Every day, Australians purchase property on their own without a buyer's agent so it's understandable that many balk at the very idea of paying for one.
Savvy buyers look at the fee as an investment that returns well over its face value in these key areas.
1. In a rising market, time is money.
The average buyer spends 6 months house hunting before they ultimately purchase.
In today’s rising market, this equates to an eye-watering 10% decline in their buying power.
Put simply, if your budget is $2m, the house you can afford now was the one that sold for $1.8m six months ago.
Or conversely, if you’d bought a house for $2m back then, it’d now be worth $2.2m.
HUNTER typically secures a deal within 3 months of the search start - often much sooner – saving our clients our fees many times over.
What drives this the difference? I get you focused really quickly on your buying criteria and aligning it with your budget so you don’t waste time looking at properties – falling in love with properties – you can’t afford.
The moment I have a green light to pursue a property, I am moving on the pre-purchase diligence and comparative sales analysis to be in the best position to make an offer and negotiate as required.
We can have as little as a day's notice to scramble building inspections, legal reviews and planning diligence. That's ok because it's what I do.
Few buyers can drop everything - they have their own day jobs - to hustle as quickly as is required in today's market.
2. Valuing the opportunity cost of your time
Searching online, calling estate agents and inspecting properties takes at least 10 hours a week.
Add seven hours pre-purchase diligence for every property you pursue (I’ll be generous and assume you’re third time lucky) and attending auctions/negotiations and you'll come close to the AVERAGE HOURS AN AUSTRALIAN SPENDS ON SECURING A PROPERTY:
(10 hrs * 6 mths) + (7 hrs * 3 properties) = 281hrs
Now of course you won't save this entire amount when you engage me. You'll need to spend on average 20 hours meeting with me and attending inspections.
So take those 20hrs off the 281hrs to get 261hrs saved on average when you engage me.
Now let's do the math on a salary of $100k.
261hrs * $50/hr equates to $13,050.
(Now you do the math on your salary.)
If you're house hunting with a partner, better include their salary too.
Can we all agree there’s nothing more valuable in life than our time?
Everybody gets the same 24hrs in each day.
Few would claim online searching, data crunching, taking calls from real estate agents, coordinating experts and negotiating is what they want to spend their time doing rather than working/exercising/going on dates/playing with the kids/going away for the weekend/basically anything else.
For 6 weeks that would be considered painful. For 6 months? Torture.
Lucky for them, it's what I LOVE and am an expert at doing.
3. Access to off market listings
Real estate agents with off market listings are often under time pressure to deliver a quick sale.
They'll call us first because they know we can move quicker than other buyers; we've got established diligence processes and ready buyers.
We'll sort the genuine off-markets from the suspect ones so our buyers aren't lured in to buying a substandard asset under the allure of a low-competition fight.
We're skilled at finding the vendor's key negotiation points and framing the right offer to save $'000.
4. Savings on the negotiation
There is no one play in property sales.
You have to know the market, the competition levels, the real estate agent and the vendor.
For properties that can be sold prior to auction, knowing when to offer prior and how to frame any offers can be the difference between winning and disappointment.
Confidently managing negotiations when a property has been passed in at auction by knowing how strong your position is to stand firm against the vendor's reserve prices - aka the likelihood it will sell relatively quickly once the price goes public - means buyers save $'000 and secure the keys.
5. Not letting emotions rule
A detailed comparable sales analysis accompanies every single prospective purchase and my clients know exactly what price is supported by recent sales and beyond which point they're in overpaying territory.
Because I'm the one representing them at auction, there is zero risk of their emotions getting in the way of the strategy.
No one is getting spooked by the competition or letting their ego get the best of them.
Next stop: holding the keys
Buying a property will likely be the largest purchase you make in your lifetime.
It's worth getting it right the first time and getting it right takes commitment, expertise and judgement.
I'm a licensed and experienced professional driven to provide exceptional outcomes and outstanding client service.
It's my daily mission to secure the very best properties on the very best terms.
When you're holding the keys to your property, I can guarantee my fees will be the best money you'll have ever spent.