FAQ

First and foremost, the buyer’s agent and anyone that they have assisting them to source property must have the appropriate licence. It is recommended that you check the public register provided by the consumer affairs or fair trading in the state in which they plan to find property for you. The buyer’s agent must be licenced in each state that they operate in. Some ‘buyers agents’ think that being licenced in one state allows them to purchase property Australia wide.

How much experience do they have in real estate especially in commercial property? Have they been through various property cycles?

What was their background before becoming a buyer’s agent?

Do they own commercial property?

If so, can you relate to their property journey? A buyer’s agent that owns 2 or 3 commercial properties may understand your needs better than someone that owns 10 or 20 properties.

Did they do their training through a real estate institute approved course or one of the many providers of short courses.

Are they a member of the state’s real estate institute?

How easy is it to relate to this person? Do they understand your needs and communicate a readiness to help you achieve your goals?

There is a misconception that buyer’s agents are only for the rich and famous but that is not the case. People, from all walks of life – investors, owner occupiers, Expats and International buyers, now use buyer’s agents to find commercial property on their behalf. They may lack experience in or confidence to find good commercial property or they may not have the time to search. Commercial property buyer’s agents will save time and heartache for a broad range of clients. There are many reasons smart investors now use buyer’s agents.

Typically, most buyers’ agent charges fees between 1.5% and 3.3% of the purchase price and some work on a fixed fee.

You need to check with your Accountant for specific advice but generally if you are buying a property for investment then the fees for using a buyer’s agent may be tax deductible.

This will depend upon the property brief and the market conditions at the time. We do not impose a time limit on our searches and will search until a suitable property is found. The important thing is not to rush the process but also be ready to purchase when the right property becomes available.

As a buyer’s agent, our business is to source and secure the most suitable property within your means and timeframe.

We have seen the many websites claiming to save money on the purchase price but how can that be gauged. We will certainly aim to purchase the property at the best price, terms and conditions that we can negotiate. The old saying that time is money is certainly the area that we can save you money. We can save you time and stress.

The Real Estate Institute of NSW believes that there is and on 12 August 2011 advised buyer agent members against the provision of vendor advocacy services. A buyer’s agent sole responsibility is to find the appropriate property for their client in exchange for a fee payable by the client. They should not accept any other commission or inducements from any other party.

We, as buyer’s agents, are working solely for you. We will never receive any commissions or any other type of incentive from other agents. We do not deal with developers. We regard the preservation of our independence and the ability to choose property based on what is in the clients interest as essential to the services we provide you. We avoid any conflict of interest.

Our primary focus is on providing buyer agency services for our clients. We do not lease or manage properties, we do not offer finance broking or accounting advice.

When requested, we can organise to find qualified people in the appropriate areas such as leasing, property management, building inspections etc in the area in which your property is located.

As we are continually searching properties, it is likely that we may have already looked at this property and based on the research and your buying criteria, concluded that this property did not match your requirements. It is also possible that you may have changed your buying criteria without updating us so we would need to reassess the property based on your new criteria.

Prior to becoming a client, if you have found a property that are you contemplating buying then you can engage us to evaluate such a property against your buying criteria. Our fee for such evaluation depends upon what work you may require to be undertaken for example Due Diligence, arrange various inspections and purchase negotiation.

We will provide impartial and objective advice on any commercial property.

We generally have between 6 and 10 clients that we are searching for at any time. This allows us to provide the personal attention and to understand your needs and find the most suitable property.

For those that have the time to search and want to learn how to find and buy commercial property, we do provide a mentoring / coaching service. Our fee is $495 per month (Minimum 3 months) payable in advance.

Prices range from $300,000 to around $12 million but for most first time investors, the price ranges from $750,000 to $1,500,000.

We normally do not recommend our clients buy at auction. If you buy at auction, you forego terms and conditions that you may include in negotiating a purchase. Also, you would be paying up front for various inspections without any certainty of securing the property on auction day. Some high profile real estate agencies are very good at putting pressure on you at auctions, creating emotions such as greed and fear of missing out. This is not the way to buy commercial property.

We prefer to make any offer pre or post auction including the terms and conditions that suit our clients.

No, we do not subscribe to hot spotting preferring to purchase property in areas that have long term industries and population growth. There are many examples of hot spotting and gurus promoting certain areas like mining towns where people have ended up losing money.

No, commercial properties should generally be considered long term investments. Commercial property can have higher fees than residential both entering and exiting the market so it is difficult to achieve a profit. I have tried to help one client purchase property with the aim of making a profit through arbitrage but again that is very difficult to achieve.

As part of our initial due diligence, we try to identify ways that our clients may be able to add value to the property. Any suggestions for adding value would need for investigations with council and or a feasibility study into the cost effectiveness. It is also important to note that what council or zoning may allow today may change in the future.

No, we are specialist buyer’s agents so only source your property. We prefer to leave property management to the experts. We can arrange to assist you in selecting a good property manager fr your commercial property investment.

Yes, there are many reasons why it is in your best interest to keep your identity hidden. It could be that you are purchasing from a friend, neighbour or competitor and you don’t want your identity to impact price negotiations or even prevent the sale entirely.