Oriium

When purchasing a home, the process is easier when you engage the services of a buyers agent, Melbourne house-hunters have found.

First-time and experienced buyers alike have increasingly been hiring property advocates to represent their best interests.

A buyer’s agent performs the complementary function to estate agents selling a property. With the client’s needs in mind, the buyer’s agent performs many services including providing the client with options that suit their needs, assisting with the client’s evaluations of the property, and liaising with the estate agent.

Kate Fleur, a young professional currently looking at buying her first house in Melbourne’s inner Eastern suburbs, finds that having a buyer’s advocate is taking the stress out of house hunting.

“I hate getting up early on the weekend, so going to auctions is just not an option for me,” she says.

“I can’t even express how helpful it is to have someone onboard to find properties that are being sold privately. There are so many gorgeous houses that other buyers just don’t see. I have my eye on a house right now, and my advocate is actually taking care of everything, from pest inspections to dealing with the real estate agent.”

Ms Fleur has not yet paid for the advocate’s services, as payment is exchanged only once a property is purchased.

She is one of a growing number of Melbourne home-buyers hiring a property agent, with a fifty percent increase in house-hunters in the East and South-East purchasing through an advocate in the last financial year.

Latest figures indicate that buyer’s advocates are more popular among seasoned buyers, who have experience in purchasing real estate directly from agents and wish to never repeat that experience.

Advocates are particularly popular in Melbourne’s leafy Eastern suburbs, where a number of multi-million dollar homes are sold off-market.