How to choose a real estate agent comes down to seven checks. Start with recent sales near you, how close their listings sell to asking, and their pricing argument. Then the marketing plan, who handles your file, reply speed, and the full fee in writing. Below are the seven tips, plus the screens that matter only when you’re selling.
I’ve watched thousands of home sales play out, and the pattern is always the same. Sellers agonize over paint colors and staging, then hire the first agent a friend recommends without asking a single hard question. The agent decision is the one that moves the most money. On a median-priced home today, the gap between a great agent and a mediocre one, and between a fair fee and an inflated one, runs into tens of thousands of dollars.
So let’s do this properly. Here’s what I’d actually check, in order, before I signed anything.
First, understand what you’re actually paying for
Most sellers still assume commission is fixed at 5–6%. It isn’t, and hasn’t been since the 2024 NAR settlement reshaped how agents get paid. The National Association of Realtors says it plainly in its own consumer guide: agent compensation is fully negotiable and not set by law. That matters, because it’s the biggest single line item in your sale.
Run the math on the current national median. The median existing-home price hit $434,100 in July 2026, according to NAR’s August 11 existing-home sales release. Here’s what different listing-side fee structures cost you on that price:
| Listing fee model | Rate | What you pay on $434,100 |
|---|---|---|
| Traditional listing agent | 3% | $13,023 |
| “Discount” brokerage | 2% | $8,682 |
| Houwzer 1% listing fee | 1% | $4,341 |
That’s an $8,682 swing on the listing side alone. And that’s before you decide what to offer a buyer’s agent. Same house, same closing date, and the only difference is who you hired and what you agreed to pay.
One habit I’d hold you to: make every agent quote a dollar figure, not a percentage. The sellers I’ve watched overpay almost always agreed to a rate they never multiplied out.
How to choose a real estate agent: the 7-point checklist
When people ask me how to choose a real estate agent, they want a gut-feel answer: “hire someone you trust.” Fine, but trust is downstream of evidence. Here’s the evidence I’d gather, roughly in priority order.
- Recent, local, same-type sales. Not “20 years of experience.” Ask how many homes they’ve closed in your specific neighborhood in the last 12 months, and at what price band. An agent who sold ten $300K rowhomes near you is worth more than a luxury specialist who’s never worked your block.
- Their list-to-sale ratio and days on market. A good agent’s listings sell close to (or above) asking, and faster than the local average. Ask for their numbers. If they dodge, that’s your answer.
- A real pricing argument. The right agent walks in with comparable sales and a defensible number, and can explain why. The wrong one names a sky-high price to win your listing, then pushes you to “adjust” two weeks in. Overpricing is the most common way sellers lose money, and it usually starts at the interview.
- A marketing plan you can see. Professional photos, floor plan, MLS syndication, and a launch strategy, all in writing. “I’ll put it on Zillow” is not a plan. Every listing hits the big portals automatically; what separates agents is the prep before it goes live.
- Who actually shows up. At big-name brokerages, the agent you meet often hands you to a junior teammate after you sign. Ask directly: will you be my point of contact through closing, or someone else? There’s no wrong answer, but you deserve to know.
- Communication style and speed. You’ll be texting this person during the most stressful financial stretch of your year. Ask how fast they typically respond and how they prefer to communicate. Then notice how quickly they replied to you before you were even a client.
- The full fee, in writing. Not just their rate. The total. What’s their listing fee, what do they recommend offering a buyer’s agent, and what’s included versus billed separately? A confident agent gives you a clear number without flinching. I put together 15 questions to ask a Realtor if you want a deeper list.
If I could only ask one of those seven, I’d ask for the list-to-sale ratio. It’s the hardest number on this page to fake, and an agent who won’t produce it usually has a reason.
How to find a good realtor for selling your home
Everything above applies whether you’re buying or selling. If you’re the seller, though, three of those checks carry most of the weight, and there’s a fourth almost nobody mentions: the contract you sign at the end of the interview.
A listing agent does a different job than a buyer’s agent. They set your price, spend your marketing budget, and negotiate against someone who does this for a living. So screen for listing-side work specifically. Most guides on how to pick a real estate agent stop at “interview three people,” which is the start, not the screen.
- Ask for listing-side closings only. Agents quote total transactions, which quietly blends in the buyer deals they worked. You want the number of homes they listed and sold in the last 12 months, in your price band.
- Compare their days on market to the national number. NAR’s REALTORS® Confidence Index put median time on market at 29 days in July 2026. An agent whose listings routinely sit twice that long, in a normal market, is usually pricing to win listings rather than to sell homes.
- Ask what they’d do if it doesn’t sell in three weeks. The list-price answer tells you what they think you want to hear. This one tells you whether they have a plan.
Then read the contract. NAR’s consumer guide on listing agreements lays out four common arrangements, and the gap between them is real money.
| Agreement | What it means | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Exclusive right-to-sell | You owe your agent’s fee no matter who finds the buyer | The default. Negotiate the term length, not the label |
| Exclusive agency | One agent, but you owe nothing if you find the buyer yourself | Rare in practice; expect pushback |
| Limited service | They put it on the MLS but may skip showings, offer review, and negotiation | Cheap upfront, and you’re doing the hard part |
| Non-exclusive | More than one agent can market it; whoever sells it gets paid | Uncommon for houses; it muddles accountability |
Most sellers get handed an exclusive right-to-sell. That’s fine; it’s the standard, and a good agent has earned it. The part worth negotiating isn’t the type, it’s the length. I’d push for 90 days with a renewal instead of six months, and I’d do it before I ever mentioned the rate. Ninety days costs a strong agent nothing, and it hands you an exit that doesn’t require a fight.
On the fee itself, two things changed in August 2024 and plenty of sellers still haven’t heard them. Your agent can no longer advertise an offer of buyer-agent compensation on the MLS. And that offer isn’t required at all. NAR’s guidance is blunt: it is up to you to decide whether making or authorizing an offer of compensation is the best approach for selling your property. You can still offer buyer concessions on the MLS, like help with closing costs.
Run that through the median price and it gets concrete. Our own low commission Realtors page recommends 2% to 3% for the buyer’s agent, so call it 2.5%. On a $434,100 sale, that’s $10,853 to the buyer’s side either way. Pair it with a 3% listing agent and your total is $23,876. Pair it with a 1% listing fee and it’s $15,194. The buyer’s side never moved. Yours did, by $8,682.
One more seller-only screen, and it’s free. Ask who writes the listing description, and who picks up when a buyer’s agent calls on a Saturday. On a listing, reply speed isn’t a nicety. An agent juggling three showing requests will quietly drop the one that didn’t call back. Test it before you sign: a slow reply now previews the next ninety days.
Where to find agents worth interviewing
Knowing how to choose a real estate agent is half research, half legwork. The default move is to call the name on the sign down the street or go with your cousin who just got licensed. Both can work. Both can also cost you. Widen the pool first.
Start with agents who have a visible, recent record in your area, whose sold listings you can pull up and verify. Referrals from people who sold a home like yours (not just any home) are gold. So are online reviews, as long as you read the substance, not the star count. And interview at least two or three. In a market like Denver, houses and condos move at very different speeds, so that shortlist matters more. I walked through those screens in my guide to the best real estate agents in Denver. I know that feels like a lot when you just want to list. But it’s the highest-paid hour of your whole sale.
One thing I’d push back on: don’t let brand names do your vetting for you. A shiny franchise logo tells you nothing about the individual who’ll handle your sale. The agent matters far more than the brokerage sign.
Red flags that should end the conversation
Some signals are worth walking away over. If an agent inflates your list price to win the listing, then hedges the moment you push back, walk. Can’t or won’t share their recent sales numbers? Same answer. And if they pressure you to sign a long exclusive agreement on the spot, slow down. You can negotiate the length of that contract, and a good agent won’t corner you.
Watch the fee conversation too. An agent who gets cagey when you ask what everything costs is telling you how the rest of the relationship will go. The fee should be a two-minute, no-drama conversation. When it isn’t, that’s information.
Of all of them, the inflated list price is the one I’d walk out on fastest. It burns the first three weeks, when your listing gets more attention than it will ever get again, and no price cut later buys those weeks back.
Why “full service” and “low commission” aren’t opposites
Here’s the myth I most want to kill: that paying less means getting less. For years the only way to cut commission was to give something up: list it yourself, or hire a bargain outfit that treated you like a ticket number. That trade-off is outdated.
At Houwzer, we recruit from the top-performing agents in each market, and they take a 1% listing fee in exchange for a steady stream of clients. Full service comes with it — pricing strategy, pro photography, MLS and portal syndication, showings, negotiation. And with Newfound Title handling closing in-house, the handoff from “under contract” to “keys” is one team instead of three. Our sell page puts average seller savings at $12,000, across more than $420 million returned to sellers so far.
I’ll argue against my own side for a second. If a low fee comes with a call center instead of a named agent who answers the phone, don’t take it. The fee isn’t the product; the agent is, and a cheap listing that sits for 90 days is the most expensive thing on this page.
For the full breakdown of the model, I walk through low commission real estate agents, and I dig into what a fair commission looks like after the settlement. Selling in the Mid-Atlantic? Our low commission Realtors in Pennsylvania page shows the local numbers.
The point isn’t “always pick the cheapest.” It’s that a top agent and a low fee can live in the same person. Once you know that, the commission question changes from “how much do I have to give up?” to “why am I paying 3% when 1% buys the same result?”
Frequently asked questions
How do I find a good realtor for selling my house?
Screen for listing-side work, not total transactions. Ask how many homes they listed and sold in the last 12 months in your price band, how close those sold to asking, and how long they sat versus the 29-day national median. Then negotiate the listing agreement term before you negotiate the rate.
How many real estate agents should I interview before choosing one?
Two or three is the sweet spot. One gives you no basis for comparison; five turns into a part-time job. Interviewing a small handful lets you compare pricing logic, marketing plans, and fees side by side, which is where the real differences show up. NAR’s consumer guide lists ten questions to ask a seller’s agent before you choose one.
Does a cheaper agent mean worse service?
Not automatically, and that’s the outdated assumption worth dropping. What matters is how the agent is paid and what’s included. A full-service agent at a 1% listing fee can deliver the same marketing, pricing, and negotiation as a 3% agent. Judge the service by what’s actually included, not by the fee.
How do I check a real estate agent’s track record?
Ask for their recent sold listings in your area, then verify them. Public records and the major portals show sale prices and dates. Look at how close their listings sold to asking and how long they sat on the market versus the local average. Real numbers beat a polished pitch every time.
What’s the most important factor when choosing an agent?
Recent local results, paired with an honest pricing argument. An agent who actually sells homes like yours, near you, and can defend a list price with comps will make you more money than a big name who overprices to win the listing. Fee comes right after, because it’s the biggest number you control.
Can I negotiate a real estate agent’s commission?
Yes. Since the 2024 NAR settlement, commissions are openly negotiable and nothing is fixed by rule. You can negotiate the rate, the contract length, and what’s included. Or you can skip the haggling and start with a transparent 1% listing fee, which is the route a lot of our sellers take.
The bottom line: how to choose a real estate agent isn’t complicated, but it is consequential. The agent you pick sets the ceiling on your sale — and the floor under your fees. Gather the evidence, interview a few, and refuse to accept that a lower commission has to cost you service. It doesn’t, and the sellers who figure that out keep thousands more of their own money.
If you’re choosing an agent for an estate rather than for yourself, the math becomes a fiduciary question. Our guide to a probate listing as an executor covers the court deadlines, notice rules, and commission duty.
