Not all BA's are the same
My personal experience with BA's are mixed.
As I work over seas and when I’m on my break in Australia I have no interest in running around and dealing with real estate agents. I have engage the services of two BA at different times and at the end of the day, I had to walk away leaving behind the retainer deposit I paid, all up $5,500 loss.
One in Sydney was interested in only selling me high priced apartments to maximize his percentage commission and the other lacked any real knowledge and carried house inspection via the internet and relied on selling agents for feed back of the condition of the property. This one recommended that I buy this particular IP, “will sell fast” However I walked away from him and three months latter the property was still on the market, On an open day I had a look, boy I’m glade I didn’t buy, very run down and over priced.
I didn’t give up and from this forum I found a third BA (Jacque)
Have purchased an IP and very happy with her service, now I’m looking for another IP in QLD, took me a whilst to find one, I interviewed a couple and found that they gave me very little info out in what areas they work in, I can understand why, with people out there milking them for free info. But for me I wanted to make sure I don’t make the same mistakes as I did in the past.
Finally I found one and so far I’m happy with what he is doing, I have no problems with the commission they charge, would prefer it if they charge fixed rate like most other industries out there, because I get a little uncomfortable when they first say you should buy in the medium price range i.e. 450k then when they find out how much you can borrow, guess what looking price range goes up.
But having said that, you pay them 2.2% of the selling price and really it isn’t really much if you consider that the property may go up 5-8% pa, and all the work that goes into finding a house, my last purchase with Jacque took something like three months, reports every week and with many house inspections and a lot being rejected for various reasons due to my requirements.
I personal am a fan of BA’s, would like to have the time and do it myself but Time is a problem for me and beside I really prefer to spend time traveling whilst on break, next week I go to Bali for 10 days.
Stephen
