Property investment in Australia, run as one job.
It starts with a plan, then a loan, then the property — in that order, and all in one place. Most people do it backwards, with three firms who have never spoken to each other. One brief, one timeline, one set of files.
Most purchases come unstuck between advisers.
The buyer's agent finds a place the bank won't lend enough against. The broker sets up a loan the accountant later wishes had been done differently. The planner finally sees the file after settlement and has to undo work that should have been done at the start.
The idea is simple enough. The plan sets the direction. The broker pre-approves against that strategy. The buyer's agent goes looking for something the broker can actually fund. The whole purchase runs as one job instead of three.
That is the only reason all three sit in one practice. Not because every client uses all three, but because the gaps between them are where most property mistakes are made. The buyer's agent cost guide covers what the fee buys when the bundle applies.
What each part does.
Buyer's agent
The brief, research on the area, a shortlist, proper checks, the negotiating and settlement under a licensed national partner.
Finance broking
Setting the investment loan up properly, picking the lender, pre-approval and settlement. Set up to read well at audit and at tax time.
Financial planning
Whose name it goes in, how much to borrow, what buffer you keep spare, and where the property sits in everything else you own.
How it runs, step by step.
Three stages, from the first conversation to settlement and the review afterwards. The order matters more than people expect.
Plan first, then borrow
We start with the plan. What you want, how long you have, your tax rate, whose name it should be in, and how you'd cope with an empty month or a rate rise. That decides what we go looking for.
Finance approved, brief tight
Pre-approval in writing, with a named lender and a known amount. Only then do we write the brief, so everything on the shortlist is something the bank will actually lend against.
Acquisition and settlement
The shortlist, the checks, the negotiating and settlement all run as one job. We keep the solicitor, the lender and the seller's agent moving together, right through to the keys. Then we look at the loan again at your first tax return.
Questions people ask first.
The buyer's agent is a fixed fee starting at $10,000 plus GST. The loan costs you nothing — the lender pays us, and we put that in writing. Financial planning depends on what's involved and we quote it after the first conversation. If we do more than one of the three, the buyer's agent fee comes down.
No. You can take any one of them on its own. Doing all three together is there for people who want one file across the whole purchase. If you already have a broker or planner you trust, we work alongside them.
Our partner is licensed in every state and territory. Most of what we buy is in metropolitan Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Canberra — but where we look follows your plan, not a map we've drawn in advance.
Commercial, yes. Residential, not any more. Since 10 August 2026 an SMSF cannot enter a new Limited Recourse Borrowing Arrangement to buy residential property. Commercial LRBAs are unaffected, and existing residential loans are grandfathered. An SMSF can also still buy residential property outright with fund cash. Opes holds the authorisations to advise on the strategy and arrange the lending. The long-form SMSF property investment guide covers the path end to end.
No — both. The partner network turns up unadvertised places when they suit what you're after. But we don't treat “off-market” as a selling point in itself. Plenty of good buys come straight off realestate.com.au like everyone else's.
So that it's easy to explain to the ATO. Whether you pay interest only or pay it down, where the offset account sits, and whether to split the loan — all of that gets decided as part of the plan, not on the fly when you're signing loan documents.
When you haven't got enough spare each month to absorb a surprise, when you're about to drop to one income, or when your tax rate isn't high enough for the borrowing to be worth it. We do tell people not to go ahead. That is usually the most valuable thing we say.
Keep reading
- Buyer's agentA fixed fee, anywhere in Australia.
- Investment property loansSetting up loans for investment purchases.
- Tax-effective investingBorrowing, ownership, and how it fits the rest of your money.
- Off-market propertyHow we find places before they are advertised.
- SMSF propertyOwning property inside your own super fund.
- Commercial propertyBuying shops, offices and warehouses.
Ready to start looking?
The first conversation is free and you're not committing to anything. If the numbers don't stack up, we'll tell you.