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Australia’s leading buyer’s agent has hailed a thawing of relations with real estate agents, which he said suits both parties as well as consumers.
Advantage Property Consulting director Frank Valentic, who was named Best Buyer’s Agent at the recent Real Estate Business Awards, said most buyer’s agents now regard real estate agents as colleagues rather than foes.
Mr Valentic told REB real estate agents had also become increasingly cooperative with buyer’s agents during his 15 years in the industry.
“Sales agents are always emailing us off-market properties or properties that owners might not want to spend any money on advertising,” he said.
“So if they can say that they've got some buyer's agents on the database, that's always going to be a positive for agents to be able to sell some properties off-market.”
Mr Valentic said buyer’s agents help real estate agents by bringing qualified buyers to the table.
Another way in which they help real estate agents is by allowing them to focus more on vendors, knowing that the buyers are being guided through the transaction process, he added.
However, Mr Valentic said there are still some real estate agents who are hostile to buyer’s agents.
“Some openly say to clients: ‘Why would you use a buyer's agent? Why don't you just negotiate or bid for yourself?’,” he said.
“So there are still a few out there that maybe don't understand the role as well as we would like.”
The buyer’s agent industry has enjoyed phenomenal growth in the past decade, according to the Real Estate Buyers Agents Association of Australia. In that time the number of specialist buyer’s agency businesses has increased from two to more than 100.
[Related: LJ Hooker launches buyer’s agency business]
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