BUYING a home may be the biggest investment many people make, and a fast-growing Cairns business offers to make it stress free.
Rodney Reinsma kicked off FNQ Buyers Agent two years ago and business is brisk.
Buyers agents are commonplace in the US but just gaining traction in Australia.
Mr Reinsma said there were 2000 buyers agents nationally compared with 70,000 selling agents, but buyers agents now accounted for 7 per cent of transactions.
His market is predominantly clients from Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney as well as those who moved to the Far North and rented for a year or so before deciding to buy.
“Given the interest rate rises, people want to downsize and be debt free, mortgage free, so they can sell a property down south for $3m or $4m and buy up here for $1m and be debt-free,” Mr Reinsma said.
“We get people who literally don’t have time to scour the internet and go to open homes.”
He can represent a buyer in an auction environment.
Then there are the “BYOs” who have their sights set on a particular property and want a buyer’s agent to represent them to get the best price.
“A full brief is when people are just not sure where to go, they give us a bit of an idea of what they want, and we go look,” he said.
The business charges fixed fees for some services or one to two per cent of the purchase price for other services.
“There are 265 agents in Cairns and we work closely with them, we send them the client brief, and they know we have a qualified buyer working with us,” Mr Reinsma said.
“We look at flood maps, zoning, if it is an investment, what can be done to add value, we take the burden off every aspect of the process.
“Sometimes people have no experience and we help with a lender or mortgage broker, with conveyancing, building and pest inspections, an insurance broker removalist, pet sitters, locksmiths, gardeners – everything to do with a property, we’ve built connections throughout Cairns,” he said.
“There’s no hidden agenda, we are not acting on the sellers behalf.”
He predicted the Far North property market would remain buoyant in 2023.
“I still see it to be quite strong, the lifestyle and affordability and working from home has put Cairns on the map, if the market does get tighter and interest rates keep going up, that will put pressure on people in the southern states to sell,” he said.
Mr Reinsma said it was very satisfying helping people secure their home.
Article source: www.realestate.com.au