We've spent a lot of time on this podcast talking about the finance side of things. Pre-approval, borrowing capacity, building your deposit. All of that matters. But as we always say, the most important decision you'll make is the actual property you purchase.

That's exactly why I sat down with Veronica Morgan to kick off a six part buyers agent series. Veronica has been in property for 26 years, she started out as a sales agent in Sydney, and she now runs Good Deeds Property Buyers. She also co-founded the H ome Buyer Academy with Meighan Wells.

In this resource we're covering:

🔑 What a buyers agent does and how they're different from a sales agent

🔑 The three buyers agent service tiers and what each one is for

🔑 How much a buyers agent costs in Australia

🔑 Five buyers agent red flags to watch out for

🔑 The questions to ask before you engage one

🔑 When in your buying journey to actually engage them

🔑 What to do if a buyers agent isn't in your budget

This resource supports Episode 41 of the First Home Unlocked Podcast.

The Key Takeaway 🔑

A buyers agent is a licensed real estate agent who works exclusively for the buyer, not the seller. For a first home buyer in Australia you'll usually pay upwards of $10,000 for a full search, and the right time to engage one is when you're close to having pre-approval in hand. A buyers agent isn't essential, but if you can afford an experienced local one they can help you buy a better quality property and negotiate a better outcome. If you can't, structured education is the next best thing.

Now let's get into the detail.

What Does a Buyers Agent Actually Do?

A buyers agent finds, assesses and negotiates on property for the buyer. They help you work out what your money can realistically buy, search the market, do the due diligence, handle the negotiation with the sales agent, and stay with you through to settlement.

A buyers agent is a licensed real estate agent, exactly like a sales agent. Same licence, same course. The difference is who they represent.

Buyers Agent vs Sales Agent: Who Are They Actually Working For?

A sales agent has a legal obligation to get the best possible price for the seller. Nothing wrong with that, but it means they're not on your side. A buyers agent is paid by you, so their obligation runs to you.

The language in this industry gets deliberately blurry though. Veronica flagged two versions worth knowing about. The first is a sales agency with someone on the team called a "buyer's agent" or "buyer manager," who nine times out of ten is an assistant working the seller's database. The second is people who call themselves buyers agents but are actually selling developer stock. They'll tell you it's a free service, because the developer pays them.

So the quickest test is a money test. Who pays them? If it isn't you, they aren't working for you. Free advice in property almost always means someone else is footing the bill, and you want to know who.

What Are the Different Buyers Agent Service Tiers?

You don't have to sign up for the full service. There are three common ways to engage a buyers agent.

1. Full search and acquisition. The complete service. They set the brief with you, search, inspect, do due diligence, negotiate and see you through to settlement. Most expensive, most hands off for you.

2. Single property evaluation and negotiation. You've found something yourself, you like it, but you don't know if it's good or bad or what you should pay. You bring in a buyers agent to assess that one property and negotiate on it. This is a popular option for first home buyers who want a second opinion before committing, and it costs a fraction of a full search.

3. Auction bidding only. Someone bids for you on the day. Veronica discourages this one, and her reasoning is fair. Whoever is bidding hasn't advised you on the property or on your limit, so you're paying for a service that skips the part that matters.

How Much Does a Buyers Agent Cost in Australia?

Fees vary a lot. Veronica's honest description was "a little bit all over the shop."

Two things move the number. Your budget, because most buyers agents run a tiered fee structure built around the price bracket you're buying in, though some charge a percentage of the purchase price instead. Then geography. You could have the same budget in Melbourne and Sydney and still pay more for a Sydney buyers agent.

As a rough guide, a first home buyer engaging a full search is generally looking at north of $10,000. Ten thousand sits at the cheap end. In some markets that's normal. In others, it's a warning sign.

Why a Cheap Buyers Agent Can Cost You More

There is no specific training to become a buyers agent. The licensing process is identical whether you're becoming a sales agent, a property manager or a buyers agent, and those courses are built with sales agents in mind. They don't cover how to price a property you're buying, how to do due diligence, or how to read what a sales agent is really telling you. Which means a new buyers agent is learning the actual job on the job. Possibly on you.

"You could hire a buyers agent who's actually got no experience, which is really alarming but very possible." - Veronica Morgan

That's why Veronica says choosing a cheap buyers agent is worse than just educating yourself. Educate yourself and you've at least built a foundation. Hire an inexperienced operator and you're paying for advice on top of no foundation, and bad advice on a property purchase is expensive in a way a course fee never will be.

Five Buyers Agent Red Flags to Watch Out For

Red flag 1: The price looks too good

Cheap in this industry usually means inexperienced. It's the one purchase where paying less can cost you the most.

Red flag 2: One solution for everything

If someone is pushing you towards one property type, one suburb, one strategy, before they've understood your situation, that's a signal. Veronica's point here stuck with me. When she and Meighan answer questions on their podcast, the first words out of their mouths are almost always "it depends," and then they walk through what it depends on.

"If someone's so certain that they don't understand nuance and they can't actually say what it depends on, I think that's a huge red flag. Personally, it shows me a lack of experience." - Veronica Morgan

Certainty is seductive when you're overwhelmed. It's also the easiest thing in the world to fake.

Red flag 3: They're not asking about your goals

Same test I'd apply to a mortgage broker, including me. If someone isn't asking why you're buying, what life looks like in five or ten years, and whether this property fits that, they can't be giving you advice. They're giving you a product.

Red flag 4: They're not a local specialist

Plenty of buyers agents pitch themselves as borderless. Buy in Perth, Darwin, Adelaide, no problem.

The reality is that legislation is different in every state and territory, and so is the buying process, the contract and what you need to check. When an agent licensed in one state applies for automatic mutual recognition in another, they aren't required to learn any of it. Then there's the local knowledge you can't get from a spreadsheet. Which streets to avoid. Which pockets flood. Which side of the hill cops the wind all summer. You'd never think to ask, and a local specialist already knows.

Red flag 5: They have a financial interest in what you buy

If a buyers agent has a referral arrangement with a developer or a builder, their recommendation isn't neutral. Ask the question directly.

What Questions Should You Ask a Buyers Agent?

Veronica gave a great list, and I've kept it close to how she put it.

How long have you been a buyers agent? Not how long you've owned property. Professional years only.
Where did you learn to be a buyers agent?
What sort of properties do you tell your clients not to buy?
Have you ever pulled out right before negotiating because you found something in due diligence? Tell me about it.
How do you work out what price I should pay, and how do you explain that to me?
What due diligence do you do before I sign a contract? Can you show me what that looks like?
What's your geographic focus, and how well do you know it?
Do you have any financial interest in the properties you recommend?

What you're listening for is someone more interested in protecting you from a bad property than in bragging about how many they've bought. There's a flip side too. A good buyers agent should be asking you a lot of questions. If they aren't, that's your answer.

Is a Buyers Agent Worth the Cost?

A fee that size is real money when you're already saving a deposit, so here's how I'd think about it.

Property growth compounds. Two properties in the same suburb at the same price do not grow at the same rate, and that gap widens every year you hold. Veronica's buyers agency has tracked client properties against their suburb averages, and the difference can run to hundreds of thousands of dollars over ten years.

Most first home buyers won't stay in their first home forever. The property you buy now is the deposit for the one you buy next. So the question isn't really "can I afford a buyers agent." It's "what does buying the wrong property cost me by the time I want to move."

The Emotional Side of Buying Your First Home

Buying your first home is one of the most emotional things you'll ever do. It's a huge amount of money and a huge amount of debt, and underneath the excitement there's usually a quiet fear that you're about to make a very expensive mistake. Then you add missing out at auction, or losing a property you'd already pictured yourself living in.

"We call it property therapy. A lot of people think you've got to keep emotion out of the property purchasing experience, but the reality is we all feel these emotions." - Veronica Morgan

I hear the opposite advice given to first home buyers all the time. Be logical, take the emotion out of it. But you're buying a home to live in. Of course there's emotion in it. Veronica's view is to harness it rather than pretend it isn't there, and that makes a lot more sense to me.

What you want is a buyers agent with enough empathy to understand you and enough backbone to tell you what you don't want to hear.

When Should You Engage a Buyers Agent?

Don't engage a buyers agent until you're close to having pre-approval.

Before that point there isn't much they can do beyond educate you, and in a fast moving market the research they do now will be out of date by the time you're ready to buy. Once your finance is sorted they can hit the ground running and start the search properly.

What you should do early is the vetting. Talk to buyers agents, ask the questions above, work out who you'd want in your corner. Then engage them once your finance is in place. Sequence matters, and it's the same reason we bang on about talking to a broker twelve months out.

Property, Position, Price: Why One Always Has to Flex

One more idea worth stealing whether you use a buyers agent or not.

Veronica starts every client with what she calls a getting started session, built around three P's. Property, position and price. For every buyer, one of those three has to flex more than the other two.

Budget and property requirements fixed? Position has to move.
Position and budget fixed? The property itself has to compromise.
Property and position fixed? The price is what gives.

You can't lock all three. Working out which one flexes for you, before you start inspecting, is the difference between a focused search and six months of frustration.

What If You Can't Afford a Buyers Agent?

Plenty of first home buyers aren't in a position to pay a buyers agent on top of a deposit, stamp duty, a conveyancer and everything else. That doesn't leave you stuck.

Veronica and Meighan built the Home Buyer Academy course for exactly this reason. They worked out years ago that the buyers who most need good guidance are the ones least able to afford it, so they packed 50 years of combined experience into a course instead.

It's structured around the PACE system, four phases with ten steps underneath:

Preparation: assemble your support crew (broker first), get your money ready, build your plan.
Action: get out and inspect, then pause and revise. Veronica said that revise step is the one they're proudest of, because most people go straight from inspecting to offering without checking whether what they've seen has changed what they want.
Commitment: evaluate the property properly, work through the state specific documents, and price it.
Execution: negotiation strategy, contract ready with your conveyancer, dealing with agents without getting bluffed.

They also run weekly Campfire sessions, live group calls where you bring the actual properties you're looking at and get told which ones to prioritise and where the red flags are.

I've been through the course myself, so I'm not recommending it blind. Home Buyer Academy have given First Home Unlocked clients access at half price, which we're really grateful for, and course members also get a copy of Veronica's book Auction Ready.

Final Thoughts

The property you buy matters more than the loan you get, the rate you lock in or the deposit you put down. Getting that decision right is worth investing in.

For some of you that investment is a buyers agent. For others it's educating yourself properly and planning carefully. Both are valid. What isn't valid is walking into the biggest purchase of your life and hoping it works out. Go in with your eyes open, do the work on asset quality, ask the right questions, and decide based on your goals rather than on FOMO or pressure.

If you want to talk through what support you actually need, whether that's your finance, a buyers agent recommendation or just a sounding board, you can book a Get to Know You Chat with me. I'm a mortgage broker and I work with first home buyers every day.

For the full conversation with Veronica, listen to Episode 41.

Frequently Asked Questions

A buyers agent is a licensed real estate agent who works exclusively for the buyer. They search for property, assess it, do the due diligence and negotiate the purchase. They're paid by you, not by the seller.
A sales agent is legally obliged to get the best price for the seller. A buyers agent is paid by the buyer and works to get you the right property at the right price. Same licence, opposite side of the table.
It depends on your budget and your location. Most run a tiered fee structure and some charge a percentage of the purchase price. As a rough guide, a first home buyer engaging a full search is generally looking at more than $10,000, with $10,000 sitting at the cheap end of the market.
When you're close to having pre-approval. Before that, the research they do is likely to be out of date by the time you're ready to buy. Do your vetting early, engage them once your finance is sorted.
No, it's not essential. But an experienced local buyers agent can help you buy a better quality property, negotiate more effectively and stay level headed through an emotional process. If the fee isn't realistic for you, structured education like the Home Buyer Academy course is the next best thing.
A suspiciously cheap fee, pushing one solution before understanding your situation, not asking about your goals, claiming to buy anywhere in Australia rather than specialising locally, and having a financial interest in what you buy.

Do You Need a Buyers Agent? A First Home Buyer's Guide to Cost, Red Flags and Timing