Also I think they are to specific in targeting areas that provide low yields with the hope of future capital gains instead at looking at an investors individual circumstances.
Though there's exceptions, often there's a conflict of interest between BAs and what's best for an investor client who wants good yield.
High yields for BAs mean expensive properties in posh areas, whereas high yields for investors are often found in the cheaper areas (with some exceptions eg multiple occupancies or commercial property).
A BA probably spends as much work looking for a $300k cheapie as a $900k dearie for a client, and assuming a flat percentage commission, the latter rewards much more handsomely.
A BA might be able to negotiate well to more than justify their $5k fee on a unique art-deco house in South Perth, but maybe not a grotty apartment in a Vic Park tower block where there's heaps of comparable sales.
Hence BAs, like their mostly time-poor clientele, often favour the inner, the leafy, the beachfront and the riverside areas as that's where their highest yields are (and the best prospects for saving the client money). The problem here is they can be ignorant about the 90+% of advertised properties outside their area and may not do well in finding something that best suits the investors's needs, particuarly if it's in a cheaper area*.
The other thing that works againt BAs in WA is the statistics that are cheaply available from DOLI/Valuer Generals. Whereas in Melbourne (the auction capital of the world) much sales data is confined to real estate agents / buyers agents and is harder for the average buyer to obtain.
(*) In support of this, Patrick Bright states that even full-time agents can only ever be market experts in the small area near their office and their knowledge rapidly falls away out of area.
