How Buyers Choose a Real Estate Agent: What Agents Should Do

On this page (8 questions)

1. How do buyers find a real estate agent today?
2. Why does it matter that most buyers interview only one agent?
3. What do careful buyers and sellers check before they call?
4. What questions should an agent be ready to answer in the interview?
5. Can marketing replace a strong track record?
6. What should an agent walk a client through before they sign?
7. Why doesn’t Top Real Estate Systems publish best-agent lists?
8. Where do the facts on this page come from?

How do buyers find a real estate agent today?

The same NAR research reports that 43 percent of buyers found their agent through a referral from a friend, neighbor or relative. It also reports that 52 percent of buyers found the home itself on the internet.

A referral gives a buyer a name. What the buyer finds when they look up that name is the next thing they see. That is why an agent’s Google Business Profile, reviews and website matter even when most business comes from referrals.

U.S. home buyers who interviewed only one real estate agent, 2025

Repeat buyers76%

First-time buyers67%

Why does it matter that most buyers interview only one agent?

Because the decision is usually made before a second agent ever gets a call. An agent who is easy to find, easy to check and clear about what they do often wins without competing.

An agent who is hard to find, or whose details do not match from one site to the next, can lose a referred client without ever knowing the client looked.

What do careful buyers and sellers check before they call?

Careful clients check the license. Every state runs a public license lookup. In Louisiana, the Louisiana Real Estate Commission publishes a public license search on its own portal that shows the license type, the license status and the sponsoring broker.

Then they check reviews and the agent’s own pages. The simplest thing an agent can do is make sure the name, brokerage and contact details on the Google profile and website match the license record exactly. Louisiana licensees should also follow the commission’s advertising rules on showing the sponsoring broker.

What questions should an agent be ready to answer in the interview?

The questions worth preparing for are the ones with checkable answers. How many transactions did you personally close in the past twelve months, and in which price range? Who else will handle my file? What does the agreement say about canceling?

Questions about years in the business and knowledge of the area count for less, because every agent answers them the same way. An agent who can hand over a one-page track record, with closed transactions and average days on market for the past year, has said something a client can verify.

Can marketing replace a strong track record?

Marketing cannot replace a strong track record. An agent at the top of a Google map result has a well-maintained Google Business Profile. That profile says nothing about negotiation, disclosure handling or contract management.

Top Real Estate Systems builds that visibility for agents and states the limit plainly: being found is the start of the conversation, not proof of the outcome. The best marketing gets a qualified client to the interview. The track record and the agreement win it.

What should an agent walk a client through before they sign?

The representation agreement: how long it runs, how to cancel it, and what it says about compensation. Those terms bind the client for the duration and are negotiable before signature, not after.

Clients who understand those terms up front have fewer surprises later. State commissions are also where complaints go. In Louisiana, the Louisiana Real Estate Commission handles consumer complaints against licensees and publishes its license law.

Why doesn’t Top Real Estate Systems publish best-agent lists?

Top Real Estate Systems publishes no ranked list of agents in any city and recommends no individual agent to consumers. Top Real Estate Systems is paid by agents to manage their visibility, which would make any ranked list it published an advertisement rather than a finding.

Agents who want to be chosen are better served by being easy to verify than by appearing on a paid list. A ranking published by a vendor whose clients appear in it should be read that way anywhere it appears.

Where do the facts on this page come from?

Every figure on this page is attributed to a named, linked source published by Google, by the National Association of REALTORS, or by Top Real Estate Systems itself. Anything Top Real Estate Systems has not independently verified is labelled as unverified at the point where it appears.

• Louisiana Real Estate Commission — public license search portal
• Louisiana Real Estate Commission — consumer links
• National Association of REALTORS — 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, highlights