Adelaide's buyers agent market has grown fast, which means the range of quality has too. Some operators here are genuine client-side professionals; some are introduction services with a title. The good news is that seven questions separate them reliably, and none of the questions require you to know anything about property. Ask all seven before you pay anyone a retainer, including me.
1. Who pays you, and is it only me?
The only acceptable answer is "you, and only you". If an agent takes developer commissions, referral fees or marketing payments from the sell side, their advice is a distribution channel wearing a badge. This single question eliminates more Adelaide operators than the other six combined. My answer, in writing: paid by the buyer, only the buyer, ever. The buyer pays us, so the buyer wins.
2. What happens to your fee if you don't find me a property?
A genuine success structure keeps most of the fee at risk until the property is secured. If the full fee is payable regardless of outcome, you've hired a consultant, not an advocate. Fee structures across the industry (flat versus percentage, retainer versus success) are worth understanding before any conversation: buyers agent fees explained.
3. Which tax rules do your cash flow projections use?
This one is brutally current. From 1 July 2027, rental losses on most newly purchased established properties stop offsetting salary, and the CGT settings change. An agent still projecting under the old rules is quoting numbers your purchase will never see. Ask to see a projection; if there's no carry-forward loss modelling in it, the model is out of date.
4. Will you tell me not to buy, and when did you last do it?
Ask for a recent example of a search that ended in "don't buy this". If every engagement in their history ended in a purchase, the search was theatre and the answer was always going to be yes. The discipline you're paying for is the no.
5. Do you buy only in Adelaide, or wherever the data says?
A fair question in both directions. Local knowledge matters, and so does the honesty to say when your capital is better deployed interstate. Be wary of an Adelaide agent for whom the answer is always Adelaide, and equally of a Sydney-based national who's never walked the pocket they're recommending here. The answer you want is a local base with national data, and evidence of both.
6. How much of your buying is off-market?
Adelaide's best investor stock moves quietly, and the proportion of an agent's deals done off-market or pre-market is a proxy for their relationships with local selling agents. Mine runs 60 to 70%. Whatever number you're told, ask how it's evidenced.
7. Show me settled results, not testimonials.
Real purchases with suburbs, timeframes and numbers, plus reviews that are verbatim and attributable. Marketing copy is easy; a ledger is not. Mine is on the results page, suburb by suburb across five states, with the Google reviews quoted word for word.
What the answers should add up to
You're listening for one underlying quality: an agent whose incentives point at your outcome, whose process would survive an audit, and who can prove both. That's the standard I hold myself to as an Adelaide buyers agent, and it's the standard you should hold anyone to, me included. The first test is free: a 30-minute strategy call where the property analysis and cash flow model are yours either way. If the numbers don't say yes, you don't buy.
Frequently asked questions
How do I check a buyers agent is properly licensed in South Australia?
Buyers agents in SA operate under land agent registration; you can search the licence register through Consumer and Business Services (CBS) South Australia. Any agent should volunteer their registration details when asked, without hesitation.
What does a buyers agent cost in Adelaide?
Adelaide sits among the lowest-fee capitals: published industry ranges run roughly 1.5 to 2.4% of purchase price for percentage-fee agents. My fee doesn't move by city: $15,000 flat for residential and SMSF engagements, structured as a $5,000 retainer and $10,000 on success. The full comparison is in the fees guide.
Should I use a local Adelaide agent or a national firm?
The false choice is between local knowledge and national data; the right answer needs both. Pocket-level familiarity keeps you out of the wrong street, and national data tells you honestly whether Adelaide is the right market for this purchase at all.
Do these questions apply outside Adelaide?
Every one of them. The Adelaide-specific parts are the licence register and the local off-market dynamics; the incentive and evidence questions apply to any buyers agent in any city, and they work just as well on me.
