Who looks after the interests of buyers in the SA property market? "Not the selling agent," says Ivan Johnson, a leading estate agency educationist, property lawyer and negotiation expert as well as one of the founders of Allspace for Buyers, a newly launched, Gauteng based, exclusive property buyers’ agency.

"However helpful and friendly a selling agent is," he points out, "his duty under law is to protect the interests of his client, the seller, at all times to the best of his ability — and the main interest of the seller is to sell his property at the highest price possible." He notes that because of this, the huge growth area in the property industry overseas has been that of agencies representing buyers. "In over 65 percent of sales in the US, for instance, both sellers’ and buyers’ agents are now involved in the negotiations".

Buying in SA very risky

Johnson says that buying property in South Africa can be highly risky. "Buyers sign offers to purchase on forms supplied by the sellers’ agents, framed in obtuse legalese that they, and in many cases the selling agent, have difficulty in understanding. When things go wrong they find they have signed away their rights under common law."

He continues: "They pay the costs of conveyancers that are, in most cases, appointed by the seller or his agent and who are often inefficient and overly expensive. They have no idea of the market value of a property, except for what the selling agent tells them, which excludes, of course, the fact that their commission has been added onto the purchase price." He muses: "Especially in good times for buyers like those at present, when selling agents are desperate for sales, buyers are often lured into buying 'bargains' that turn out to have serious hidden defects or which are in neighbourhoods that have grave security, public drunkenness or traffic problems."

Not merely a mirror image of selling agents

Johnson admits that the public will have to be educated in the benefits of using buyers’ agents, because it is not merely a mirror image of selling agents. "Our commission philosophy is based on results: the higher the savings we negotiate, the higher the commission and vice versa". He notes that this challenges their agents to do better. "In any purchase our commissions are less than 50 percent of the selling agent's," he remarks. "We also don’t take a share of the selling agent’s commission as this can be seen to compromise our integrity."

Allspace for Buyers’ agents are coached in negotiation skills by Johnson, an acknowledged expert in his field. Furthermore, contracts used are written in simple language and explain the meaning of key legal concepts in layman’s terms. "Allspace for Buyers is unique in that we offer a number of service options according to a buyer’s needs: from finding the right property to mediating for free the inevitable conflicts that develop between buyer and seller," Johnson concludes.

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