The Rise of the Fake Buyers agent and what consumers need to know
Have you noticed over the last decade or so that buyers agents have risen from an unknown profession to a name on every property buyers lips?
More and more people are suddenly claiming to be a buyers agent even though many have never worked in the real estate industry.
I call them fake buyer agents and some of the practices they use on unsuspecting Aussies trying to buy a home or investment property are truly shocking.
It's really important for anyone interested in using a buyers agent to understand the difference between a professional, licensed and experienced buyers agent and the rookies flooding into the market and offering poor advice.
The problem with rookies.
The problem with many of the rookies coming into the market in 2025 is most of them have only completed a brief, online course and bypassed their ‘apprenticeship’ in the real estate industry.
They don’t have the extensive on the job training or experience most real estate agents will go through as part of their professional development and haven’t had an active mentor overseeing the quality or accuracy of their work.
This lack of practical experience means a lack of knowledge and insight, which is vital to advise clients correctly.
Worse, many have never had their skillset or competencies formally tested.
Dealing with some of the rookies flooding into the industry is the equivalent of having an unqualified, untrained electrician rewire your house. It’s dangerous.
How to tell if you’re dealing with a professional buyers agent.
To find out if the buyers agent is a professional, look for formal qualifications, years of experience in the market you are interested in and take a look at their online reviews by previous clients.
Any buyers agent you engage should be a fully licensed real estate agent, ideally with formal investment qualifications, and be a seasoned industry professional.
Acting as a buyers agent requires a practical understanding of ethics, due diligence procedures as well as an agent’s fiduciary duty to their clients.
That’s because buying a property as a home or for investment is a complex and very expensive decision.
But acting as a buyers agency (or buyers advocate) is more complex than selling real estate as advocacy is about protecting, advising, guiding, and supporting clients.
This requires independent years professional, industry experience in selling and buying real estate. Working as a mortgage broker or property manager is not enough.
But how do consumers understand who is a professional buyers agent and who is a rookie?
Here are 17 important questions to ask when considering a buyers agent:
- Are they providing genuine, independent and unbiased advice where they always take a client’s best interest approach ? If they are attached to a real estate agency with a sales arm, this is typically not great advice. In practice, ‘Chinese Walls’ (a separation between a real estate and buyers agency with the same brand) does not work for the clients and other agents will not want to deal with them as they are competitors. This often means the client misses out on opportunities.
- Do they charge you a fee for service, fixed or percentage based, directly? If they also earn commissions, fees, or rebates from any other parties, they are not working for you.
- Do they have a single in-depth area of expertise – Buyers Advocacy or Vendors Advocacy, or in depth and practical experience in both?
- Have they worked in the industry for a minimum of two years, serving their ‘apprenticeship’ under a senior agent?
- Are they a fully licensed estate agent who qualified for their license in the state or territory they are operating in? (Those who have secured a License via Mutual Recognition will often not have genuine experience in the local market and an understanding of legislation in your jurisdiction).
- Do they have formal property investment qualifications if they are advising you as an investor?
- Do they take a consultative approach? They should ask you the right questions to understand your brief and not try to ‘sell’ you a property but rather, develop a tailored strategy for you.
- Are they approaching their work as an advocate or as a sales agent? A great buyers agent needs to know how to select property, assess it, negotiate with agents and bid at auction like an advocate. Their approach is quite different from a real estate agent selling a property.
- When they suggest they are an expert, can they demonstrate years of experience and dozens of case studies with successful results? This includes having transacted on at least 100 properties and at least 20 online reviews by genuine clients. Personal passion for property is not enough – as a client, you need actual, real estate industry experience.
- Are they recommending an off the plan or new property? If they are, they’re unlikely to be a genuine buyers agent, more likely they are charging you fees while also accepting a sales commission from a developer. This is usually illegal, as real estate agents are not allowed to receive money from the buyer and the seller in a real estate transaction.
- Are they promoting a once only off-market property to you? Be careful here: if they are only recommending one “off -market” property, they could in fact be a selling agent, not a buyers agent.
- Do they work in the business full time? Being a buyers agent is not a part time gig – it requires of fulltime commitment to the role and to clients. Be very wary of advisers who work part time, have a very basic website, or can’t demonstrate a string of successful case studies or client reviews. Part time advisers are typically inexperienced and often miss opportunities because great deals can happen at any time, not just on weekends.
- Does the About Us section of their website provide a detailed description of the licensed owner and buyer’s agent, including their name, photo and actual real estate experience? If it doesn’t, it may be a red flag that all is not as it appears.
- If they cite statistics like “I have successfully negotiated hundreds of deals” apply the ‘does that stack up test’. If they have only been an adviser for three years, this claim may not be true
- Do they cite impressive sounding statistics based on volume only? That may also be a sign of an operative interested only in churning through clients. A great buyers agent takes their time to give quality advice and successfully negotiate deals with complete due diligence.
- Do their personal profiles on their website or on sites like LinkedIn talk a lot about sales? That can be a sign of an agent only interested in churning through clients. Ditto for phrases like ' data driven research' or ' big data' which may sound impressive, but good real estate recommendations based on data alone are very unsound.
- Do they call themselves 'borderless buyer agents'? This is also a bad sign of an agent recommending a property in a market they are not familiar with, often on a thin criteria like yield or last year’s performance. Always use a buyer’s agent with many years of on the ground experience in the market you are interested in. Ensure they personally inspect the property (not just buy online, sight unseen!) and do not rely on third party inspections, which may leave you uncovered by their insurance, putting you at significant risk.
In summary you should expect to receive open and honest answers about your buyers agent’s experience, qualifications and track record and be sure they’re working for you and you alone.
If you’re unsure, you can always, check with REBAA online to see if your buyers agents is licensed and has been vetted.
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