How Do I Find a Good Realtor? What to Look for Before You Hire

Finding a good realtor takes more than a quick search. Here is how to gather names, interview agents, check references, and spot the warning signs before you hire.

Why Finding a Good Realtor Takes More Than a Quick Search

Type “realtor near me” into a search engine and you will get a long list of names, headshots, and five-star reviews. That list is a starting point, not a shortlist. A good realtor is not simply the first name on the page, the agent with the most reviews, or the one a friend happened to use years ago. A good realtor is the right fit for your move: someone with recent local experience, a clear plan for your situation, honest pricing advice, and a communication style that keeps you informed instead of guessing.

Whether you are buying your first home, selling a home you have lived in for years, or relocating to a new city, the agent you choose will shape the outcome. They influence the price you pay or receive, how smoothly the paperwork moves, how quickly problems get solved, and how stressful the whole experience feels. This guide explains how to find a good realtor, what to look for before you hire, and the warning signs that should make you slow down — so you can choose with confidence rather than hope.

It is also useful for agents reading this. Every quality a client looks for here — preparation, responsiveness, a visible system behind the promises — is exactly what separates the agents clients recommend from the ones they quietly forget. Many of the best-prepared agents rely on a trained real estate virtual assistant to keep follow-up, marketing, and paperwork moving while they stay focused on clients.

Start With Referrals, Then Verify Them

Referrals remain one of the best ways to find an agent, but a referral is a lead, not a verdict. A friend’s great experience matters, but your friend’s move may have been very different from yours: a different neighbourhood, a different price range, a different set of complications. Treat every referral as a name to investigate, not a decision already made.

Ask the person who referred the agent a few specific questions:

• What did the agent actually do well? Look for specifics — pricing advice, negotiation, communication — rather than general praise.
• How did they handle a problem? Every transaction has a tense moment. How the agent behaved then tells you more than how they behaved when everything went smoothly.
• Would you hire them again for a different kind of move? This reveals whether the praise is about the person or about a single easy transaction.

Then verify the referral yourself. Check the agent’s recent activity in your area, read a range of reviews rather than just the top few, and look at their current and recent listings. Do the photos look professional? Is the listing copy specific and honest, or full of empty superlatives? Patterns across several listings tell you far more than any single testimonial.

Search Smart: What to Look for Online

Online search is how many clients now begin, and it can be genuinely useful if you know what to look for. When you search for a realtor in your area, pay attention to substance over polish.

• Recent local sales. Look for agents actively closing homes in your neighbourhood and price range, not just agents with a long career total or a presence in another city.
• Useful local content. Agents who regularly explain their market — pricing, neighbourhoods, buying and selling timelines — are usually the ones who understand it deeply enough to guide you through it.
• Consistent, specific reviews. A handful of detailed reviews that mention communication, negotiation, and problem-solving carry more weight than dozens of one-line ratings.
• Clear contact details and a real process. An agent who explains how they work, how often they update clients, and what happens after you enquire is already showing you their system.

Be wary of agents whose online presence is all advertising and no evidence: big claims about being number one, but no recent sales, no market insight, and no examples of actual work you can check. Marketing can be bought. A track record has to be earned.

Interview at Least Two or Three Agents

The single most useful step in finding a good realtor is also the one many clients skip: interview more than one agent, and ask each one the same questions. A single interview gives you a personality impression. Several interviews give you a comparison — and comparison is where the differences become visible.

Our companion guide to how to choose a real estate agent walks through the full interview question set. The questions that matter most when you are still deciding who to hire include:

1. How many homes have you sold in my neighbourhood or price range in the past year?
2. What is happening in this local market right now, and what does that mean for my timing and price?
3. For sellers: what is your marketing plan for the first two weeks, specifically?
4. For buyers: how will you find homes that match my criteria, and how quickly will you alert me to new listings?
5. How often will I hear from you, and who will I actually be working with day to day?
6. What are your fees, what do they include, and what does the agreement say about cancelling if I am unhappy?
7. Can you put me in touch with two or three recent clients in a similar situation to mine?

Listen for specific answers. An agent who names streets, recent sales, days on market, and honest caveats is showing you real local knowledge. An agent who answers every question with reassurance — everything is great, your home will sell fast, buyers will love it — is selling you comfort, not advice.

What a Good Realtor Actually Does Differently

Once you know what to ask, it helps to know what good looks like in practice. The best agents tend to share a set of habits that clients notice, often without being able to name them.

They price honestly, even when it is uncomfortable

A good agent gives you a price backed by comparable sales, not a number chosen to win your listing. For sellers, that sometimes means telling you a lower number than you hoped for, and explaining why an inflated price usually leads to a longer time on market and a weaker final result. For buyers, it means advising you when a home is overpriced — and when walking away is the smart move.

They communicate before you have to chase them

Many complaints about agents are not about price or negotiation. They are about silence. A good agent agrees a communication rhythm up front — how often you will hear from them, and by what channel — and then keeps it, including when the news is bad. A low appraisal, a failed inspection, or a buyer who walks away should reach you as a prompt phone call with options, not as days of quiet.

They have a system, not just good intentions

Behind every responsive agent is usually a repeatable process: a checklist for launch week, a follow-up routine after every showing, a regular update rhythm, and a deadline tracker for every contract milestone. Increasingly, that system includes a trained real estate virtual assistant who handles scheduling, feedback chasing, client updates, document preparation, and deadline tracking. The agent still makes the judgement calls and handles negotiations personally, but the routine work does not depend on the agent finding a spare hour between appointments. When an agent can describe that support clearly, it is a strong sign their promises are backed by something real.

They listen before they pitch

A good first meeting feels like a conversation, not a sales presentation. The agent asks about your timeline, your worries, your must-haves, and your deal-breakers — and then shapes their advice around your answers. If an agent spends the first meeting talking about themselves and never asks what matters to you, that pattern rarely improves after you sign.

The best test of a realtor is not how impressive they sound in the first meeting. It is how specific their answers are, how promptly they follow up afterwards, and whether their plan survives contact with your actual situation.

Red Flags When Finding a Realtor

No single warning sign should decide the matter on its own, but several together should give you pause:

• A price with no evidence. A suggested listing price far above comparable sales, offered without a pricing analysis, often just to win the listing.
• Pressure to sign immediately. Claims that you must commit today or lose the opportunity, with no time to read the agreement.
• Vague marketing promises. Talk of exposure and networks with no concrete plan, timeline, or examples of recent work.
• Poor communication from the start. Slow replies, missed appointments, or unclear answers during the interview itself — it rarely improves after you sign.
• No references. An agent who cannot provide recent clients you can speak to, or who becomes defensive when you ask, is giving you useful information.
• Discomfort with questions. An agent who treats reasonable questions about fees, experience, or process as an insult is unlikely to welcome them later, when the stakes are higher.

Trust your judgement here too. You will be working closely with this person through a stressful, high-value process. Professional competence matters most, but you also need someone you can talk to honestly when things get difficult.

A Simple Shortlist Process

If you want a straightforward way to find a good realtor, follow this sequence:

1. Gather names from three sources: referrals from people you trust, agents with recent sales in your area, and agents whose local content or listings impressed you.
2. Do a quick online check on each: recent local activity, review patterns, and examples of actual work.
3. Interview two or three: ask the same questions of each, and compare their answers on substance, not charm alone.
4. Check references: speak to recent clients in a similar situation, and ask about communication, problem-solving, and whether they would hire the agent again.
5. Read the agreement before you sign: check the length, the fees, what is included, and what happens if you are unhappy with the service.
6. Watch the follow-up: the agent who sends a clear, prompt summary after the meeting is usually the agent whose service will stay organised throughout the transaction.

That final point is worth emphasising. Follow-up after the interview is a preview of follow-up during the transaction. If an agent is slow, vague, or generic when they are trying to win your business, do not expect them to become prompt, specific, and organised once the contract is signed.

For Agents: Be the Realtor Clients Find and Recommend

For agents reading this, the message is encouraging: clients are not looking for perfection. They are looking for someone local, prepared, honest about price, clear about process, and reliable in communication. Every quality above is something you can demonstrate before a client ever signs — with recent comparable sales, a written marketing or buying plan, references you are proud to share, and a prompt follow-up after every meeting.

The challenge is time. Preparing pricing analyses, updating marketing checklists, chasing showing feedback, sending client updates, and tracking contract deadlines are all repeatable tasks that consume the hours an agent should spend with clients. That is why many agents build a support system behind the scenes: a trained real estate virtual assistant handles the preparation, follow-up, and paperwork, so the agent shows up to every interview and every negotiation prepared, organised, and fully present. Clients notice that level of organisation, often without knowing what to call it. They simply feel looked after — and they say so to the next person who asks them how they found their realtor.

The Bottom Line

How do you find a good realtor? Start with referrals and local research, but verify both. Interview two or three agents with the same questions, compare their marketing or buying plans, check references you can actually speak to, and read the agreement before you sign. Look for recent local experience, honest pricing backed by comparable sales, a concrete plan, clear communication, and a follow-up that arrives promptly after the meeting.

The right realtor will welcome those questions, answer them specifically, and follow up promptly — because they have nothing to hide and a system to back up their promises. Choose that realtor, and you are not just hiring someone to open doors or list a home. You are hiring a guide for one of the biggest decisions of your life, and that choice deserves more than a guess.