Our Story - What Sparked BuyersRep

Buying a house is hard. It's a stressful, expensive, and often confusing process.

A while ago, we came across research from the Real Estate Authority that found only 46% of buyers commissioned a pre-purchase inspection from a certified building inspector. Another 20% used someone who wasn't certified—and 34% didn't get a building report at all.

That's a huge risk when you're making one of the biggest financial decisions of your life. After digging into the issue, the reasons became clear:

• New Zealand has one of the highest rates of house sales by auction in the world. In auction settings, buyers must complete all due diligence upfront—before knowing whether they'll be successful. That means paying for reports on multiple properties they may never end up owning. After losing out on a few, many buyers stop arranging proper inspections altogether—it's just not sustainable.
• The building inspection industry is unregulated and confusing. There's no single governing body, and multiple accreditation schemes exist—each with different standards and levels of oversight. While there is a New Zealand Standard for residential property inspections (NZS 4306:2005), compliance isn't mandatory. This leads to a wide variation in report quality and makes it hard for buyers to know who to trust.

After countless BBQ conversations with friends sharing stories—wasted money on reports, missed opportunities, and horror stories from relying on poor-quality inspections—the final straw came when a colleague told us ten different building inspections were done on the same house they were selling, all by different inspectors.

We knew there had to be a better way. So, we built BuyersRep.

Our platform gives all interested buyers access to a high-quality, independent building inspection report—and allows them to share the cost.

All inspectors in our marketplace are pre-vetted professionals with verified accreditations and professional indemnity insurance. Every inspector certifies their compliance with NZS 4306:2005 on each report, and buyers can choose to have the report addressed to them, with full legal reliance.

But BuyersRep doesn't just benefit buyers—it's a win for accredited building inspectors, sellers and agents too.

• Accredited building inspectors are fairly rewarded for their work, receiving a fee each time their report is re-purchased. Instead of being paid once per job, they can earn ongoing income from a single high-quality inspection—making their time and expertise go further.
• Sellers benefit through reducing cost barriers for bidders. With affordable and reliable due diligence available upfront, more buyers are willing to participate—especially at auction.
• Agents gain access to a trusted, independent marketplace of certified inspectors. They can refer buyers confidently—knowing they're supporting an open and transparent process without any conflicts of interest.

It's a smarter, fairer system for everyone involved. A better product, at a fraction of the cost—backed by a mission to make home buying more informed, more efficient, and more affordable.