Buyer's agent delivers unemotional realities

The registered valuer, who runs 14-year-old advisory service Property Chase, helps buyers tap into a hidden pool of properties and navigate the Brisbane and Toowoomba real estate minefield.

"The reasons you'd engage a buyer's agent are, firstly, the vast number of checks we do on a property before we even look to make an offer," Mr Anderssen said.

Property Chase carries out at least 35 checks per property, including flood risk, underground pipes, block size, layouts, surrounding properties, nearby development proposals, access to transport and even breezes that flow through the house.

"A buyer's agent who is a valuer has the advantage of knowing what a property's worth before we go to negotiate on it," Mr Anderssen said, "and our lack of emotional involvement helps."

"And because I've done my time in sales, I understand the scripts and the dialogues that the various selling agents are using, which helps us work out how we're going to negotiate."

Careful analysis of property values can reap significant savings for buyers, Mr Anderssen said, giving the example of a client who was considering a large unit in New Farm listed for $3.6 million.

"I did my assessment and said I thought it was worth $3.1m," he said.

"Our client said, 'I think that you're wrong, because you're so far away from the asking price.'

"We stuck to our guns and we ended up buying it for $3m, which was $600,000 less than the asking price."

Vendors and buyers often relied too heavily on automatically generated valuations, Mr Anderssen said.

"There can be such a huge range of values, and unless you really know what you're doing, then it's very much a slippery slope," he said.

"When that auto valuation gets it wrong, it means they're missing out on a property because they're going off what an app has told them."

With real estate in desperately short supply, Mr Anderssen said, many buyers were paying prices they one day would "rue" due to their impatience to secure a property.

That desperation was only heightened by the decreasing levels of stock. An increasing percentage of properties were also sold off-market since the start of the pandemic in early 2020.

"The percentage of properties that sell without ever being advertised is the highest we've ever seen," Mr Anderssen said.

"It kicked off when the first lockdowns happened last year in Brisbane and maybe 20 to 30 per cent of the properties buyer's agents are purchasing would be off-market, perhaps even more."

Instead, the properties were being sold through agent databases, he said, shielding vendors from the stress associated with photography, open houses and countless inspections.

Given the growing percentage of offerings it represented, understanding that hidden property market was important for homebuyers and investors, Mr Anderssen said.

A good buyer's agent could interpret trends and offer investment advice.

"We take their budget into consideration, what it is that they're after, and then can advise them on geographic areas and types of properties," he said.

"Being a valuer, we also offer portfolio advice. We can look at clients' existing investment properties, explain what they're worth, what they should be returning, and how clients can improve those returns and values."

Aside from the financial upsides, engaging a buyer's agent had less tangible but no less valuable benefits, too, Mr Anderssen said.

"We look after the whole process for our clients," he said.

"They don't have to speak to a single agent, they don't have to attend open homes and inspect properties that were never going to fit their brief and most importantly, they don't have to work out what a property is worth or negotiate it on their own.

"Our job is to save them time and money and to take the stress out of the whole buying experience and process for them."

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