‘I’m ready’: how Alysha bought her first property with the help of a buyer’s agent

From befriending a real estate agent (seriously!) to frank chats with friends – building the right team so you have the right advice and skills behind you can make all the difference when you’re buying your first home. And while a real estate agent is an inevitable, buddying up with a buyer’s agent is totally optional. Some do it. Some don’t.

So you might be wondering, “Do I need one? Is a buyer’s agent right for me? What even are they?” A buyers agent is a licensed professional who specialises in searching, evaluating and negotiating on behalf of you, the buyer. ‘Licensed’ is key. If you do go with one, choose one who has relevant qualifications like a real estate licence, for a start.

To find out more about buying with a buyer’s agent, we chatted with Alysha, a home buyer who did just that. We asked her to share her home-buying story and explain how a buyer’s agent helped her along the way.

Hi, Alysha. Congrats on buying your first property! What was your main motivation to buy, and how did you know you were ready?

I really wanted to get into the property market, because I believe having a property is a good investment. My father was a real estate agent and he was always advocating for that, so I’d been thinking about it for some time. Then it got to a point where I thought: You know what? It’s really time for me to put this in motion.

At the time, I was living in Singapore. This was around January 2020, right before COVID. I thought: I’ve got the time, I’m ready to start looking into this. I applied for a loan and then it all kicked off from there.

Once you decided that you were ready to start this adventure, what was the first thing you did?

I had a friend who’d used a home loan specialist in Sydney and she recommended them. So I reached out and said, “I’m looking to get a loan. I live overseas. Can you tell me what I need to do to start the process?” We had a call and then took it from there. That was the first step. I think it’s important to know how much money you can borrow before you can really focus on the type of property that you want to buy.

At what point did you enlist the buyer’s agent, and what was the first thing they helped you with?

Pretty much straight away! I received pre-approval for my home loan and then I researched a few different buyer’s agents until I decided on one. I had the initial, introductory call, and they told me how they work. They sent me a pitch, of sorts. From there, they started helping me hone in on the sort of property I wanted to buy, and the sort of investor I wanted to be.

They asked me a whole bunch of questions like, “Do you want to buy a property and then sell it straight away? Or are you in it for long-term growth?” Once you’ve gone through that process and you know the type of property you want, the budget you’re working with and the areas you want to look in, the buyer’s agent starts to find properties that fit your brief and shares them with you.

Was help finding properties the most valuable part of working with the buyer’s agent? In what way did it help?

I knew that finding a property was going to be challenging because I wasn’t there on the ground. Plus, how a property looks in print or online is very different to in person. So it was great being able to rely on someone to find the properties, vet them and send them through to me. If they didn’t meet certain criteria, like if the rental unit was too small, or the asking price too high, for example, they wouldn’t send them through. The buyer’s agent had done the due diligence before the properties even got to my inbox.

Plus, there are so many things you wouldn’t even think about. Like rental yields or the growth rate of certain areas. Or the thinking behind choosing to buy a house over an apartment. Even things like flood zones. There are so many different elements to consider that I wouldn’t have known about had I not used a buyer’s agent.

Do you have any tips for someone who’s thinking about buying a place using a buyer’s agent?

It helps to really consider the areas that you’re interested in, particularly if you’re buying to invest rather than buying to live. Before working with my buyer’s agent, I’d gotten to a point where I thought: I don’t feel comfortable buying in areas that I know nothing about; I’ve never lived in these states. So I would suggest doing your research on the different areas that you’re considering and decide how comfortable you feel buying in those locations that you may not know a lot about.

Also, I got really good recommendations about people to work with. I got a home loan specialist through a friend. I found my conveyancer through my sister. And I found my buyer’s agent through my home loan specialist. So having people you trust recommend services or contacts is really helpful – then you have the assurance that you’re going to get good customer service because you know people who have used these companies before.

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