Real Estate Agent Interview Questions & Answers

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Ideally, ask for the names and phone numbers of three of the most recent clients. You want to know whether people are happy with the real estate agent's work now, not five or 10 years ago. When you talk to former clients, ask how easy it was to reach the agent when they had questions, and whether they felt well supported and advised throughout the process.

Prospective agents will give you a sale price they think they can achieve for your property. The most important question to ask is "What are you basing that on?" They should then support this with recent sales in your area of similar properties - both from their agency and others.

Make sure they can support the suggested sale price with evidence - you don't want to fall for the trap of securing the agent who simply says they can get the best price for you!

Inspections are a very common contingency in contracts when buying a home. A great question to ask a potential buyers agent is whether or not they attend their inspections. There are some buyers agents who will attend and some who will not. Most top producing agents will agree that attending inspections is important, for many reasons.

This is a minor concern, but you want to know the answer so that you can make sure a broker has sufficient time to represent you effectively. If he is too busy managing the office or keeping tabs on associates, he might be too much of an administrator to meet your day-to-day demands.

You MUST ask. Enough said.

This is the best way to ask for references. You may even be lucky enough to actually know the homeowner. Be sure to ask the homeowner lots of questions related to likes, dislikes, and the agent's performance compared to what he/she promised.

A reality check is where an agent puts you in the car and drives you around to look at other properties. As a seller, she is showing you that your expectations are unreasonable compared to similar homes in similar neighborhoods. For buyers, a reality check may be to prove that you have too little money to afford the neighborhood and that perhaps you need to adjust your hopes and dreams down to the size of your wallet.

If you are buying a home, there are ways to make bids more attractive, such as being preapproved for a mortgage so that the deal can be written without a mortgage contingency. This question will give you insight into the kinds of strategies a buyer broker thinks will work, both with lenders and sellers.

Just because someone is the top agent at his firm does not make him the best for you. If he is not familiar with your neighborhood, if he can't describe it knowledgeably to a seller, you may be better off with someone else.

You maybe asking yourself, Why is a website important for a buyers agent to have? Simple. A website is hopefully a great place to learn about not only the potential buyers agent but also about the local neighborhoods, schools, and also find some helpful testimonials.

This is a critical question to ask a buyers agent. Do they send just the address of the potential home? Do they send information? You should expect a great buyers agent to send lots of detailed information and photos about the possible homes.

Ideally, they should be familiar with your area. However, it may not be the only area they specialize in. If they say they specialize in the entire DFW area, remember that the DFW metroplex is an area of 9,286 square miles, making it larger in area than Rhode Island and Connecticut combined according to Wikipedia.com. Have them narrow it down a bit.

Ideally you want a career real estate agent that has been in the industry for at least 2 or 3 years. Or at least you want to make sure that they are under the direct supervision of someone with 3 to 5 years of experience.

This question is one that cannot be missed. Experience in the real estate industry is important. The longer a real estate agent has been selling real estate, the more transactions they have likely completed. It's not impossible, however, that a real estate agent who has been in the business for two or three years and has done enough transactions to fall into that 20% group!

In this industry, experience definitely counts - but that doesn't mean that the agent who has been around the longest is the best one for you. What you are looking for is someone who has had enough experience to handle all aspects of the sale, combined with the enthusiasm and motivation required to secure a buyer for you.

One of the biggest criticisms about agents is a lack of communication. Make sure your agent knows what you think is an appropriate level of communication and that you want as many contact numbers as possible. If they do give you their home number, please be considerate of how you use it.

Use this question to discover how competitive they are and how well they have researched the market and their competition, especially in your area. Their answers can also reveal their level of experience too.

Anyone that I know that has ever sold a home will want to find out how potential buyers feel about the house. The Realtor you hire should be prepared to call the buyers agent after the showing to find out if the buyer has any interest and if not what their impression were both positive and negative.

There's nothing wrong with working with both as long as they don't spread their time too thin. Buyers take up a lot of an agent's time when showing homes. Find out their ratio of buyers to sellers.

This could include anything from technology help for creating a beautiful website for your home to an in-house real estate attorney.

You only want a professional full-time real estate agent to sell your house. To do it right, real estate is a full-time job. You shouldn't hire an agent that only spends a few hours a week on the job.

Do I think this agent will do a good job selling my home and can I work with him/her to achieve this goal?

If the agent you are interviewing heads up a large office, it may be that he or she will not be the one doing business with you the entire time. If that's the case, you should know up front exactly how the agent will be involved, and you should be able to meet the other agents who will be working with you.

A team is a group of agents that service the same customers. Usually one agent does a specific task or works with a particular client or specific area. Find out how their team works. There are advantages to working with teams however their approach may seem less personal. Make sure you feel comfortable with the way their team operates and how they will service you. Also make sure that you have a list of teammates and their duties and contact information.

Dual-agency is a tricky situation where the agent represents both the buyer and seller of the same transaction. When representing both sides, they in effect can not really represent either side well. If that sounds like an awkward explanation, I assure you the law is even more unclear. Read "Information about Brokerage Services" to learn about the law of agency. This is a standard form published by the Texas Real Estate Commission for agents licensed in Texas.