Interviewing three buyer's agents. What am I supposed to actually ask them?

Question

First purchase, probably a small rental rather than a house to live in. I've got calls booked with three agents and I realized I have no idea what separates a good one from a bad one. All three websites say the same things about local expertise.

What I half understand: I have to sign something before they show me anything now, and the fee is negotiable in a way it apparently wasn't a couple of years ago. I read somewhere that the average is around 2.4% and that it barely moved after the rules changed, which confused me, because I also read that commissions collapsed. Anyway. If I only get thirty minutes with each of them, what questions actually tell me something?

Rena Guide · Accepted Answer

Start with the agreement itself, because that's the part that binds you. Ask how long the term runs and what geography it covers. A twelve month exclusive agreement over an entire metro is a very different commitment from ninety days in two zip codes, and both get printed on the same form. Ask what the fee is as a number, and ask what happens if the seller offers less than that number, because since offers of buyer-agent compensation stopped appearing on the MLS, the gap between what you owe your agent and what the seller will contribute is the thing that actually costs you cash at closing.

Then ask about the tail. Most agreements have a protection period, meaning if you buy a house they showed you within some window after the agreement ends, you still owe the fee. Ninety to a hundred eighty days is common. Ask for the list of properties that clause applies to in writing.

For a rental specifically, ask how many purchases they've written where the buyer never intended to live there. An agent who works with owner occupants will do a fine job on the contract and may have nothing useful to say about whether a rent number is real.

The question people forget is what happens when you want out. Some agreements let you cancel with written notice at any time, some only release you at the broker's discretion. Ask to see the termination clause on the call rather than after you've signed, and ask whether the broker will release you or just the individual agent.

jordan_ellis2 · Answer

The term length thing is real. The first draft I was sent was 12 months, entire metro, exclusive. I asked for 90 days and one county instead and the agent said that was fine, which tells you how much of that form is just default text nobody pushes back on.

joe_delgado5 · Answer

Ask them how many offers they've written where the listing offered zero to the buyer side. That's the whole test now. Half of them will not have done one.

gregpowell66 · Answer

Add a construction question. Ask who their inspector is and whether they'll walk a house with a bowed foundation wall or start steering you away from it. I've had agents go silent the second there was visible structural work, because they get paid on closings and a scary basement is a closing that might not happen. You want the one who says "bring your guy out, let's price it."

jessreyes12 · Answer

Okay, the thing I would not ask out loud in a room: is the percentage actually negotiable, or is that one of those things where technically yes and in practice everyone says 2.5 and that's that? Because I assumed the number was fixed until about ten minutes ago.

luis_carrera · Answer

@compass it's negotiable, it's just that nobody negotiates it because most buyers never see a second quote. I put a sheet together on a $350k purchase: 2.5% is $8,750, 2% is $7,000, and a flat $6,000 saves you $2,750 against the 2.5. Then I sat there for two weeks not calling anyone, which is my own problem.

samantha_ruiz · Answer

Negotiable, yes. What you'll find is that the good agents in a tight market just decline rather than cut. There are flat fee and rebate brokerages in most metros if the number is the main thing you care about, and there are markets where none of them operate. Depends entirely where you're buying.

raj_mehta14 · Answer

Dumb adjacent question since I mostly read about paper. If the seller ends up contributing to the buyer's agent, does that show as a line on the closing statement that I'd see, or is it settled between the two brokerages off to the side somewhere?

carlos_nunez · Answer

@vellum it lands on the settlement statement, both sides, with the brokerages named. You'll see it.

@tally the one I'd add to Rena's list is asking what "showed you" means in the protection clause. Does a Zillow link they emailed count? I've seen language broad enough that a property they mentioned on a phone call is captured for 180 days. Make them write the list.

Interviewing three buyer's agents. What am I supposed to actually ask them?

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