How spending money on a Buyer’s Agent can actually save you money

A lot of people looking to buy Noosa real estate or a Sunshine Coast investment property manage the purchase process on their own. Every single day. They seem to do it without needing a Sunshine Coast investor’s buyer’s agent, so why pay for buyers’ agency services when you could do it on your own?

Aside from saving you time (and your time = money/opportunity cost), we can help save you in a range of different ways.

1. You could save $’000s on just the Sunshine Coast property search

On average, a Sunshine Coast property buyer will spend 4-6 months searching for a home, before they’re successful in securing one. For others, it could be even longer – one client who engaged us recently had been looking unsuccessfully for 8 months for their next dream Noosa property (they engaged us, and we found their perfect home in 3 weeks by the way)! That is a long time to be looking, and previously a frustrating process for them!

For each week of that 4-6 months, you would spend around 8-9 hours a week – checking out realestate.com.au or domain.com.au, contacting Noosa real estate agents and getting calls from agents, travelling to and attending open homes, going through the pros and cons of an investment property, and possibly then mulling over details for a potential offer.

So let’s do a rough estimate of how much just the search process would cost to the average Australian income earner. The average Australian wage in 2022 is $90,000, which equates to $45-$50 per hour. Here we have done estimates if you are buying on your own, or if you’re buying with a partner or friend (which means the time x 2). If you earn higher than the average Australian wage, then you can adjust the cost accordingly:

	Individual	Couple
Avg no. weeks searching (4-6 months)	20	20 (x2)
Average no. hours per week searching	9	9 (x2)
Total no. hours searching over 4-6 months	180	180 (x2)
Hourly rate (average income earner)	$50	$50 x 2
Cost of property searching	$9,000	$18,000

On top of that, if you’re not local to the Sunshine Coast, you’ll no doubt need to add on time for travel, accommodation, and car hire too to do the search! So just say you do 2-3 trips to check out Noosa properties, and at a minimum, you would spend $1,000 per trip (that’s if you’re interstate / regionally, it would of course be much higher if you were doing this internationally).

	Individual	Couple
Travel costs	$3,000	$3,000
Cost of Noosa property searching:	$12,000	$21,000

And this is before you’ve even brought a property!

Outsourcing the Sunshine Coast property search will still require some time by you while we video you through the best-shortlisted properties that hit your brief, but as Sunshine Coast buyers agents we do most of the legwork so that this saves you significant time (and opportunity cost) of wasting your own valuable time. We also liaise with Sunshine Coast real estate agents regularly, so have access to on-market, off-market and pre-market opportunities and can often get into properties before they’re publicly available.

2. Saving money on the due diligence process

So you’ve found a property you like, after all that searching!

Now if you are being thorough, you should be spending at least another 7-8 hours on the proper due diligence for your shortlisted property – checking out easements, covenants, risks, property history, demographics of the area, street research, comparable sold properties and prices, vendor research etc. The list goes on. This is what buyers agents do every day.

You also may not be successful in every property you shortlist, so this could be 8 hours X 3 properties = another 24 hours at least. And this doesn’t factor in the cost of access to key research data and tools that we have to determine pricing etc. But let’s do the calculations on the time taken at least:

	Individual	Couple
Average no. hours on due diligence	8	8 (x2)
Average no. properties shortlisted	3	3 (x2)
Average hourly rate	$50	$50 x 2
The average cost of due diligence	$1,200	$2,400

Add that to your property search estimates, and costs are starting to mount!

2. Saving money in negotiations

Every Sunshine Coast property purchase is unique – vendor motivations, the property itself, the agent, timing, competition, the buyer motivations, etc – are all aspects that can impact how negotiations play out to secure a contract.

We have many examples of real estate purchases we’ve done for clients which have saved them spending more than they thought they would – from a range of money of tens of thousands of dollars to well over $100,000 depending on the individual circumstances (we’d be happy to share specific examples and client testimonials with you individually if you want specifics on these).

Experience in managing property negotiations and developing offer strategies using various tools can save our clients significant amounts of money, depending on the situation.  Importantly, making sure our clients buy well to achieve long-term financial goals and capital growth.

 

3. Saving money in the post-Contract period

As Sunshine Coast buyers agents, our work doesn’t stop when a contract is signed. We continue throughout the contract period – from negotiating building and pest items where applicable to save our clients having to pay for this themselves, to managing property management and achieving better PM rates (for Sunshine Coast investor clients), to the pre-settlement inspection and making sure that all the I’s are dotted and the t’s are crossed. The hard work is done for you so that all you need to do is celebrate (we can even collect the keys!)

4. Making the Sunshine Coast property purchase process a great experience

We’re here to make your life easier and give you back time to do the things you’d rather do than trudge around open homes. Sometimes it’s not as easy to put a price on that – but the benefits can be immeasurable.

As a Sunshine Coast buyers agency, our job, and our reputation, hinges on doing a great job for you. And we love the whole process, from start to finish!

At Home Scouts, we work closely with clients to identify the key criteria for their Sunshine Coast property purchase so that no time is wasted looking at the wrong properties. We take the time to find the best property to suit you based on your brief, deal with agents and identify shortlisted properties quickly for you. Once your perfect Sunshine Coast real estate is found, we work quickly on our due diligence process and develop an offer strategy to best represent you. And we fight hard for you to get the best possible purchase at the best possible price and conditions as we only have your best interests at heart.

We don’t stop working for you once the contract is secured, and we are proud to have strong long-term client and agent relationships – that is the heart of our business.

Let us do the hard work for you, while you focus on what you do (and like doing) best. Contact Bron today to discuss your buyers agency requirements, from Noosa property research reports and property pricing analysis, to helping you relocate to the Sunshine Coast, to your dream home.