Questions to Ask a Real Estate Agent About Their Job
These are questions to put to a working real estate agent about the job itself, whether you are a student with a career interview to write up or an adult deciding whether a license is worth the cost. Five to start with come first, and the rest are grouped by subject: getting licensed and started, the work from day to day, clients, money, and advice for someone starting now. Licensing rules, commission arrangements and costs differ by state, country and brokerage, so take every answer as how it works where this agent works.
The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Start here
Why did you become a real estate agent, and what were you doing before that?
Why ask it
Real estate is a second career for a lot of agents, so find out which habits from the first one they still use with clients, whether it was a classroom, a sales floor, a restaurant or the military. Get the number of years they have been licensed as well, because a second-year agent and a twenty-year agent are describing different jobs. For a report, the day they signed up for the licensing course is a ready opening paragraph.
What does a typical week look like for you as an agent?
Why ask it
'No two weeks are alike' is true and tells you nothing, so ask whether they would read last week out of their calendar: showings, a listing appointment, an inspection, a closing, desk time. Sort the entries three ways as you listen: with clients, on paperwork, and hunting for the next client. The size of that third kind is what people outside the business rarely guess.
How do you get paid, and when does the money actually reach you?
Why ask it
'On commission' is the short answer, and the mechanics sit behind it. Take one sale and follow the money: who pays it, whose account it reaches first, and how many weeks or months passed between meeting that client and being paid. Some agents are on a salary or a team wage instead, and the arrangement differs by brokerage and by place, so write it down as this agent's setup.
What is the hardest part of being a real estate agent?
Why ask it
Answers tend to fall into three piles: the uneven income, the hours that belong to other people, and clients who are tense about one of the biggest purchases they will make. Notice which pile they reach for first, then ask whether it comes up weekly or a few times a year. A weekly one is a condition of the job, and you should picture living with it.
What would you tell someone who is thinking about getting a real estate license?
Why ask it
Expect a cheerful sentence first, then a pause. The useful part starts after the pause, so wait for it, and then ask what that person should have in place before paying for the course: savings, a list of people to call, a brokerage picked out. If their advice comes with a condition, write the condition down.
Getting started
What education and training did you need to get licensed, and how long did it take from the first class to having the license?
Why ask it
The licensing body where they work sets the course hours, the exam, any background check and the fees, and a college degree may or may not come into it. Their timeline is one example from one year, so get the name of that regulator and read its current requirements yourself. An agent licensed in two places can tell you how much had to be done again for the second.
What is the difference between an agent, a broker and a Realtor where you work?
Why ask it
The titles do not mean the same thing everywhere, and in some places one of them is a membership and not a license. Let the agent explain which they are, who they answer to, and what it would take to move up a step. It is a good early question for a student, because every later answer leans on these words.
How hard was the licensing exam, and how did you prepare for it?
Why ask it
Some working agents needed more than one attempt and will say so if asked kindly. What tripped them up is the detail to collect: the math, the legal vocabulary or the section on local rules. Ask which study method they would choose now, since they will have opinions about practice tests and cram courses.
What did it cost to get licensed and set up, before you had earned anything?
Why ask it
A dollar total from another year and another town will mislead you, so collect the line items: the course, the exam, the license, association or listing service dues, a lockbox key, signs, cards, and whatever the brokerage charged to join. Then price each line where you live. The bill they had not seen coming is worth a question of its own.
What did the licensing course leave out that you had to learn on the job?
Why ask it
Agents often say the course taught them law and vocabulary, and that finding a client, pricing a house and calming a nervous buyer came later. The gap this agent names is what your own first months would be spent learning. Follow with who taught it to them: a mentor, a team leader or their own mistakes.
How did you choose the brokerage you started with, and are you still there?
Why ask it
In many places a new agent has to work under a broker, so this choice comes early; ask whether that is the rule where they are. Plenty of agents picked the office where a friend worked or the first one that called back, and will say so. If they have moved since, the reason for the move tells you what the first choice was missing.
Did you start part-time or keep another job at first, and when did you let it go?
Why ask it
Agents argue about whether the job can be done part-time, so expect an opinion along with the history. The practical problem is showing a house on a Tuesday afternoon while holding another job, and you want to hear how they got around it. Then get the point at which they let the other income go and what they were measuring: closings, savings, a calendar with no room left.
How long was it between getting your license and your first closing?
Why ask it
A career changer needs this gap more than any other number, because an agent paid by commission alone earns nothing until a sale closes. Get it in months, and ask how they covered rent in the meantime. A student can ask for the day itself: whose house it was and what the agent did with that first check.
What do you have to do every year or two to keep your license active?
Why ask it
Renewal fees, continuing education hours and association dues are set locally, so ask what applies to them and what it costs in time as well as money. An agent who enjoys the classes will name one worth taking. One who calls them a box to tick is telling you the real learning happens somewhere else, and you can ask where.
On the job
What hours do you work, and how often do evenings and weekends go to clients?
Why ask it
Buyers tend to be free when they are off work, which is when an agent is on. Ask what a normal Saturday holds, how late they answer the phone, and whether there is a day nobody can book. Then find out when they last took a full week away and who looked after their clients.
Do you work on your own, on a team or with an assistant, and how does that change the job?
Why ask it
A solo agent finds the clients, shows the houses and files the paperwork alone. On a team, the leader may supply leads and office help in exchange for a share of each commission, and a newer member may spend the first years working the leader's buyers. Ask which they would pick for a first year, and what a team in their market takes for it.
What is your favorite part of the job, the part that makes the rest worth it?
Why ask it
Handing over the keys is the common answer, and a true one. Push gently for a second: negotiating, solving a problem nobody else could, knowing every street in a neighborhood. Compare what they name with what you like doing, since that is what has to carry an agent through the slow months.
What part of the job would surprise someone who has only seen it on TV?
Why ask it
Television shows the tour and the handshake. The answer here is often something plain, such as measuring rooms, chasing a signature at nine at night or sitting through an open house nobody visits. Whatever they pick, ask how many hours a month it takes.
How do you work out what a house should sell for?
Why ask it
The usual method is to compare the house with similar ones that sold nearby not long ago and adjust for size and condition, and most agents will add that the result is an opinion and not a formal appraisal. Ask about a time the market proved their number wrong. Keep this to how the skill works; what a house you know is worth is a different conversation.
What happens between an accepted offer and closing day, and how much of it is your work?
Why ask it
This stretch is invisible from outside and can hold inspections, an appraisal, financing deadlines, repairs and a great many phone calls. The steps and who handles them vary by place, so ask for the order it goes in there. How they describe keeping it on schedule shows how much of the job is project management.
Tell me about a sale that fell apart. What happened, and what did you do the next day?
Why ask it
Nearly every agent has one: a failed inspection, a loan that did not come through, a buyer who changed their mind. Listen for what it cost them, which is weeks of unpaid work on top of breaking the news to the client. The 'next day' half shows how they recover, and recovering is a habit the job asks for again and again.
How do you handle clients who are anxious, upset or disagreeing with each other?
Why ask it
A move often arrives alongside a marriage, a divorce, a new baby, a job change or a death in the family, so the agent meets people at a tense time. One example, names left out, is enough: who wanted what, and what the agent said to each of them. Some agents call this the counseling side of the work, and it is fair to ask how much of it follows them home.
What are you not allowed to say or do as an agent that surprises clients?
Why ask it
License law, advertising rules and fair housing or anti-discrimination law all put limits on an agent, and which of them apply depends on the place. A common example is declining to describe a neighborhood by who lives in it. How they answer a client who keeps pushing shows what the rules look like in an ordinary working week.
Meeting strangers at empty houses is part of the job. What do you do to stay safe?
Why ask it
Agents seldom raise this themselves, yet many have a routine once asked: meeting new clients at the office first, sharing a schedule with someone, not hosting an open house alone. Find out whether the brokerage trained them in it or they worked it out on their own. Anyone considering the license should hear this answer before deciding.
Clients
Who was your very first client, and how did they find you?
Why ask it
Very often it is someone the agent already knew, or a stranger who wandered into an open house they were hosting for another agent. That tells a career changer where to look in their own life: who would hand them a sale today? If the first client came from the brokerage, ask what the brokerage took in exchange.
Where does most of your business come from now: referrals, past clients, online leads, open houses or something else?
Why ask it
Ask for rough shares, as in 'about half from past clients', and for how the mix has shifted since their first year. An agent living on referrals is describing years of earlier work, so ask how many years. If they buy leads or advertising, ask what it costs and whether it has paid for itself.
Do you work mostly with buyers, with sellers, or both, and how do the two differ?
Why ask it
Working for a buyer and working for a seller are close to two jobs: one is touring and waiting, the other is pricing, preparing and marketing. Find out which they prefer and why. Rules about whom an agent may represent, and how each side's agent is paid, differ by place and have been changing, so ask how it stands locally.
How much of the job is finding the next client, even when you are busy?
Why ask it
Newcomers often expect prospecting to end once the business is going, and it does not. Find out what it looks like in practice for this agent: phone calls, door knocking, social media, coffee with past clients, sponsoring a youth team. Then ask which of those they dislike and do anyway.
How long do you usually work with a buyer or a seller, from the first meeting to the closing?
Why ask it
The answer sets the rhythm of the whole income: weeks for some sellers, a year or more for a buyer in no hurry. Ask for the shortest and the longest they have had. Put it beside what they told you about pay, and you can see how far ahead of the money the work runs.
How do you stay in touch with people after their sale closes?
Why ask it
A buyer may not move again for years, so the agent has to stay remembered across a long silence. Cards, a yearly call, a neighborhood newsletter and a client party are all common answers. Ask how they keep track of it, because the system, or the lack of one, is the lesson.
Do you specialize in an area, a price range or a kind of property, and how did that happen?
Why ask it
A niche can be a single suburb, condos, farms, first-time buyers, military moves, or commercial property, which runs on different clients and longer timelines. Some agents picked theirs; others noticed after a few years that most of their signs stood on the same few streets. Find out whether a newcomer in that market could afford to specialize from the start.
What do you say when someone asks why they need an agent at all?
Why ask it
Every agent hears this from people who have browsed the listing sites. Their reply is their own account of what the job is for, so quote it in a report. Pay attention to whether it is about access, negotiation, paperwork or steadying people, and whether it sounds practiced or felt.
Have you ever turned a client down or parted ways with one, and what led to it?
Why ask it
New agents tend to take everyone. An experienced one usually has a line: a seller fixed on an impossible price, someone who asked them to bend a rule, a buyer who would not sort out financing. The story shows what years in the job teach about whose business is worth having.
Money
When a sale closes, how is the commission divided before your share reaches you?
Why ask it
There can be several hands in it: the other side's brokerage, their own brokerage, a team leader, a referral fee. Ask them to do the arithmetic on a made-up sale so you can follow each step without learning their income. Splits and who pays whom depend on the brokerage and on local rules, so label the example with where it applies.
About how many sales a year does an agent in your market need to make a living?
Why ask it
Put this way, they can answer about the job and keep their own earnings private. The figure depends on local prices and on the agent's split and costs, so ask what they assumed. Follow with how many of the agents in their office reach that number, if they are willing to guess.
What is the longest you have gone without a closing, and how did you get through it?
Why ask it
A dry spell is normal in commission work, so the questions are how long and how it felt. Listen for the practical side, such as a reserve account or trimmed expenses, and for the mental side. Some agents will tell you the quiet months are when they came closest to quitting.
Which months are busy and which are slow where you work?
Why ask it
Seasons in real estate are local: school calendars, weather and tourism all move them. Mark the answer on a twelve-month line and you have a picture of when income arrives. Ask what they do with the slow weeks, since those are often when next season's clients are found.
Which expenses come out of your own pocket: dues, fees, insurance, marketing, the car?
Why ask it
If this agent is self-employed, the commission check is revenue and not pay, and this list is the difference. Have them sort the items into monthly bills and per-sale costs. You do not need their totals; the categories are enough to build your own estimate at local prices.
Are you an employee or self-employed, and who handles your taxes, health coverage and retirement saving?
Why ask it
Which one they are depends on the country and the brokerage, and it changes how to read every income figure they give you. If they are on their own, ask what they wish they had set up in year one, such as putting part of every check aside for the tax bill. This is their experience and not tax advice, so check anything you plan to act on with an accountant.
How do interest rates and the housing market change your income from year to year?
Why ask it
An agent who has worked through both a boom and a slump can describe what each did to their workload and their pay. Ask which was harder, since a hot market with nothing to sell is its own problem. If they started recently, ask what the veterans in their office say about the last downturn.
How much of your work ends up paying nothing?
Why ask it
Buyers who never buy, listings that expire unsold, hours of advice to someone who then hires a relative: on commission, none of it is billed. Ask for a rough share of their time, and how they decide when to stop. Few career brochures mention it, which makes it one of the best lines for a report.
Are there ways to earn in this field besides sales commission, such as rentals, referrals or property management?
Why ask it
Some agents smooth the swings with side lines, and some move into salaried roles at a brokerage, a builder or a property manager. What a license allows differs by place, so ask what theirs permits. A student comparing careers can note that 'real estate' covers more jobs than selling houses.
Advice
From what you have seen, what makes new agents quit?
Why ask it
They will have watched people come and go, and the reasons they give are usually specific: money ran out, there was no plan for finding clients, the hours did not fit a family. Ask how far in those people were when they left. Then ask what the ones who stayed were doing in that same stretch.
What kind of person does well in this job, and who should stay away from it?
Why ask it
Skip past 'a people person' and ask for behavior: someone who will phone strangers, who can hear no all week, who keeps a schedule with no boss watching. The second half matters as much. If they describe someone who needs a steady paycheck or hates giving up weekends, check that against yourself.
What should a new agent look for in a first brokerage?
Why ask it
Coming from an agent and not a recruiter, this tends to be frank: training that really happens, a broker who answers the phone, fees you can survive with no sales. Ask what they would trade a better split for. Bear in mind that some brokerages reward agents for bringing in recruits, and ask whether theirs does.
What could I do before paying for a course to find out whether I would like this work?
Why ask it
Open houses are free to walk into, so one answer is to visit a few and watch the agent and not the kitchen. A brokerage's career night is another, and so is weekend work as an agent's assistant or at an office front desk. Have them put these in the order they would try them.
Which school subjects, part-time jobs or skills would help a student who wants to do this someday?
Why ask it
This one is for the student, and agents usually enjoy it. Expect math for the money side, writing for listings and emails, and any job that involved serving the public or selling. Ask what they were bad at when they began and how they caught up.
How has the job changed since you started, and where do you think it is heading?
Why ask it
Listing sites, online tours, new rules on how agents are paid and software that writes descriptions may all come up, depending on where they work. The interesting part is what they think still needs a person. A report can end well on that answer, and a career changer should weigh it.
Knowing what you know now, would you get your license again?
Why ask it
Save it for the end, when they have already told you the hard parts. A quick yes after an hour of honest complaints means more than a yes at the start would have. If they hesitate, ask what would have to be different, and let them take their time.
Could I come along to an open house or a showing to see the work for myself?
Why ask it
An hour of watching settles things an interview cannot, such as how much standing, small talk and waiting there is. They may need a seller's or a client's permission, so accept a no gracefully. Offer to carry signs or set out flyers, which makes a yes easier.
Getting a straight account of the job from a working agent
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Arranging the conversation
Finding an agent who will talk
Start with someone a step away from you: the agent who sold a relative's house, a parent at school, a name on a yard sign in your street. Agents answer messages from strangers for a living, so a short note saying who you are and that you want twenty minutes for a career question usually gets a reply. Say plainly that you are not buying or selling, so they can agree knowing that.
Name the purpose in the first minute
A student writing a report needs stories and plain explanations. An adult weighing a license needs timelines, costs and the unflattering parts. Tell the agent which you are and they will pitch their answers to fit; leave it unsaid and you tend to get the version they give at parties.
Choose the hour with their calendar in mind
Weekends and evenings are often when agents are with clients, and the days before a closing can be frantic. A weekday morning or lunchtime is a safer request. Offer to come to their office or to do it by phone, and keep to the length of time you asked for.
Cut the list to fit the time
Twenty minutes is room for seven or eight questions with a follow-up on each. Take the five under Start here, then two or three from the group you care most about: Getting started and Money for a career changer, On the job and Clients for a class report. Keep the rest in case the agent is enjoying it and offers longer.
Asking about commission without asking what they earn
Ask in sales, not in dollars
An agent who would never tell you an income will often say how many sales a year a living takes in their market, or how many they closed in their first year. With a typical local price and the split they described, you can do the rest of the sum at home. The question stays on the job and off their bank account, which is why it tends to get answered.
Use a made-up sale
Ask them to run an invented example: a house at a round price, the commission agreed for it, and each deduction until the agent's share is left. You learn the whole chain, they reveal nothing private, and the example is easy to reproduce in a report.
Separate what comes in from what is kept
Where the agent is self-employed, the share that reaches them still has to cover dues, marketing, the car, insurance and tax. Ask about costs straight after you ask about commission, while the example is still on the table, so that you do not leave with only the bigger number in your head.
Label every figure with its place and year
Splits, fees, licensing costs and even who pays the buyer's agent differ by state, country and brokerage, and they change. Next to each number in your notes, write where and when it applies. Before relying on one, confirm it with the local licensing body or with a second agent, and take anything that sounds like a legal or tax requirement to the regulator or a qualified professional.
Turning the answers into a report or a decision
For a class assignment
Career assignments generally ask for the path into the job, what a week holds, the pay arrangement, the hard parts and advice, which is close to the order of the groups on this page. Quote the agent's own words for at least one answer in each part, and describe one sale or client story with the names left out. Send them a copy when it is done.
For a license decision
Pull three things from your notes: the months from license to first closing, the costs that fall due whether or not anything sells, and how the first clients were found. Together they say most about whether a first year is affordable. Fill them in with your own numbers and your own list of people before you pay for a course.
Hear from an agent whose business looks different
An agent on a large city team and one working solo in a small town will describe different jobs under the same license. If the first conversation leaves you interested, find a second person at another stage or in another kind of market and put the same questions to them. Where the two agree, you are hearing about the job; where they differ, you are hearing about the setup.
What spoils these conversations
Asking for free advice on a house
The moment you ask what your parents' place is worth, the agent is at work and the career interview is over. Keep to the job itself. If you do want that kind of help later, make it a separate request.
Judging the career by this year's market
An agent interviewed in a boom describes a different job from the same agent in a slump: a line of buyers and nothing to sell in one, listings that sit for months in the other. Ask which kind of year this is and what the opposite kind was like for them. If they have only ever worked through one, put that in your notes.
Missing an invitation to join
An agent who likes you may suggest their own brokerage. It can be a kind offer and also one they gain from, since some companies reward recruiting. Thank them, ask how that works there, and decide after you have compared a few others.
Writing up only the showings
House tours and sold signs are the part everyone already pictures. A report that stops there, or a decision that rests on it, leaves out the prospecting, the paperwork and the unpaid hours the agent described. Give those as much room in your notes as they take up in the agent's week.