How do I vet a real estate agent if I decide to hire one?

Hiring the wrong agent can cost you significantly more than hiring no agent at all. A bad agent will underprice your home to generate a quick sale, over-promise to win your listing and then underdeliver on marketing, or disappear after the listing agreement is signed and surface again only when a commission is due. These aren't rare scenarios. They're common enough that the industry has a name for the practice: "buying the listing."

Ask for specific sales data, not just years of experience. "I've been doing this for 15 years" is tenure data, not performance data. What you want to know is how many homes they listed in the last 12 months, how many actually closed, and what their list-price-to-sale-price ratio was. An agent with a strong list-to-sale ratio is consistently pricing homes accurately and selling them at or near asking price. An agent with a weak ratio is either overpricing to win listings or regularly accepting large reductions to close deals.

Ask for their average days on market for their listings and compare it to the market average in your area. An agent whose listings consistently sit on the market longer than average may not have the marketing reach or pricing discipline you need.

Ask specifically what marketing they'll do for your home. "I'll put it on the MLS and Zillow" is not a marketing plan. That's table stakes. What professional photography do they use? Do they do video or 3D tours? What's their social media strategy? Do they have a buyer database they actively market to? How do they handle the first weekend on market, which typically generates the most traffic?

Don't let the initial listing presentation fool you. Agents invest in polished listing presentations specifically to win your business. The quality of the presentation tells you something about their professionalism, but it doesn't tell you whether they'll deliver after the listing agreement is signed. Ask for references from sellers whose homes they listed and sold in the last six months, and actually call them.

Commission is negotiable. Since the 2024 NAR settlement, commission structures are more openly negotiated than they were under the old system. A full-service agent charging 2.5 to 3 percent as a listing commission is standard in many markets, but that doesn't mean it's fixed. Just make sure that what you negotiate doesn't result in reduced service or diminished marketing investment.

Avoid agents who pressure you to sign immediately. Any agent who shows up for a listing presentation and pushes you to sign that day is using pressure tactics that should make you cautious. A confident agent is willing to give you time to make a decision.

The Agent Qualification Form in the JoeFSBO toolkit has specific questions to ask during an interview and a structured way to compare agents side by side. Use it.