Home Buying with a Buyer Agent

About

NOTE: This page is a daughter page of: Home Buying

In the modern housing crisis in Australia (2024 and beyond), a buyer's agent may make more sense than ever. In big cities like Brisbane, where I just bought a place in 2024, most places sell within 1-2 weeks and there is huge competition between home buyers to lock something down. This article doesn't convince you whether or not to get a buyer's agent, because my experience was mixed. If you read to the end you'll understand better what might go right, what might go wrong and what parts of the process you might not have been aware of. In my case I already had watched videos about the process of "buying a house", but I was pretty clueless about what the timeline after that looked like - for instance, I had no idea I had to get home insurance immediately - a month before actually moving in. So read on if that might help you.

Why Get a Buyer's Agent

I advise getting a buyer's agent. Buying a house is typically the most costly and important decision in your life. It's a decision with huge ramifications for your financial and mental well-being. Marriage is the only other decision with a comparable level of weight on future happiness or misery, and financial future! But buying a house is (probably) not something you are an expert in. Here are some of the main reasons why a buyer's agent makes sense:

1. They can help you avoid overpaying and/or sweetening a deal.
2. They can warn you of red flags in a property that you'd never know to look for.
3. They come with you to inspections to get a sense of what you like.
4. They can curate only the places that meet your needs.
5. They can help adjust your expectations and learn what neighbourhoods best suit your lifestyle.
6. They often have insights into competing offers etc that you'd never have access to.
7. They remove the hard work from the whole process of making an offer, conveyance etc.
8. It takes the stress out of things.

Obviously

Making an Offer

Ask for What you Want

What's nice about a buyer's agent - they'll know what is and it's too reasonable to ask for. My agent knew the buyers were moving to Melbourne, so we asked if they would "throw in" all the furniture and they said yes! That was huge. There were a couple of pieces they wanted - and one of the beds (not sure why that particular one) - but I was really happy as their furniture is beautiful.

DocuSign if Successful

If your offer isn't successful, I assume you might stay waiting for days. For me, the offer was accepted almost immediately, so it was almost scary how fast they prepared a DocuSign for me to sign an agreement.

Home Building and Pest Inspection Report=

Usually, a condition of buying is if the place passes an independent home building and pest inspection report.... which might cost $400-$800 and if you are lucky you can schedule it quickly. Problem is... most seller's don't want to wait around for that, so they can "prove" the place has minimal problems by getting their own home building and pest inspection report done ahead of time and just send it to you. That's what happened for me, and I decided it looked above board - a very long report (>30 pages!), but only minor issues (like a few cracked roof tiles etc), and thought I'd go ahead with the offer. Afterall, if you decide to get your own home building and pest inspection report, they seller might cancel on you. If you read this whole article you'll see my regrets in not getting my own done.

After Signing - The Timing of Things

Cool-off Nerves (5 days)

I knew about the cool-off, it happens after you (the buyer) sign the contract, but what was unexpected was the nervousness. I wasn't considering pulling out, but it was disconcerting that during cool-off I noticed realestate.com still listed my place as "For Sale". Apparently, this is normal for sellers - they still like to get business - and often "under contract" falls through, so some might keep the listing up until the settlement date.

Settlement Date (30 days)

Even if you buy outright, the standard contract is ~30 days until the settlement date - which is when you pay and then move in. It's a pain in the butt to move in any earlier, so just know you'll have to wait, and sometime in the middle, you get a chance for another last-minute inspection to look for any pressing problems you might want to be fixed or to knock a little off the cost.

Deposit Immediately via a Bank Branch (immediately)

I knew this was coming, and the people were nice enough to just do a smaller deposit ($30k instead of 10%), perhaps because they trusted me.... but even 30k means physically going to the bank branch the day after you sign as online banking internet you often have a 20k limit - and it feels a little safer at a bank branch too. I had the money ready, but the nervousness was that my contract said they wanted the money the day after signing and I called up my conveyancer to say "but with a new payee, it often takes 24 hours just to clear". Sellers understand this of course, so sending them a picture of my receipt was good enough.

Get Home Insurance Immediately after Deposit! (Know the Specs) (Budget Direct) (immediately)

Even though it's 30 days before you move in and a bit less than 30 days before your big payment (the house cost minus the deposit), you are responsible for insurance almost the day after you sign. So basically (heaven forbid) if the house burned down the day after you sign, then it's on you! That's a hard-to-imagine scenario, but I was lucky in that I had the time that day to call up a bunch of insurance agents, as well as look online. The thing is they ask lots of questions, like the materials, home age, and value to rebuild. There were lots of gaps and even confusion about what to answer about floors and wall when I knew most of the walls were brick veneer, but I believe one side was timber... and maybe 40% of the floor is polished wood, but there's carpet for bedrooms, and tiles downstairs... yet you can only answer one option for this, and the threat they all give is "if you don't answer honestly, and something goes wrong we may treat your insurance like it never existed". That was a bit scary, because I didn't really know what it might cost to "replace the house" if it burned down, so I just used ChatGPT to get a ballpark.

Dean helped me answer the other questions about materials etc, but given I had only walked through the house once I'm glad I also took a video.

I ended up with Budget Direct as the cheapest but still seemed pretty good (they have won some awards), and even switched my car to them in the process. Suncorp and Allianz are a couple of other big names, but take that with a grain of salt. Insurance may cost you easily on the order of $1500-$2000 a year for a home in Brisbane to cover the lot, but if you are in a flood zone then expect that number to skyrocket by $1500 (low-risk) - $5000 or more (higher risk) depending on the level of risk.

Pay the Buyers Agent (~10 days)

This may vary between agents, but they sent the bill ~10 days after signing, which was fine. The cost was 2.2% of the sale price for me. I was already used to driving to the bank at this point, and your buyer's agent will probably be more lenient on not needing to pay the day of the invoice! If not already, the buyer's agent conveyancer of choice will have reached out and explained what pieces are left.

Electricity (Ampol Energy) / Gas / Movers (2 weeks before moving in)

You have a bit of breathing time now before the settlement date to sort out utilities and also the process of moving. But not as much time as you think! Most electricity companies just can't turn on electricity the "day of", instead they have a calendar where you might schedule your switch-on date a couple of weeks ahead.

Dean set me up with a removalist he recommended and also "Direct Connect" who can help you set up Electric / Gas and Internet in one hit and guarantee set up on the first day. It sounded good in theory - and they take their cut on the provider side (not from you), but they only have about three providers they call, so I decided to call around and look on the internet myself. Not all providers will service your area, I wanted Nectr, and sadly they didn't service my area, but they told me my NMI (National Meter Identifier), and the woman recommended EnergyMadeEasy.gov.au as a good way to compare for your address and basic needs. Before deciding on electricity you should consider:

- Do you have solar panels? If so a plan with a feed-in tariff of 5-10c might help save one or two hundred off your bill each year. I have 5kEV, so that's nice - How much usage? - What's your meter number? (sometimes they can look it up for you) - Is your electricity meter a smart meter? (streamlines the process of reading and precise payment, versus them just guessing because that's cheaper than sending someone to read it) - The "average family" is 2.1 children, and they all have to give you an estimate based on the plan you pick on the phone (or online), and it will probably be O($2000) a year.

In the end, I went with Ampol Energy, as they were about the cheapest and seemed like the easiest and least complex payment structure. They even have a deal off petrol, but I have an EV, so that part doesn't apply. Some of the biggest energy companies in this area are: Origin Energy, AGL, EnergyAustralia... and some of the established ones also offer internet (and bundles if you do both), but can actually be more expensive than some newer ones like, Red Energy, Nectr. After a month after moving in they sent my first electricity bill via email, to pay via BPay, and it seemed about responsible for what I expected.

Final Inspection (a few days before )

The final inspection comes just days before settlement, and this is your chance to go in with the buyer's agent and just check that nothing has fallen apart since you decided to buy the place. It's rare, but it can happen that major things are removed or fall apart. You might discover a door that doesn't close and request that they fix it before you move in or knock a little off the price. That kind of decision can early push your move-in date by weeks. Some people are really picky, but in my case I was mostly excited to move in, so a couple of things I did notice, I decided wasn't worth fixing. That might have been a huge mistake, which you'll read about later.

Final Payment

So if the final inspection went well, you do the final payment just before moving in. This is the big one... the bank will ask you lots of questions but it should be a direct transfer to the conveyancer who will hand the rest.

Move In Date

You might move in on the settlement date, or weeks later if you found issues with the house. Either way, it's a surreal experience. The first tricky part might be picking up keys. You have to wait for your final payment to clear, and then you can drive to the sellers agent who will gift you the keys. The seller's agents Belle also gave a cute little gift box, which makes you feel good, but in the scheme of what they were just paid it's nothing - they are just hoping to keep you smiling and consider selling with them if you decide to sell in the future, or immediately if the place falls apart.

Awkward Empty Nest

In my case the place came furnished, which helped, but for a lot of people it might be a rude shock if the place is empty. For most people though, you might have a full compliment of furniture already... or at least a bed - so you just have to be prepared for a long exhausting move date, and the slow process of taking things out of boxes. It really can take weeks to get stuff sorted... and then months to slowly fill in the gaps of other pieces you might need. It will tire you out.

Finalize and Remaining Services Like Internet (Aussie Broadband)

Some people might like to sign up to internet before they move in, but I didn't. Internet isn't as important as electricity now that we all have internet on our phones and we can hotspot. So I took my time (probably 2 weeks) researching different internet companies, and ended up picking Aussie Broadband as ChatGPT said it was one of the best for customer satisfaction and price, plus a mesh router that was rated well. The price/plan: $95/month for 100 Mbps + I ordered an Eero Pro 6E for $240 with $50 off for coupon). The router arrived pretty quickly and it wasn't hard to set up, and it reaches everywhere in the house, so that was a good decision I think.

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What Can Go Wrong

If you've read all the above, hopefully you've got insights into the "timing of things" if everything goes to plan. You might even be excited that I bought a house. As I was. But after you have paid all this money and moved in... often that's when the drama starts. I'm sad to say that's what happened to me, and I'll be very honest about what went down, and how horrifically it affected my mental health.