What is a buyer's agent? What they do, and when one is worth it
A buyer's agent works for the person buying, the way the selling agent works for the person selling. Here is exactly what that means in Australia: the work they do, how they charge, the conflict-of-interest test that separates good ones from salespeople, and the honest cases where you do not need one.
Written by Rasti Vaibhav, CFA · Last reviewed 10 August 2026
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What is a buyer's agent?
A buyer's agent is a licensed real estate professional (also called a buyer's advocate) who acts exclusively for the buyer in a property purchase. They search for properties, including off-market ones, assess what a property is genuinely worth, and negotiate the purchase price or bid at auction on your behalf.
The selling agent is paid by the vendor to get the highest price; a buyer's agent is paid by you to do the opposite. They are worth engaging when the fee is smaller than the sum of the negotiation gap, the cost of a buying mistake and the value of your time, and not otherwise.
What does a buyer's agent do? The five jobs
Strip the marketing away and a buyer's agent does five things: they help you find the right property, prove what it is worth, and secure it at the right price through the five jobs below. Any agent who cannot show you evidence of all five is selling a subset dressed as the whole.
- Brief and strategy. Turning "we want a good investment property" or "we need a family home near the school" into a written brief with suburbs, budget, target rental yield or school catchment, and walk-away lines, before anything is inspected.
- Search, including off-market. Most property buyers only ever see the portals, and a large share of good property never reaches one. Agents hand it first to the buyers they know can act. In our own work, 70 to 90 per cent of acquisitions are off-market or pre-market. That access, not the search itself, is the scarce part.
- Assessment. Comparable sales analysis, rental appraisal, and coordinating due diligence: the contract review, and the building and pest inspection that tells you what the asset is rather than what the listing says.
- Negotiation, or bidding at auction. Price, terms, settlement length and conditions, negotiated for the best possible outcome by someone who does this weekly against selling agents who do it daily. In auction-heavy markets like Sydney and Melbourne, the bidding alone is a service worth buying. An emotionally invested buyer bidding for their own future home is the easiest opponent in the room; the whole job here is to remove that person from the table.
- Exchange to settlement. Keeping the purchase alive through finance, valuation shortfalls, pre-settlement inspection and the hundred small things that fall between a signed contract and keys.
The selling agent is very good at their job. Their job is not you.
Buyer's agent usage in Australia
Using a buyer's agent is no longer unusual. As published on this page since its last review, industry figures attributed to the Real Estate Buyers Agents Association of Australia (REBAA, 2025) put buyer's agents at roughly 8 to 12 per cent of purchases in the major cities, with Sydney around 15 per cent and Melbourne around 14 per cent, first-time buyer usage growing strongly, and buyer's agents facilitating a meaningful share of off-market transactions.
Review note: re-verify the REBAA 2025 figures before relying on them as current market statistics. What those percentages look like in practice is documented in our client results.
Different specialists suit different purchases
Not all buyer's agents are the same. Different types specialise in different property categories, and hiring the wrong specialisation costs the same as hiring the right one.
| Type | Focus | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Residential buyer's agent | Owner-occupier homes | First home buyers, upgraders, downsizers |
| Investment buyer's agent | Rental yield and capital growth assets | Investors building portfolios, our own core work, run as a strategic buyer's agency |
| Commercial buyer's agent | Offices, retail, industrial | Business owners and commercial investors, see our commercial buyer's agent service |
| Dual-service buyer's agent | Both residential and investment | Buyers needing flexibility across a home and a portfolio |
Buyer's agent vs real estate agent
| Buyer's agent | Selling agent | |
|---|---|---|
| Acts for | The buyer, exclusively | The vendor, exclusively |
| Paid by | The buyer, a fixed fee or a percentage | The vendor, commission on the sale price |
| Incentive | The right property at the lowest defensible price | The highest price the market will pay |
| Licence | Real estate licence, same regime as selling agents | Real estate licence |
| The tell | Will tell you not to buy | Cannot tell you not to buy |
One rule matters more than every other: a buyer's agent cannot act for the seller in the same transaction, that is the whole point of the role, and a genuine one never accepts payment from sellers or developers. The moment someone is paid by the sell side, a "free" buyer's service funded by a developer's marketing budget is the common form, they are a selling agent wearing the other team's shirt. That is the conflict of interest question to ask first, in writing, of anyone you interview.
In Australia, a buyer's agent is a licensed real estate agent, the same licence regime that covers every real estate agent who sells. There is no separate register; the licence, and the independence, are what to verify. Get RARE Properties is licensed in NSW, VIC and QLD and buys for clients Australia-wide.
How does a buyer's agent work, start to finish?
Engagements differ in scope, but a full-service purchase runs in a stable order: a strategy conversation and written brief; a search across listed, pre-market and off-market channels; shortlisting with inspection reports rather than inspection feelings; assessment of value against comparable sales; negotiation or auction; then exchange-to-settlement management.
A purchase typically takes weeks to a few months from brief to keys, depending on how rare the brief is. Our own version of this is documented step by step at how we work.
Most buyer's agents also offer partial engagements, negotiation-only on a property you have already found, or auction bidding alone. These cost less and suit buyers who enjoy the search but not the confrontation.
What does a buyer's agent cost?
Fees are charged as either a fixed fee, a flat fee agreed up front, or a percentage of the purchase price, sometimes with an engagement fee at the start. The structure matters as much as the amount: a fixed fee removes any incentive for your own agent to see you pay more.
We keep the full breakdown, city by city and engagement type by engagement type, on our buyer's agent fees guide, so this page stays about the role rather than the price list.
Interviewing anyone, including us? Take the ten questions with you.
Get the interview questionsIs a buyer's agent worth it?
When it is worth it
A good agent will save you time in any property market, but the fee earns itself fastest when you are buying in an unfamiliar city or interstate; the purchase is an investment where the asset selection drives the next decade of results; you keep losing at auction; your time is billable and the search is consuming it; or the market segment you want moves off-market before you ever see it.
When it is not
You are buying in a suburb you know deeply, you have bought several times before, you genuinely enjoy the process and have the time, and the property type you want sells openly on the portals. An experienced buyer's agent should be willing to tell you that you may not need one.
What a buyer's agent cannot do is also worth writing down: they cannot guarantee a price outcome, cannot make a bad market good, and cannot substitute for your own finance and legal advice. Anyone promising outcomes rather than process is answering a question you did not ask.
Ten questions that sort the field
Choosing a buyer's agent is a hiring decision, and before you engage a buyer's agent or sign a buyers' agency agreement, all fees and charges should be in writing. These ten questions sort the field quickly:
- Are you, or anyone paying you, ever paid by vendors or developers? The only acceptable answer is no, in writing.
- What licence do you hold and in which states?
- How many purchases did you settle in the last twelve months, and how many were off-market?
- Who exactly will run my search, you, or someone I have not met?
- What does your fee buy, and what is out of scope?
- Is the fee fixed or a percentage, and if a percentage, why should I pay more when I pay more?
- Show me the last property you told a client not to buy, and why.
- What is your process when the building and pest report comes back ugly?
- Which recent purchase went wrong, and what did you do about it?
- Why should this be you and not the agent down the road? Listen for evidence, not adjectives.
Buyer's agent FAQ
What is a buyer's agent in real estate?
A buyer's agent represents the buyer in a property purchase, as a licensed professional: searching, assessing, negotiating and managing the purchase through to settlement. They are the buy-side counterpart to the selling agent, and are paid by the buyer alone.
What is the difference between a buyer's agent and a real estate agent?
Both hold real estate licences. The difference is who they act for: a selling agent is engaged and paid by the vendor to maximise the sale price; a buyer's agent is engaged and paid by the buyer to secure the right property at the lowest defensible price.
What is a buyer's advocate?
The same thing as a buyer's agent. "Buyer's advocate" is the term more common in Victoria; "buyer's agent" is more common elsewhere in Australia. The licence and the role are identical.
Is it worth it to use a buyer's agent in Australia?
It depends on the gap between what the fee costs and what it buys: off-market access, negotiation distance and error prevention. Interstate buyers, time-poor professionals and investors selecting assets for long holds usually gain the most. Local, experienced, time-rich buyers often do not need one.
How does a buyer's agent get paid?
By the buyer, as a fixed fee or a percentage of the purchase price. A genuine buyer's agent accepts nothing from the sell side. Fee structures and typical ranges are covered in our fees guide.
Can a buyer's agent find off-market properties?
Yes, it is one of the main reasons to engage one. Selling agents hand off-market stock to buyers who can act quickly and reliably. In our own acquisitions, 70 to 90 per cent are secured off-market or pre-market.
Do buyer's agents work for home buyers or just investors?
Both. The process is the same; the brief differs. Investors buy on numbers and tenant appeal, a first home buyer on liveability and catchments, the search, assessment and negotiation work is identical.
Can I claim buyer's agent fees on tax?
For an investment property, the fee generally forms part of the property's cost base rather than an immediate deduction, and for a home it is a private cost. That is a question for a registered tax agent against your own circumstances, not a rule to take from a website.
Paid representation on the side of the table that usually has none
A buyer's agent is not a shortcut and not a status symbol. It is paid representation on the one side of the table that usually has none. Whether that representation is worth its fee is a question with a real answer for your specific purchase, and it is the first question we deal with in a strategy call, before any engagement is on the table.
Want the honest version of "do I actually need one" for your purchase?
Book a Strategy CallRasti Vaibhav, CFA
Rasti is the founder of Get RARE Properties and the author of The Property Wealth Blueprint. A former institutional portfolio manager at Westpac and AMP Capital, he has bought 22 properties personally, holds a portfolio of about $16.8 million, and has guided more than 550 clients through more than $300 million of purchases. More about Rasti.
Get RARE Properties is licensed in NSW, VIC and QLD and buys for clients Australia-wide.
Disclaimer: General information only, not financial, tax, legal or credit advice. Licensing regimes for real estate agents vary by state; verify any agent's licence with the relevant state regulator. Source claims on this page were last reviewed 10 August 2026.