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Industry InsightsSeptember 2026
When the Big Buyers Agencies Fail - What's Really Going On
Before you pay a buyer’s agent $15,000 to $25,000, how do you know they’ll deliver? Two well-known Australian buyer’s agencies have recently gone into liquidation, leaving clients with lost fees and expiring pre-approvals. Ben Plohl, founder of BFP Property Group and a former chartered accountant and CFO, explains the warning signs behind these collapses and shares seven questions to ask before appointing a buyer’s agent.
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In this episode
Why two established buyer's agencies went into liquidation, and what it meant for their clients
The five financial red flags a former CFO looks for in a buyer's agency
Why good property advice doesn't scale, and what happens when it's forced to
How monthly purchase KPIs can compromise the advice you receive
The seven questions to ask before you appoint a buyer's agent
Full fees paid upfront. Upfront cash looks like healthy revenue but is really a liability: work still owed. When new clients slow, the money dries up while staff, rent and client obligations remain.
Growing faster than revenue. Headcount, marketing and office costs scaled for a bull market become fatal in a sustained slowdown.
Unpaid super and tax. Superannuation and ATO obligations are the first things to slip when cash gets tight, a leading indicator that's invisible from outside.
Purchase guarantees. A guarantee is a liability on the balance sheet. When timelines blow out and refunds are requested, the cash often isn't there.
Volume over margin. A business chasing transaction count must run at full speed every month, and agents under volume pressure give different advice.
Who is actually doing the work? Not who you meet at the first consultation, but who runs your search on a Wednesday morning three weeks from now.
How many active clients does each agent manage? Fifteen simultaneous mandates is a very different proposition from a smaller, focused load.
How is the fee structured? Understand what happens if they don't deliver within a reasonable timeframe. Ben's view: an engagement fee is fine, the full fee upfront isn't.
Are they REBA and PIPA members? Membership is a minimum bar, not a guarantee, but it signals accountability.
What is their business model? How do they make money, and are they growing fast or deliberately staying small?
When have they recommended against a deal? A good buyer's agent should have a story about talking a client out of a purchase they were excited about.
How big is the team? More wages to cover means more pressure to buy before month-end.
Key quote
"You cannot industrialise good property advice." Ben Plohl
Book a discovery call with BFP Property Group: [https://bfpproperty.com/contact]
REBA (Real Estate Buyers Agents Association of Australia): https://reba.global/
PIPA (Property Investment Professionals of Australia): https://pipa.asn.au
More from BFP: https://bfpproperty.com/
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