Choosing an agent shouldn’t come down to who has the biggest marketing presence, promises the highest sale price, or simply tells you what you want to hear. A better approach is to evaluate how an agent thinks, communicates, analyzes risk, negotiates, and helps you make difficult decisions.
What should you look for when choosing a real estate agent?
A strong real estate agent should demonstrate relevant local knowledge, explain recommendations with evidence, identify risks and tradeoffs, communicate clearly, negotiate strategically, and define how they’ll represent you. Don’t evaluate only what an agent has sold. Evaluate how they’ll help you make decisions.
A 10-point evaluation framework
1. Local market knowledge
Ask what you should understand before buying or selling in this particular market. Look for neighborhood-level context rather than generic statistics.
2. Decision process
Ask how the agent helps clients make a decision when there isn’t an obvious answer. Strong advice clarifies tradeoffs rather than simply telling you what to do.
3. Pricing and market analysis
Ask the agent to walk through the evidence behind a pricing or offer recommendation, including comparable sales, current competition, condition, location, and market response.
4. Property due diligence and risk
Ask how the agent identifies issues deserving deeper investigation and when qualified specialists should be involved.
5. Negotiation
Ask: Tell me about a recent negotiation where price wasn’t the most important term. Listen for information gathering, priorities, leverage, contingencies, timing, financing, credits, and certainty.
6. Communication and candor
Ask what happens when the agent has information they know you won’t like. Useful representation includes clear communication when expectations and evidence diverge.
7. Relevant experience
Transaction count is useful context, but relevance matters. Ask about situations similar to yours.
8. Strategy and adaptability
Ask what the initial strategy is and what evidence would cause the agent to change it.
9. Representation, services, and compensation
Before signing, understand the services, who will provide them, the agreement and its material terms, and how the agent and brokerage will be compensated. Brokerage compensation is negotiable and isn’t set by law.
10. Professional judgment and trust
Ask: Tell me about a time you advised a client not to buy or sell. This can reveal whether the advice remains useful when completing a transaction isn’t necessarily the best outcome.
Don’t choose based on one number
Interviewing agents now? Use the same questions with each person so you’re comparing evidence rather than presentations. Open the Realtor interview questions →
The agent with the most transactions isn’t automatically the right agent. The highest suggested list price or lowest fee doesn’t by itself establish the best fit or value. Evaluate the whole advisory relationship.
A note from Ravi
I spent much of my career making complex technology and business decisions where the right answer rarely came from a single data point. I approach real estate similarly: understand the objective, gather relevant evidence, identify tradeoffs and risks, and then make the decision deliberately.
You should evaluate me using the same framework on this page.
Ravi Dasani
Strategic Real Estate Advisor | Compass
DRE #02218139
Questions to Ask a Realtor Before Hiring Them · Compare agents with the evaluation scorecard · Buyer Guidance · Seller Guidance · Talk It Through With Ravi