12 Questions to Ask a Melbourne Buyer's Agent Before You Hire (2026)

The questions to ask a buyer's agent before hiring should be the same questions you would ask a financial planner, a lawyer, or a surgeon — specific, evidence-based, and designed to expose the difference between a credible operator and a marketer with good photography. Most Melbourne buyer's agents charge $15,000-$30,000 in fees and influence a property decision worth $700,000 to $2.5 million. The cost of choosing wrong is not the fee — it is the $200,000-$500,000 in opportunity cost from buying a poorly selected property versus a well-selected one.

This is the twelve-question vetting framework we publish openly at PremiumRea because we believe consumers asking better questions raises the standard of the entire industry. Each question below has three parts: what to ask, why it matters, and the answers that signal a credible operator versus a red flag. Joey Don, our CEO, has said publicly: 'We welcome any client who has interviewed three other buyer's agents using these twelve questions before talking to us. We almost never lose those clients to a competitor — because the competitors fail four or five of the questions.'

Question 1: What is your aggregate capital growth across all client acquisitions?

Why it matters: This is the single most important data point about a buyer's agent. Not their best deal. Not a hand-picked case study. The average annual capital growth across every property they have helped clients buy.

Good answer sounds like: 'Across our 220 acquisitions since 2018, average annual growth is 12.4 per cent, average current rent is $680/week. Here is the spreadsheet — every address (anonymised), every purchase price, every current valuation date.' Or any specific number with a documented data trail.

Red flag answer sounds like: 'It depends on the property,' or 'Every client's situation is different,' or 'I cannot guarantee specific returns,' or 'My best client just sold for double what they paid.' All deflections. None of these are answers to the question. The question is not asking for a guarantee — it is asking what their historical aggregate has been.

Question 2: Are you a REBAA member, and what is your role within REBAA?

Why it matters: The Real Estate Buyers Agents Association of Australia (REBAA) is the only national professional body that vets buyer's agents specifically. REBAA membership requires a minimum 24 months of full-time buyer's agency experience, professional indemnity insurance of $2 million minimum, completion of REBAA's ethics module, and a clean disciplinary record. Approximately 18 per cent of practising Australian buyer's agents are REBAA members as of 2024.

Good answer sounds like: 'Yes, REBAA member since [date]. My membership number is [number]. Our PI insurance currently sits at $5M. I sit on the Victorian state committee.' Or simply: 'REBAA member, here is my member ID, you can verify on rebaa.com.au.'

Red flag answer sounds like: 'We are members of [some other association you have never heard of],' or 'REBAA is just one of many,' or 'We chose not to join because of [vague reason].' The most common substitute association is the REIV (Real Estate Institute of Victoria) — REIV membership is meaningful for selling agents but does NOT vet buyer's agents specifically. Some operators name 'PIPA' (Property Investment Professionals of Australia) — PIPA is legitimate but does not have the same buyer's-agent-specific standards as REBAA.

Question 3: What percentage of your last 50 deals were off-market?

Why it matters: Off-market access is a real differentiator but the industry has badly inflated claims. Specific recent data — last 50 deals — is harder to fudge than general 'we have a huge network' marketing.

Good answer sounds like: 'Last 50 deals, 38% off-market — 22 silent listings via selling-agent relationships, 5 vendor-letter sourced, 4 post-auction pass-in negotiations, 4 legal-firm referred (deceased estate or divorce). Average price differential vs comparable on-market sales: 1.8% below market.' Or any specific percentage with breakdown.

Red flag answer sounds like: '70% of our deals are off-market,' followed by inability to provide a breakdown by source, or 'we have access to thousands of off-market listings' (a list is not a deal). If they claim a higher off-market percentage than ~45% but cannot break it down by source category and provide a price-differential analysis, the number is likely fabricated.

Question 4: What is your full fee structure and is any portion paid by anyone other than me?

Why it matters: Buyer's agent fees should be paid only by the buyer. A buyer's agent paid in part by the developer, vendor, mortgage broker, conveyancer, or any other party has a conflict of interest that compromises advice. ASIC's 2023 Property Marketing Conduct Review found commission disclosure failures in 38 per cent of audited transactions involving developer-funded properties.

Good answer sounds like: 'Engagement fee $5,000 due at signing. Success fee $14,000 due at unconditional contract. Plus GST. No commissions, kickbacks, rebates, or referral fees from vendors, developers, mortgage brokers, building inspectors, or any third party. We have a written conflict-of-interest policy I can email you now.'

Red flag answer sounds like: 'Our service is free — the developer pays us,' or 'We have a partnership with [mortgage broker name] who pays a small referral,' or 'There may be a marketing fee from the vendor on some properties.' Any of these compromises the agency relationship. The only exception worth considering is a documented and disclosed referral kickback the agent rebates to you in writing — a small minority of operators do this transparently.

Question 5: Which Melbourne suburbs do you actively transact in, and which do you avoid?

Why it matters: Genuine area expertise is narrow. A buyer's agent who claims expert knowledge of all 350+ Melbourne suburbs is making an unverifiable claim. A credible operator can list 15-30 suburbs they actively work in and explain why they avoid others.

Good answer sounds like: 'We focus on the south-east corridor — Bentleigh, Bentleigh East, McKinnon, Carnegie, Murrumbeena, plus Glen Waverley, Mount Waverley, Wheelers Hill, Glen Iris. We do select work in Hampton, Sandringham, Brighton East at the higher price points. We avoid the inner-north (Brunswick, Northcote) because the unit-stock dominance creates a different return profile that does not fit our investor brief, and we avoid the outer growth corridors (Tarneit, Mickleham) because the 600+ new lots per year make supply-demand fundamentals weak.'

Red flag answer sounds like: 'We work across all of Melbourne,' or vague 'depends on the client's brief' without specifics. Real area expertise is granular.

Question 6: What does your post-settlement service include and for how long?

Why it matters: Many buyer's agents collect their fee at settlement and disappear. Post-settlement performance tracking is what separates a true client-of-record relationship from a transactional one. It is also what enables the buyer's agent to honestly answer Question 1.

Good answer sounds like: 'Post-settlement we set up the property management referral, attend the first inspection, run the initial rent review at 6 months, deliver an annual valuation reassessment for 3 years, and the property remains in our quarterly performance database for life. Our reviews are emailed to clients each January and form the data behind our aggregate growth claims.'

Red flag answer sounds like: 'After settlement, you have my number any time,' or 'We work with [property management company] who takes over from there.' Translation: nothing systematic happens after settlement. Performance tracking does not exist; the buyer's agent has no idea how their selections perform.

Question 7: Will you tell me when NOT to buy?

Why it matters: A buyer's agent paid on a success fee at unconditional contract has a direct financial incentive to close a deal. The willingness to advise 'do not buy this' or 'do not buy this year' is the single strongest signal of a fiduciary mindset.

Good answer sounds like: 'About 30% of the properties I shortlist for clients I ultimately advise against — the building inspection finds rising damp, the comparable sales analysis shows the asking price is 8% above market, the body corporate has unresolved litigation. About 8-10% of the time I advise the client to pause altogether — they are over-leveraged, the rate cycle is wrong, their job stability is fragile. We had a client in 2023 we paused for 11 months before recommending action.'

Red flag answer sounds like: 'Once we are engaged, we find you a property,' or 'Our engagement fee is non-refundable so we always close.' Any answer that frames the buyer's agent's primary metric as 'closing' rather than 'advising correctly' is misaligned.

Question 8: Who actually does the work — you, or a junior?

Why it matters: Many established buyer's agencies are sales operations where the principal sells the engagement and a junior buyer's advocate (often with 6-18 months of experience) does the actual property selection, inspections, and negotiation. The fee remains the same.

Good answer sounds like: 'Every step from suburb shortlist through negotiation is handled by me personally. A research analyst pulls comparable sales data; an admin handles paperwork. Property inspections, building inspector engagement, and auction bidding are always me.'

Red flag answer sounds like: 'Our team works together on every client,' followed by inability to specify who does what. Or worse: 'The principal handles your case' followed by every email coming from a junior. Always ask: who specifically will inspect properties, who will attend auctions on my behalf, who will negotiate the contract terms? Get the names.

Question 9: Can you provide three references I can call directly?

Why it matters: Written testimonials are easy to fabricate. Phone references with people who have actually been clients are not.

Good answer sounds like: 'Yes, here are three with their consent — [name] purchased Glen Waverley November 2023, [name] purchased Hampton Park June 2024, [name] purchased Mount Waverley February 2025. Their numbers and email addresses are in this email. Please mention you are speaking with them under their consent.'

Red flag answer sounds like: 'For privacy reasons we cannot share contact details,' or 'You can read our Google reviews,' or providing references who are tangential (mortgage broker, conveyancer rather than actual clients). Privacy is a legitimate concern but a credible buyer's agent has clients who have explicitly consented to act as references precisely because they are willing advocates.

Question 10: What does the written buyer's agency agreement say, and can I take it home before signing?

Why it matters: A buyer's agency agreement is a legally binding contract that locks you in for typically 6-12 months and triggers fees on specific events. Many consumers sign on the spot under social pressure during the consultation. Reading the document at home with a legal advisor is your right.

Good answer sounds like: 'Of course. The agreement is 4 pages, here is a copy. Take 7 days, ask any solicitor to review it, mark up anything you want changed. We frequently negotiate clauses with first-time clients.'

Red flag answer sounds like: 'We need a signed agreement before we can begin work,' or 'The agreement is standard, no need to involve a lawyer,' or providing a 12-page document at the end of an emotional 90-minute consultation and expecting a same-day signature. Steven Jin notes: 'A buyer's agent who pressures you to sign within the consultation is signalling that they expect their reputation to lose your business if you compare them to others. Always take the agreement home.'

Question 11: How do you handle a client who is not a fit, and what is your refund policy?

Why it matters: A buyer's agent should occasionally fire clients who are not buyable — fragile finances, unrealistic price expectations, unreliable behaviour. The willingness to do this is a credibility signal. The refund policy at separation is the financial backbone.

Good answer sounds like: 'About 5% of the engagements we begin we end without a purchase — the client's circumstances change, or after our initial work we do not believe the brief is achievable in the current market. Our engagement fee is non-refundable but the success fee never triggers, and we provide a written summary of the research completed so the client can resume later. Sometimes we refer them to a different operator who fits their brief better.'

Red flag answer sounds like: 'We never have unfit clients,' or 'Our engagement fee is fully non-refundable regardless,' or 'We do not separate from clients — we always close.' Any of these signals a transactional rather than fiduciary mindset.

Question 12: What advice will you give me about exit strategy and portfolio rebalancing?

Why it matters: A property investment is not a one-time transaction. Holding period, refinancing, sale timing, and portfolio rebalancing all materially shape long-term returns. A buyer's agent whose involvement ends at settlement leaves the client to make these decisions without the data the agent collected during the buying process.

Good answer sounds like: 'We deliver a 5-year hold review — we assess whether the property has met its growth thesis, whether refinancing makes sense to release equity, whether selling and redeploying capital into a different corridor would improve overall portfolio yield. Most of our clients use us for 2-4 sequential property purchases over 8-12 years rather than a single transaction.'

Red flag answer sounds like: 'Once you own the property you decide what to do with it,' or 'Property is a buy-and-hold asset, you do not need to think about exit.' Both are signals that the buyer's agent treats clients as one-shot revenue rather than a lifetime relationship — which in turn means they have less skin in the post-settlement performance.

Yan Zhu's framing on this question: 'The buyer's agents who are still in business in 10 years are the ones whose clients buy through them three or four times. That only happens when post-settlement service is real and exit-strategy advice is independent. If a buyer's agent disappears at settlement, it is because their economics depend on new client acquisition rather than client retention. Both can be honest businesses, but they create very different incentives.'

These twelve questions take 30-45 minutes to work through with any buyer's agent. The cost of asking them is zero. The cost of not asking them is potentially $200,000+ in opportunity cost from a poorly selected investment. PremiumRea publishes our written answers to all twelve questions on our website and we welcome side-by-side comparison with any other Melbourne operator.