Buyer's agent, property adviser or promoter: telling the roles apart

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Kooky

Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.

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An investor looking for a first rental property will meet a range of people offering to help find it. Some call themselves buyer's agents or buyer's advocates. Some are property strategists, investment advisers or wealth coaches. Some run seminars. Some work inside a group that also arranges the loan, the accounting and the legal work. Their websites can look much alike, and so can their promises.

The roles behind the titles are not alike at all. One of these people is engaged and paid by the investor to act in the investor's interest. Another is paid by the seller of the property being recommended. A third may be advising on matters that a real estate licence does not cover. Queensland law does not regulate the titles, but it does regulate the work, the paperwork and the disclosure of who is paying. This guide sets out the differences, the rules that reveal them and the official warnings that apply. It is written for readers who want to understand the landscape, and it starts from the position that every one of these roles can be performed honestly, provided the buyer knows which one they are dealing with.

Queensland Government and Office of Fair Trading guidance on appointments and disclosure; Moneysmart, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission's consumer site.

Three roles that can look the same

It helps to separate three positions a person can hold when they recommend a property to a buyer.

The first is the buyer's agent in the strict sense. The buyer appoints them in writing and pays their fee. They search, assess, negotiate or bid on the buyer's instructions. The Queensland Government's guidance describes the work as finding suitable properties, negotiating with the seller, doing background checks on the property and the area, and bidding at auction.

The second is the seller's representative. This is anyone whose income from the transaction comes from the selling side: a selling agent, a project marketer engaged by a developer, or an intermediary who receives a commission when a client buys a particular house-and-land package or apartment. Their role is legitimate and long established. What matters is that the buyer understands the person is selling.

The third is the adviser on strategy: someone who counsels a client on whether to invest in property, how much to borrow, which structure to use and whether superannuation should be involved. Parts of that conversation are general education. Other parts are financial advice, which is regulated under federal law and needs a different licence from the one a real estate agent holds.

One business can occupy more than one of these positions, and that is where confusion starts. A firm may charge a client a fee for a "strategy", recommend a property and also be paid by its developer. The titles do not reveal this. The paperwork does.

The test: who appointed, who pays

The surest way to tell the roles apart is to ask two questions and to look for the answers in writing.

Who appointed this person? In Queensland a property agent cannot provide services to a client until appointed in writing, according to the Office of Fair Trading, and for a buyer's agent the Government's guidance names Form 6 as the document. If the buyer has signed a Form 6 appointing the person to buy, the person is the buyer's agent. If no such form exists, they are not, whatever has been said.

Who pays? A buyer's agent's fee is paid by the buyer and recorded on that form, along with every expense and the date each amount is due. If the person's income from the purchase comes instead from the developer or the selling agent, they are being paid to sell.

The two questions occasionally produce an awkward combination: a form signed by the buyer, and a commission from the seller as well. Queensland's rules are designed to bring that into the open. The Office of Fair Trading's guidance on appointments requires the form to disclose any financial benefit the agent expects to gain from a third party. And section 18 of the Property Occupations Regulation 2014 says an agent must not accept an appointment at all if doing so will place the agent's duty or interests in conflict with the client's.

What the licence covers

Anyone who negotiates the purchase of Queensland property for another person, for a fee, is doing real estate agency work. Section 26 of the Property Occupations Act 2014 authorises the holder of a real estate agent's licence to purchase, sell, exchange or let property as an agent for others for reward, and to negotiate those transactions. The Office of Fair Trading states that a valid licence or registration is required to work as a real estate agent, and its page on breaches lists unlicensed work with a maximum penalty of $34,540 or two years' imprisonment.

The public register shows, free of charge, whether a named person or company holds a current licence. That check sorts out one category straight away: a person who offers to find and negotiate a Queensland property for a fee and holds no Queensland licence or registration.

The licence does not, however, distinguish between the first two roles. A buyer's agent and a project marketer may hold exactly the same class of licence. Being licensed shows that someone is entitled to act in property transactions. It does not show which side they are on in this one.

What must be disclosed when the seller pays

Queensland's disclosure rules are aimed squarely at the situation in which a buyer is being guided by someone with a stake in the sale.

The Office of Fair Trading's guidance on disclosing interests requires disclosure to a prospective buyer, on the approved form known as Form 8. The buyer must be told when the agent is referring them to a third party, who that party is, what their relationship to the agent is, and what fees, commissions or other benefits are involved, whether in money or otherwise. The guidance gives mortgage brokers, inspectors, marketing agencies and other agents as examples of third parties.

The obligation is not limited to licensed agents. The same guidance applies it to property developers, who do not need a licence to sell their own stock, and says it covers both the building contract and the land contract in a house-and-land package. A developer must also disclose an interest of 15 per cent or more in the property being sold.

The consequences listed by the regulator for failing to disclose include repayment of commission, fines, conviction and imprisonment.

In practice this means a buyer who is introduced to a property by someone other than their own appointed agent can expect a written disclosure showing who stands to benefit. A buyer who has been told an introduction service is "free" can read the form to see how it is funded.

Seminars and the one-stop shop

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission addresses this territory on its consumer site, Moneysmart, in its guidance on buying an investment property.

It warns against property investment seminars that promise to make attendees a fortune and that use high-pressure sales tactics. It also advises caution where property developers, accountants, lawyers and mortgage brokers recommend each other's services. That second warning describes what is often called a one-stop shop: a group of connected businesses in which the person who suggests investing, the lender who funds it, the lawyer who checks the contract and the seller of the property are all linked.

The concern is independence. Each of those professionals is supposed to bring a separate judgement to the purchase. A solicitor recommended by the seller's marketer, and reliant on that marketer for a flow of work, is in a different position from one the buyer chose. Moneysmart's guidance lists verifying an adviser's independence among the things to do before buying.

On self-managed super funds the same site is more specific. It cautions that developers and promoters may have financial relationships that are not obvious, says that referral fees can create conflicts of interest and influence advice, and tells readers to watch for pressure tactics such as competitions, complimentary travel or free meals used to encourage a property purchase through a fund.

None of this is a comment on buyer's agents as a profession, and it is not aimed at them. It is a description of sales practices that borrow the language of advice. An arrangement in which the buyer chooses and pays each professional separately is the opposite of the one being warned about.

Where property ends and financial advice begins

A real estate licence covers property transactions. It does not cover advice about financial products, and the line between the two matters most where superannuation is involved.

Moneysmart states that only a financial adviser who holds an Australian financial services licence, or who is authorised by a licensee, can give advice about a self-managed super fund, and it points readers to the Financial Advisers Register to confirm a person's authorisation. A recommendation to set up a fund, to roll savings into it or to use it to buy a property is that kind of advice.

A buyer's agent can properly act for a fund's trustees once they have decided to buy, in the same way as for any other client. What sits outside a real estate licence is the earlier decision. A business that begins with "you should set up a fund" and ends with "and here is the property for it" has given two different kinds of advice under two different regulatory systems, and needs to be authorised for both.

The ground here is shifting. The tax package that passed Parliament in June 2026 included a ban on new borrowing by self-managed funds to buy residential property, taking effect in August. Moneysmart's own page on the subject notes that the 2026 Budget changed the rules and refers readers to the Australian Taxation Office.

Upfront fees and promised returns

Two features have drawn particular attention this year: large fees paid in advance, and promises about how a property will perform.

Both were present in the business model of a buyer's agency that went into liquidation in May 2026. According to liquidators' figures reported by Real Estate Business in June, 695 clients were left claiming $10.59 million for prepaid services and refunds. The publication reported upfront fees of $6,000 to more than $22,000 and a contractual promise that properties would outperform the market by at least 10 per cent or the fee would be refunded.

The profession's own bodies responded by describing what they consider normal. The Real Estate Buyers Agents Association of Australia said on 29 June that a typical engagement fee is between $1,000 and $5,000, with the majority of the fee due when a purchase goes unconditional or settles. The chair of the Property Investors Council of Australia, Ben Kingsley, told Real Estate Business that investors should avoid anyone claiming big or fast returns or offering performance guarantees.

Queensland's rules do not prohibit an upfront fee or cap any fee. The Office of Fair Trading's guidance says commission is negotiable. What the rules require is that the amount and its due date appear on the appointment form, that the terms cannot be changed after signing, and that the appointment contains no unfair contract terms. A guarantee about future prices is not something the approved form asks for, and a guarantee is only as strong as the business that gives it.

Three checks anyone can make

The distinctions in this guide reduce to three things that can be verified before any money is paid. They are a way of finding out what role a person is playing, not a judgement of anyone's competence.

A fourth applies only where superannuation or other financial products enter the conversation: the Financial Advisers Register, which Moneysmart identifies as the place to confirm that a person is authorised to give that advice.

Voluntary associations offer a further signal. The Real Estate Buyers Agents Association of Australia admits only agencies that act exclusively for buyers; its members may not list property for sale or accept commissions from vendors or developers. Membership is optional, so its absence proves nothing, but its presence answers the question of role in advance.

When the property is new

The roles are hardest to tell apart in the sale of new housing, and the reason is structural.

Established homes are sold by an agent the owner has appointed, and the commission is visible on the seller's side. New apartments and house-and-land packages are sold by developers through networks of marketers and referrers, each of whom may receive a commission. A buyer can be several introductions away from the developer without realising that every person in the chain is paid when the contract is signed.

That is the setting for which Queensland's Form 8 disclosure was designed, including its application to unlicensed developers and to both contracts in a package. It is also the setting in which a genuinely independent buyer's agent can be distinguished most easily, because their form shows a fee from the buyer and an empty third-party section.

None of this makes new property a poor choice or its marketers suspect. Many buyers want a new home, and someone has to sell it. The point is only that a person selling it is not the buyer's adviser, and the paperwork exists so the buyer can see the difference.

If something has gone wrong

Different regulators cover the different roles.

For a licensed property agent in Queensland, including a buyer's agent, the Queensland Government's guidance sets out the order: a written complaint to the agent, then the Real Estate Institute of Queensland if the agent is a member, then a formal complaint to the Office of Fair Trading. The Government also operates a claim fund for people who have lost money through the conduct of a property agent, with claims decided by the Office of Fair Trading or the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

For financial advice, including advice to set up or use a super fund, the regulator is the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, whose Moneysmart site explains how to check an adviser.

Knowing which role a person held is therefore useful after the event as well as before it. It decides which rules applied, which disclosures were owed and where a complaint belongs.

A title says what someone would like to be called. The appointment and the disclosure say who they were working for.

Kooky, from Shaka

Kooky edits Queensland Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for Queensland property professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.

About Kooky and Shaka →