The Questions You Should Be Asking Every Agent You Interview

Choosing a real estate agent is one of the few significant decisions most people make almost entirely on instinct. They meet someone, they like how they present, they feel a certain energy, and they commit.

Instinct is not nothing. In fact, instinct is often where the truest information lives. But instinct works better when it has real material to work with. When it has been given specific answers to specific questions and can respond to what those answers reveal rather than just to how someone presents.

Here are the questions worth asking. And what to listen for in the answers.

Ask About Their Relationship With the Homes They Work With

This is not a standard interview question, which is exactly why it is useful. Ask the agent what kind of homes they love working with. What draws them to a property. What they look for when they walk into a space for the first time.

An agent with a genuine feel for homes will answer this question with specificity and pleasure. They will describe light, proportion, character. They will tell you about a home they loved working on because of the garden, or a listing that surprised them because the bones were extraordinary despite the dated finishes.

An agent who answers with general enthusiasm or who pivots immediately to price points and days on market is telling you something too. There is no wrong answer, but there is an answer that matches what you are looking for.

Ask How They Would Approach Your Specific Search or Sale

Not in general terms. Specifically. If you are buying, describe what you are imagining and ask them to respond to it. What would they look for? Where would they start? What would they want to understand about you before they began?

If you are selling, describe your home and ask how they would think about presenting it. What would they want to know? What would they do to prepare it? How would they think about which buyers to attract?

The specificity of their response tells you whether they are thinking about you and your situation or whether they are giving you the version of this answer they give everyone.

Ask About a Home They Have Loved

This is an unusual question and it will catch some agents off guard, which is part of the point. Ask them about a property they have worked with that genuinely moved them. That they found beautiful or surprising or full of potential that others missed.

An agent who can answer this question vividly is an agent who is paying attention in a certain way. Who is not just moving transactions but engaging with the properties and the lives they represent.

That quality of attention is what you want brought to your experience.

Ask How They Handle a Listing That Is Not Finding Its Buyer

Every agent has had a listing that sat longer than expected. What you want to know is how they think about that situation. Do they immediately default to a price reduction? Do they reconsider the presentation? Do they think carefully about whether the right buyers have actually seen it?

An agent with a strong sense of the market often approaches this question differently. They think about whether the home is being shown to the right people, not just whether it is being shown to enough people.

Listen for Genuine Curiosity

Underneath all of these questions, what you are really listening for is whether this person is genuinely curious about you. About what you are looking for. About what would make this experience feel right.

The agents who ask good questions, who lean in when you describe what you are imagining, who seem genuinely interested in getting it right for you specifically, are the ones who will bring that same quality of attention to every stage of the work.

That is what trust feels like at the beginning. Pay attention to it.