What does a buyers agent do?
The job, the cost, and when you do not need one
A buyers agent works for the buyer and nobody else. Whether you need one depends on you, not on us.
- What a buyers agent is
- A licensed real estate agent who acts only for the buyer. In NSW an agent cannot act for both sides of the same sale.
- What a buyers agent does
- Takes your brief, searches on and off market, inspects and shortlists, prices the property from recorded sales, runs the due diligence, negotiates or bids, and sees the purchase through to settlement.
- Who pays them
- You do. The selling agent is paid by the seller and owes their duty to the seller. Ask any buyers agent who else pays them; the answer should be nobody.
- What it costs
- Ours is a fixed fee agreed in writing before we start: $5,500 including GST to engage us, then a success fee that does not change if you buy a dearer home. Other firms charge a percentage of the price. The fees page sets out what ours covers.
- When it is worth it
- When the gap between what you know and what the other side knows is wide: an unfamiliar area, buying from interstate or overseas, no time for Saturdays, or a budget you are stretching to reach.
- When it is not
- When you know the street, can inspect every week, and can walk away from a house you love. Plenty of people buy well without us, and we say so in the first conversation.
- How to choose one
- Check the licence, ask who else pays them, ask who will actually do the work, and ask how they price a property. A good answer to each is short and specific.
- Where we work
- Sydney's Northern Suburbs, as Northern Beaches buyers agents and across the Lower and Upper North Shore. This page is about the job itself, wherever you are buying.
What is a buyers agent?
A buyers agent is a licensed real estate professional who works only for the buyer. They find, assess, negotiate and secure a property on your behalf, and they are paid by you, not by the seller. In NSW an agent cannot act for both sides of the same sale, so a buyers agent sits on your side of the table for the whole purchase.
You will also see the job written as buyer's agent, and in Victoria the same role is usually called a buyers advocate. It is the same work: representing the buyer, with a duty to the buyer alone.
That is the definition. It does not tell you much about what the work involves, or whether it is worth paying for. The rest of this page does.
What does a buyers agent do?
Most people assume the job is finding houses. Finding is the visible part and the easiest part. What a buyers agent does for the money is everything that decides whether you buy well: pricing the property from recorded sales rather than the agent's guide, reading the contract and the reports properly, and then negotiating or bidding on evidence rather than nerves. Here is the role of a buyers agent from first conversation to keys.
Work out what you are actually buying
Suburbs, budget, bedrooms and parking are the start. A good brief also covers how you want to live, what you will compromise on, and what would make you walk away. If your expectations do not match the market, a buyers agent should say so at this stage, before you spend a weekend on the wrong houses.
Find the property, including the ones not advertised
Everything on the portals, plus what is quietly for sale. Off-market and pre-market listings come from relationships with selling agents built over years. About three in four of the homes we buy were never advertised, but access on its own is worth little. Judgement about which quiet listings deserve your Saturday is the real skill.
Look at everything so you only look at the right ones
A buyers agent inspects first, rules out what will not work, and brings you a shortlist with reasons. For buyers interstate or overseas this is the whole job: video walk-throughs, honest notes, and a view on what is wrong with a place as well as what is right.
Find out what it is worth and what is wrong with it
Recorded sales, not the price guide, set the number. Then the checks: contract review with your solicitor or conveyancer, building and pest report, strata records for an apartment, zoning, overlays, easements, flood and bushfire mapping, and anything in the plans that could stop the extension you were counting on.
Buy it at the right price, or not at all
Private treaty negotiation, pre-auction offers, or bidding at the auction on your behalf with an agreed limit. The value here is discipline: a number set in advance from evidence, and someone in the room who is not emotionally attached to the house.
Get you from a handshake to the keys
Exchange, cooling-off where it applies, deposit, finance conditions, the pre-settlement inspection and settlement day. A buyers agent coordinates the solicitor, broker and selling agent so that nothing is missed between the offer being accepted and the door being yours.
What the job looks like, in a short animation we made
If you would rather watch than read, this five-minute animation walks through what a buyers agent does in Australia and where in the process the money is won or lost.
One thing a buyers agent never does in NSW: act for the seller in the same transaction. The law prohibits it, and it is the reason the advice can be straight.
Buyers agent or real estate agent: what is the difference?
Both are licensed real estate agents. The difference is who pays them, and therefore who they owe a duty to. The selling agent, sometimes called the sellers agent or the listing agent, is engaged and paid by the owner. Their job is to get the highest price and the best terms for the seller. That is not a criticism. It is the job, and the good ones do it well.
It does mean the person who shows you through, writes the price guide and tells you how much interest there is has a duty to somebody else. A buyers agent is engaged and paid by you, so the duty runs the other way. In NSW the law does not allow one agent to act for both sides of the same sale, so there is no version of this where the same person represents you and the seller.
A mortgage broker is different again: they arrange the loan and are paid by the lender. A buyers agent and a broker often work on the same purchase, but they do different jobs.
Why use a buyers agent?
The honest version of the case is not that a buyers agent finds you a house. You can find a house. It is that the person on the other side of the table does this every week, and most buyers do it three or four times in a lifetime. A buyers agent evens that up. Where it helps, in our experience, is here.
You see what is not advertised
Relationships with selling agents bring quiet listings and early looks before a campaign starts. Most of what we buy was never advertised. Access is real, and it is also the most oversold thing in this industry. A quiet listing can be overpriced precisely because nobody is competing for it. What matters is knowing which ones deserve your time.
You pay a number based on evidence
The price guide is the seller's opening position. Recorded sales are the facts. A buyers agent reads the sales, sets your limit before the day, and holds it. Most of the money in a purchase is won or lost in that one decision, not in the search.
You find the problems before you own them
Contract terms, strata records, easements, overlays, a building report read properly rather than skimmed. The purchase you avoid can be worth more than the one you make.
You get your Saturdays back
Someone else inspects the ones that will not work. If you are interstate, overseas or simply busy, this is often the difference between buying this year and buying next year.
You have someone who is not in love with the house
Buyers overpay for two reasons: fear of missing out, and a room that went quiet at the wrong moment. A buyers agent has no emotional stake in this particular house, only in you buying the right one at the right price.
You can stay out of the picture
Some buyers would rather the market did not know they were looking. A buyers agent can inspect, ask and negotiate without your name attached until you choose to attach it.
Is a buyers agent worth it?
Sometimes. It depends on the gap between what you know and what the other side knows.
If you have bought in your target street before, you can inspect every Saturday, and you are comfortable holding a number under pressure, that gap is small and you may not need help. If you are buying into an area you do not know well, buying from interstate or overseas, short on time, or stretching to your limit, the gap is wide. That is where a buyers agent earns the fee, and where the money is won and lost.
You will see firms advertise a multiple of their fee in savings. Treat it with care. Nobody knows what you would have paid without them, because that purchase never happened. It cannot be tested, so we do not claim it. What can be pointed to is where the money actually moves: paying the guide when the recorded sales say the guide is high, bidding past your limit because the room went quiet, or buying a house with a problem a proper contract review would have found. Any one of those costs more than a fee.
When a buyers agent is not worth it
More often than this industry admits. If you have one specific house in mind and you already know the agent selling it, you probably do not need one. If your budget reaches one suburb and one property type, the search is not the hard part. And if you have the time, you enjoy the process, and you can walk away from a house you love, you already have the two things that are hardest to buy.
Any buyers agent worth engaging will tell you that in the first conversation rather than take a fee and hope. It is the same conversation whether you are buying your first home or your fifth.
How much does a buyers agent cost?
There are two models in Australia. Some firms charge a percentage of the purchase price, so the fee rises as the price does. Others, including us, charge a fixed fee agreed in writing before the search begins: an engagement fee to start, then a success fee that stays the same whether you buy at the bottom of your range or the top. The difference matters most on the day it counts, when the people negotiating for you should gain nothing from you paying more.
Whichever model a firm uses, ask for both numbers in writing before you sign, ask when each is payable, and ask what sits outside the fee (conveyancing, building and pest, strata reports and stamp duty are paid direct to the provider). Ours are set out in full on the buyers agent fees page.
How to choose a buyers agent
The industry is young and lightly regulated, and anyone with a real estate licence can call themselves a buyers agent. A referral from someone who has used one beats a search result. Beyond that, a short list of questions sorts the field quickly, and a good answer to each is short and specific.
Are you licensed, and are you a member of REBAA? The licence is the legal minimum. The Real Estate Buyers Agents Association of Australia requires members to work only for buyers and to hold professional standards that can be tested and, if need be, revoked.
Who else pays you? The only acceptable answer is nobody. Referral fees from developers, brokers or selling agents mean the advice you get is not only about you.
Who will actually do the work? Ask whether the person you are meeting is the person who will inspect, negotiate and bid, or whether that passes to a junior once the agreement is signed.
How do you decide what a property is worth? Listen for recorded sales, comparable evidence and a number set before the day. Be wary of instinct, market feel, or a guide quoted back to you.
How is the fee structured, and what does it cover? Fixed or percentage, when it is payable, what happens if you do not buy, and whether the engagement has a time limit.
Will you tell me not to buy? The answer you want is yes, with an example.
Buyers agent questions, answered plainly
The questions people ask before they engage anyone, answered the way we would answer a friend. If yours is not here, ask us and you will get a straight answer.
What is a buyers agent?
A buyers agent is a licensed real estate agent who works only for the buyer. They find, assess, negotiate and secure a property on your behalf and are paid by you, not the seller. In NSW an agent cannot act for both the buyer and the seller in the same sale. The same role is called a buyers advocate in Victoria.
What does a buyers agent do?
A buyers agent takes your brief, searches on and off market, inspects and shortlists, works out what a property is worth from recorded sales, runs the due diligence (contract, building and pest, strata, zoning and overlays), negotiates or bids at auction with an agreed limit, and coordinates everything from exchange to settlement. Finding the property is the visible part; pricing it and checking it are where a buyers agent earns the fee.
What is the difference between a buyers agent and a real estate agent?
Both hold a real estate licence. A selling agent is engaged and paid by the owner and owes their duty to the seller, so their job is the highest price and best terms for the seller. A buyers agent is engaged and paid by the buyer and owes their duty to you. In NSW one agent cannot act for both sides of the same sale.
Are buyers agents worth it?
Sometimes. It depends on the gap between what you know and what the other side knows. If you are buying into an area you do not know well, from interstate or overseas, with little time, or at the top of your budget, the gap is wide and a buyers agent usually earns the fee. If you know the street, can inspect every week and can walk away from a house you love, you may not need one, and a good buyers agent will say so.
How much does a buyers agent cost?
Australian buyers agents charge either a percentage of the purchase price or a fixed fee. Sarah Kaye & Co charges a fixed fee agreed in writing before the search begins: an engagement fee to start and a success fee that does not change with the price you pay. Conveyancing, building and pest, strata reports and stamp duty sit outside any buyers agent fee and are paid direct to the provider. Our fees are set out in full on the buyers agent fees page.
How do buyers agents get paid?
By the buyer. A buyers agent should receive nothing from the seller, the selling agent, a developer, a broker or any other party to your purchase. Ask any buyers agent who else pays them before you sign; the only acceptable answer is nobody.
Do I need a buyers agent if I already know the area?
Knowing an area and knowing what it has actually sold for are two different things. Most people know a suburb through the listings they have seen and what a neighbour mentioned; neither is the sale price. A buyers agent works from recorded sales, and from the details that are not in any listing: overlays, easements, strata records, heritage or tree orders, and what the plans allow. If you already read those records before you bid, you may not need one.
How do I choose a buyers agent?
Ask six things: whether they are licensed and a REBAA member; who else pays them (the answer should be nobody); who will actually do the work; how they decide what a property is worth; how the fee is structured and what it covers; and whether they will tell you not to buy. A referral from someone who has used one is worth more than a search result.
What clients say when it is over.
Three of more than 50 reviews on Google, quoted as the clients wrote them. We cannot edit them and would not want to.
“Their insights were invaluable and they truly balances their advice across the financial considerations (capital growth, improvement upside etc) with the more immeasurable considerations (proximity to schools, local amenities etc). … We never once felt pressured to go higher unnecessarily and both of them were a phone call away at any stage.”Dean Jones · May 2026
“They took the time to genuinely understand us - our lifestyle, our personalities, and what we do on weekdays and weekends. … Sarah and Mike provided unfiltered, practical, and to-the-point advice without any of the usual sales fluff.”Priyam Yogesh · October 2025
“Currently based in the UK, we worked with them remotely and it was seamless. They were organised, professional and also pushed us on what we said we wanted to getting clear on what we really wanted.”Laura-Kate Quartermaine · December 2025 · bought from the UK
Where we work
Everything above applies to any buyers agent in Australia. We are two directors who do this work in one part of Sydney, and only there. If your purchase is somewhere else, the questions in the section above will find you the right person wherever you are buying.
Northern Beaches
Manly to Palm Beach, 42 suburbs, most of them bought off market.
Our Northern Beaches pageNot sure whether you need a buyers agent? Ask us.
Thirty minutes on Zoom with Sarah or Mike. We will tell you whether we think you need help, and if we think you do not, we will say so. Either way you leave with a clearer picture of what you are buying into.
Book a Zoom callOr send us your brief through the contact page, and read what it costs on the fees page.