Linda Li
The right property, not the expected one
$810,000 equityNot the market she expected to be buying in, and the right one for where she was starting from. Read her story.
A Sydney buyers agent who starts with your numbers, not a postcode
An independent buyers agency that works out what you should buy before deciding where. Flat fee, no commissions, and paid by nobody but you.
Book my free 20-minute callNo pitch and no obligation. You will leave with a clearer view either way.
Recognition
Winner · 2025 REINSW John Greig OAM Community Award Finalist · 2026 REINSW Buyers Agency of the Year Finalist · 2026 REINSW Buyers Agent of the Year Finalist · 2026 REINSW John Greig OAM Community Award PIPA · REINSW · REIV · REIQ · REIA Licensed NSW, VIC & QLD
The real problem
Most property buyers ask the wrong question first
The question is almost always where should I buy? It feels like the important one. It is actually the last one.
Property buyers in Sydney get a lot of advice about location and almost none about whether the purchase fits the plan. So people buy something that looks fine on its own, and then discover it has quietly used up the borrowing capacity they needed for the next two.
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The wrong first question
Which suburb is going to grow? Nobody can answer that reliably, and the answer would still not tell you whether you can afford to hold it.
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The right first question
What does this property purchase have to do for my plan, and what happens to the next one if I buy it?
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Why it matters in the Sydney property market
Sydney prices mean each purchase consumes more of your capacity than it does elsewhere. Getting the order wrong costs more here than almost anywhere else in the country.
What we believe
We do not have a favourite Sydney suburb, and no buyers agent should
We are not going to argue against buying in Sydney. We are also not going to sell it to you. Where you should buy comes out of your numbers, and your numbers are not the same as anyone else's.
Five things decide it: where you are starting, where you want to end up, what you can borrow, what you can save each year, and how much risk you can genuinely carry. Change any one of those and the right property changes with it. So does the right market.
Nobody can tell you which suburb will deliver capital growth. What an honest buyers agency can tell you is what a purchase has to earn to be worth making, and whether the Sydney property market is the one that has to earn it.
That is why most of our clients live in Sydney and Melbourne, and why a lot of what we buy for them is somewhere else. Between 70% and 90% of our purchases have been off-market. Those off-market opportunities reach us through our agent network, before they are advertised.
Local knowledge still matters. It just has to be local to the market your numbers point at, which is not always the one you live in. If they point at Sydney, we buy across Sydney. If they point at a regional market interstate, we say so. A buyers agency with a favourite postcode has stopped being independent.
Who you work with
Rasti Vaibhav ran institutional portfolios for 14+ years and owns 22 properties
Rasti Vaibhav is a CFA Charterholder who spent 9+ years managing portfolios of more than $2 billion at Westpac and AMP Capital. He has been investing in property personally for 14 years and owns 22 properties. The method on this page is the method he uses with his own money.
Get RARE has bought $300M+ of property for 550+ client families, with $80M+ of value growth created. More than 70% of clients continue beyond their first purchase, which is the number we watch most closely, because it is the one that says whether the first one worked.
What independence means for a buyers agency in Sydney
We take no commission, referral fee or kickback from any agent, vendor or developer. Client fees are our only income. That is what independence actually means, and it is worth asking any buyers agent to confirm it in writing.
Think about who pays whom. The real estate agent on the listing is paid by the seller. So is the sales agent standing next to them at the open home. In that room, only one person is paid by you, and that is the whole reason to bring one.
A buyers agent and a buyers advocate are the same role under the same licence. The word changes by state, not by job. You will also see both written with an apostrophe, as buyer's agent and buyer's advocate. That changes nothing either.
We are licensed in NSW, VIC and QLD and are members of PIPA, REINSW, REIV, REIQ and REIA.
The plan
How the property buying process works, in three steps
1
We map where you are
What you own, what you owe, what you can borrow, what you can save. Twenty minutes, free, and no pitch at the end of it.
2
We build the strategy
What to buy, where, in what order, and what each purchase does to the next one. The location falls out of this. It does not lead it.
3
We buy, then we stay
Property search, due diligence, negotiation, then securing a property and settling it. After that we are still here for the next one, because one property is not a portfolio.
What you get
What our buyers agent service covers
Six pieces, in order. The first two are where most of the value sits, and both of them happen before anyone opens a listing.
Your brief
The five inputs, written down properly, before any property search begins. Everything after this is judged against it.
Market insight
Growth drivers, rental demand, supply and value indicators in the local market your brief points at, whether that is across Sydney or somewhere else entirely.
Property search
Listed, pre-market and off-market. Between 70% and 90% of our acquisitions have been off-market, through relationships rather than portals.
Due diligence
Comparable sales, location risk, valuation, and how the property fits the portfolio you are trying to build.
Negotiation and auction
We negotiate with the selling agent and bid at auction to secure the right property, up to the walk-away number we agreed with you and no further.
After settlement
A review of what your property portfolio does next. This is the part most buyers agents leave out.
Negotiation skills matter here, and they matter less than people expect. Knowing your walk-away number matters more, and that number comes out of step one.
Fees
Buyers agent fees in Sydney
Buyers agent fees in Sydney are quoted one of two ways. A percentage of the purchase price means the more you spend, the more they earn, which is an odd incentive to hand the person who is meant to be negotiating the price down for you. A flat fee does not move with the price at all.
We charge a flat fee, fixed and tiered by purchase price bracket, with no variable component. You know your bracket, and the exact fee, before you engage us. There is no percentage and no success component.
Whether agent fees are worth paying at all is a fair question, and the honest answer is that it depends on what you are hiring for. For most investors the best outcome shows up in the purchase they did not make, which is the hardest thing to put on an invoice and usually the most valuable.
What this really is
A partnership, not a single property purchase
Most property buyers think they are hiring someone to buy a property. What they actually need is someone to help build and protect wealth over twenty years or more.
One purchase is a transaction. A property portfolio is a sequence of decisions, each one shaped by the last, and each one deciding how much of the next one is still possible. That takes a relationship, not an engagement.
It is why we measure ourselves on how many clients come back rather than on how many properties we bought last year. More than 70% continue beyond the first one. We are here for the whole property journey, not one purchase inside it.
Real clients
Sydney property buyers we have worked with
Shailesh & Sweta
A first investment property that protected the next one
$508,000 equityAn entry chosen so that the second purchase stayed possible. That is the part most people skip. Read their story.
Ankur & Kavya
A first purchase that did not work, then a property portfolio
They came to us after a first purchase that had not worked, and the portfolio has since grown to three. It is a more common starting point than people admit, and not one to be embarrassed about.
“He looks beyond a single suburb or even just Melbourne, and instead focuses on where the best opportunities are to match your goals.”
Danny Trajcevski · Google Review
What is at stake
Two ways property investment goes
Nobody can make buying property seamless. What a plan does is make it orderly, so each decision is easier than the one before it rather than harder.
Buying property by property
- Each purchase looks sensible on its own.
- The first one quietly eats the capacity you needed for the second.
- You stall after one or two and cannot work out why.
- Ten years on, you own some property but not a portfolio.
Buying to a plan
- Every purchase is chosen for what it makes possible next.
- Long-term growth and holding costs are weighed against each other, not picked one at a time.
- Borrowing capacity is managed deliberately, not discovered too late.
- You know the order, the timing and the exit before you start.
- Ten years on, the portfolio is doing the work you needed it to do.
Free 7-step property guide
7 Steps to Retire Early Through Property
A practical guide to building a property portfolio with a clear plan, from where you are today to the income and freedom you want later.
Get the free 7-step guideSee what is inside and get your free copy on the next page.
Questions
Sydney buyers agent FAQ
How much does a buyers agent cost in Sydney?
Buyers agent fees in Sydney are quoted one of two ways. A percentage of the purchase price rises as the price rises. A flat fee does not. We charge a flat fee, fixed and set by the price bracket you are buying in, with no variable component. You know the exact number before you engage.
Is a buyers agent worth it in Sydney?
It depends what you are hiring them for. If you want someone to bid at an auction, the value is limited. If you want someone to work out what you should buy, where, and in what order across a decade, the value is in the decisions rather than the transaction.
What does a buyers agent do?
A buyers agent represents the buyer. They set the brief, run the property search on and off market, assess properties, run due diligence and negotiate. A selling agent, sometimes called the sales agent or the real estate agent on the listing, is paid by the seller and represents the seller. Only one of them is working for you.
Who are the best buyers agents in Sydney?
No honest buyers agent can rank themselves, so treat any page that does with care. Judge the best buyers agents in Sydney on three things you can check yourself: whether they take commissions from developers or vendors, whether their fee is fixed or a percentage of the purchase price, and whether they will tell you when the market you have picked is the wrong one.
What services do buyers agents in Sydney provide?
Brief and strategy, market insight and research, property search on and off market, due diligence, negotiation and auction bidding, and settlement. In our case there is also a review after settlement of what the property portfolio does next.
Can a buyers agent bid at auction for me?
Yes. Auction bidding and negotiation with the selling agents are part of the standard engagement. We agree the walk-away number with you before the day, and we stop at it.
Do you work with home buyers or first home buyers?
Most of our work is investment. Home buyers and investors are not solving the same problem, and this page is written for the investment one. If you are buying a first home to live in, the same five inputs still apply, but the weighting changes and we will say so on the call.
Do you only buy in Sydney?
No. Most of our clients live in Sydney and Melbourne, and we buy wherever their numbers point across the states we are licensed in. That has often meant regional New South Wales, or Victoria and Queensland. We are licensed in NSW, VIC and QLD.
Should I buy in Sydney or somewhere else?
That is not really a question about Sydney. It is a question about your borrowing capacity, your savings rate, your timeframe, your risk appetite and what you already own. Two Sydney investors on the same income can have correct answers that point in opposite directions. Our Melbourne page applies the same reasoning to that market.
What is the difference between a buyers agent and a buyers advocate?
Nothing. Same job, same licence. Buyers advocate is used more in Victoria and buyers agent more in New South Wales.
Do you find off-market properties?
Yes. Between 70% and 90% of our acquisitions have been off-market. That comes from relationships with selling agents built over years, not from a search tool.
Can you help if I have already bought and it has not worked out?
Yes. Clients have come to us after a first purchase that had not worked, and gone on to build a portfolio from there. It is a normal starting point and not one to be embarrassed about. The first thing we work out is what that property does to what you can do next.
Talk to an independent buyers agent in Sydney
Twenty minutes on where you are, where you want to get to, and what actually has to happen in between. We start with your numbers, not a postcode.
Free, and there is no pitch at the end of it. If we are not the right fit, we will tell you that too.
Or call 02 5022 5450 · Suite 5.03, 309 George Street, Sydney NSW 2000 · Mon to Fri, 9am to 5pm
Written and reviewed by Rasti Vaibhav, CFA Charterholder, Founder of Get RARE Properties and author of The Property Wealth Blueprint. Last updated 6 August 2026. Get RARE Properties is licensed in NSW, VIC and QLD and is a member of PIPA, REINSW, REIV, REIQ and REIA. This page is general information and does not take your personal circumstances into account.
