How to Pick a Real Estate Agent: A Practical Checklist

Knowing how to pick a real estate agent is one of the most consequential decisions in any real estate transaction, yet many people spend less time on it than they would choosing a contractor for a bathroom renovation. Some recognize a name from a yard sign, accept a friend's referral without asking a single follow-up question, and sign a listing agreement before they've had a real conversation. That rush carries real risk: money left on the table, unnecessary stress, and sometimes a deal that falls apart before closing.

The agent you choose shapes more of your transaction than almost any other factor. They set your pricing strategy, drive your marketing, handle your negotiation, and coordinate your closing. In Vermont, where inventory tightens seasonally and timing your transaction to market conditions requires genuine local knowledge, that judgment matters more than a recognizable brand or a friendly smile. Agents like Chad Dion have spent decades building a track record in this specific market precisely because Vermont rewards local experience and punishes guesswork.

This checklist walks you through every stage of finding, interviewing, and evaluating candidates. It's built around the questions, metrics, and red flags that separate capable agents from ones who just process paperwork, so you can make a confident, informed decision before you sign anything.

How to Pick a Real Estate Agent: Start by Defining Your Priorities

What kind of transaction are you handling?

Buyers and sellers need different things from an agent, and mixing those up early leads to bad fits. A strong listing agent brings pricing expertise, a marketing plan, and negotiation skill. A buyer's agent needs a sharp search strategy, experience structuring competitive offers, and the steadiness to manage multiple-offer situations without letting emotion drive the price. Be clear on which role you need filled before you contact anyone. The questions you ask, the metrics you check, and the red flags you watch for all shift depending on your position in the transaction.

The one factor most people overlook: personal access

Many brokerages use a "team model" where a senior agent wins your business at the initial meeting, then hands your file to a junior agent or a showing assistant you've never met. By the time your offer is being negotiated or your inspection contingency is on the table, the person you hired may not be involved. Ask directly: will you personally handle my showings, my offers, and my closing, or will I be working with someone else on your team? This is not an impolite question. It's among the most important ones on the list, and a good agent will give you a straight answer.

Questions Every Serious Candidate Must Answer

Questions about local experience and transaction history

Start with the numbers. How long have you worked in this specific market? How many transactions have you closed in the past 12 months in my price range? Can you show me recent comparable sales you've personally handled? Volume matters, but only when it's relevant to your situation. An agent who closes 40 deals a year in a different price tier or a different county brings limited insight to your transaction. You want demonstrated experience in your area, at your price point, within the last year.

Questions about availability and communication

Ask how many active clients they're managing right now and how they prefer to communicate. A reliable agent will have a clear, direct answer: "I typically respond within two hours by text during business hours, and I check messages on evenings and weekends." Vague assurances like "I'm always available for my clients" tell you nothing. Also ask who handles your file if they're unavailable. If the answer involves another team member handling key decisions, you've discovered the delegation problem before it becomes your problem.

Questions about strategy and marketing approach

For sellers, ask for a specific marketing plan, not a category description. Professional photography, MLS listing, and social media are table stakes. You want to know about targeted digital advertising, email campaigns, open house strategy, and how they handle buyer feedback. For buyers, ask how they approach multiple-offer situations and how they structure offers to be competitive without overpaying. These answers separate agents who advise from agents who just process paperwork, and the difference shows up at the closing table.

How to Pick a Real Estate Agent: Verify Credentials and Measure Real Performance

Checking license status and disciplinary history

Every Vermont real estate agent is licensed through the Vermont Secretary of State's Office of Professional Regulation. You can search by name or license number, and the record will show current status (active, expired, or suspended), expiration date, and any disciplinary actions on file. The process takes only a few minutes, and it's a step a surprising number of buyers and sellers skip. An active license does not mean a clean record, so check both. If anything looks unclear, call the Office of Professional Regulation directly for confirmation.

The three performance metrics that actually matter

Ask every candidate for three numbers from their last 12 months: list-to-sale price ratio, average days on market, and closed transaction volume filtered to your area and price range. List-to-sale ratio reveals how accurately they price and how effectively they negotiate, a consistent ratio near or above 100% means homes sell close to asking. Average days on market shows how efficiently they move inventory. According to Vermont Association of Realtors market data, the statewide average for single-family homes has been running around 43 days, so use that as your baseline for comparison. Closed volume filtered to your market is the tie-breaker: high volume in a different neighborhood or price tier tells you relatively little about how they'll perform in yours.

Red Flags That Should End the Conversation Early

Communication and professionalism warning signs

Slow response times before you've signed anything are a preview of what comes after. If an agent takes 48 hours to return your inquiry call, that pace won't improve once you're mid-transaction and a buyer's financing has just shifted. Watch for vague or evasive answers to direct questions, a prepared, experienced agent answers clearly. These behaviors signal trouble: showing up late to the interview, arriving without data ready, fumbling through basic questions. They reveal how that agent will handle your file when real pressure arrives.

Experience and pressure warning signs

Be cautious of agents who can't show you relevant recent transactions, who promise an unusually high sale price without supporting comparable sales, or who push you to sign a listing agreement before you've had time to think. Those aren't signs of enthusiasm; they're pressure tactics. Dual agency is a related red flag worth understanding: an agent who offers to represent both you and the buyer in the same transaction has divided loyalties by definition. A good agent welcomes hard questions instead of deflecting them. If your questions are making a candidate uncomfortable, that discomfort is telling you something.

How Commissions Work and What You Can Negotiate

Understanding the fee structure before you sign

In Vermont, the average total commission runs approximately 5.57% to 5.62% of the sale price, typically split between the listing agent and the buyer's agent (per 2026 state-by-state commission data). Following the 2024 NAR settlement, how buyer's agent compensation is disclosed and negotiated has shifted significantly, so buyers should ask their agent directly how they're paid and by whom. Rates are negotiable, but negotiating purely on percentage can cost you more than you save if it leads you to a weaker agent. Focus on value delivered per dollar, not just the number itself.

What to ask before committing to a listing agreement

Request a full written breakdown of fees, the duration of the listing agreement, and whether the contract includes early-termination provisions if the relationship isn't working. Full-service agents who personally manage pricing, photography, digital marketing, negotiation, and closing coordination often deliver stronger outcomes than cut-rate or flat-fee alternatives. The fee difference may well pay for itself in the final sale price, but compare what each option actually includes before deciding that a lower percentage is the smarter choice.

What 100% Personal Representation Actually Looks Like in Practice

Why "personal representation" is more than a marketing phrase

Personal representation means the same person who develops your pricing strategy is also the one running your showings, reviewing your inspection report, drafting your counteroffer, and standing beside you at the closing table. That consistency matters most in the moments you can't plan for: a late inspection issue, a buyer who goes cold the week before closing, a counteroffer that needs to move fast. When your agent has been in every room of the transaction, decisions happen quickly and accurately. When they're working through a relay of assistants, things fall through the gaps.

Chad Dion Real Estate as a working example

Chad Dion Real Estate is a concrete example of what this checklist is designed to surface. Chad Dion brings close to three decades of Vermont-specific market experience, a track record of more than 500 closed transactions, and a practice structure in which Chad personally handles every client, no handoffs to junior agents or showing assistants. Vermont buyers and sellers working with Chad get direct access to someone who combines professional real estate expertise with firsthand experience as an investor and landlord. That combination shapes pricing strategy, negotiation approach, and investment property guidance in ways that a generalist agent can rarely replicate.

How to Pick a Real Estate Agent: Make the Time, and It Pays Back at Closing

The process is straightforward: define what you need, ask the questions that reveal real capability, verify the license record and the performance data, watch for the warning signs that predict a poor experience, understand the fee structure before you commit, and confirm that the agent you interview is the agent who will actually work your transaction. Working through it typically takes only a few hours spread across two or three conversations.

Sellers who skip this process are more likely to leave money on the table or endure a long, frustrating listing period. Buyers who skip it often find themselves without the guidance they need at the moments that matter most. Survey data on agent performance consistently shows meaningful rates of seller dissatisfaction and reports of feeling pressured into decisions, patterns that careful vetting tends to prevent. A few hours of due diligence upfront can eliminate most of that risk before it starts. That's the core reason to learn how to pick a real estate agent rather than simply default to whoever shows up first.

If you're buying or selling in Vermont and want to work with an agent who meets every item on this list, Chad Dion Real Estate invites you to schedule a free, no-obligation consultation and home valuation. Reach out directly to speak with Chad and get a clear picture of what your transaction looks like from day one.