Buyer’s Advocate Perth Australia: Get Started Today
When it comes to first-time home buying, you can’t go wrong with hiring reliable, experienced buyer’s advocates like You&Me Personalised Property Services.
With a combined 40 years of real estate experience in Perth WA, we’ve completed thousands of real estate transactions and consistently achieve great results. Book your free 45-minute discovery session to get started finding your dream home today! Remember, right property, right price, or we do it for FREE.
Buyer's Agent, Co-Founder at You&Me Personalised Property Services