Engaging a buyers agent means trusting someone with a genuinely significant financial decision, so it's worth asking a few direct questions before signing anything — with any buyers agent you're considering, not just us.
- 1. Are you licensed as a land agent in South Australia?
Buyers agents operating in SA should hold appropriate land agent registration or work under a licensed agent — a legitimate question to ask directly, and one any properly operating agent should answer without hesitation. - 2. Do you charge a fixed fee or a percentage of the purchase price?
Understanding the fee structure tells you a lot about incentive alignment — see our full explainer on buyers agent fee structures. - 3. Do you receive any referral fees or commissions from selling agents?
A genuinely independent buyers agent should have no financial relationship with the selling side of any transaction — this is worth confirming explicitly, not assuming. - 4. What's actually included in your fee?
Search only, or search through settlement? Auction bidding included, or a separate service? Get this in writing before you commit. - 5. How do you source off-market properties?
A vague answer about a 'database' is worth being skeptical of — genuine off-market access comes from active agent relationships, not a static list. See our guide to how off-market access actually works. - 6. Can you provide references from recent clients?
A reasonable request of any service handling a purchase of this significance, and one a reputable buyers agent should be comfortable accommodating. - 7. How many clients are you working with at once?
This affects how much genuine attention your search will get — worth understanding upfront rather than discovering later. - 8. What happens if you can't find a suitable property?
Understand the engagement terms if the search extends longer than expected, or doesn't result in a purchase at all. - 9. Do you have genuine local knowledge of my target suburbs?
Broad, city-wide claims are less useful than genuine street-level knowledge of the specific areas you're interested in. - 10. Will I have one consistent point of contact?
Worth confirming you'll deal with the same person throughout, not a rotating cast or a junior team member once the engagement is signed.
If any buyers agent hesitates or gives a vague answer to a direct question about fees, independence or licensing, treat that as useful information in itself.
Not necessarily — fee alone doesn't tell you much about independence, local knowledge or the quality of representation you'll actually get. The questions above are a better filter than price alone.
Yes, entirely reasonable — a free, no-obligation consultation is a normal part of how reputable buyers agents operate, including us, precisely so you can ask these questions before committing.
Reasonable people differ, but the fee structure and independence questions (numbers 2 and 3) sit closest to the core of what separates a genuinely buyer-side advocate from a service in name only.