Find The Best Real Estate Agent In Town

Overview

• The fastest way to find the best real estate agent in town is to ignore ads and awards, pull a short list based on recent sales in your exact neighborhood and price range, and interview at least two or three agents before signing anything.
• The barrier to entry in real estate is extremely low, so the license tells you almost nothing. The average agent does only a handful of deals a year, and a small percentage of agents do most of the business in every market.
• Since the 2024 NAR settlement, buyers sign a written agreement before touring homes and commissions are openly negotiable, so you should treat hiring an agent like hiring a contractor: scope, fee, and exit terms in writing.
• Five interview questions will expose a weak agent in under ten minutes, and I’ve listed them below along with the answers a great agent gives.
• Referrals from friends are a starting point, not a decision. Your brother-in-law’s golf buddy still has to pass the same interview as everyone else.

Finding the best real estate agent in town is harder than it should be, and the reason is uncomfortable: the barriers to entry in this business are extremely low. There is no national real estate license in the US. Every state runs its own licensing authority, and in most states you can go from zero to licensed agent in a few weeks of coursework and one exam. Nothing in that process tests whether someone can negotiate, price a home, or manage the hundred small problems that show up between contract and closing.

I can say this bluntly because I’ve spent my career on the hiring side of it. I’ve been a licensed broker since 2002. I built and merged a brokerage in Chicago, launched Keller Williams in the UK, and later served as Area Director for KW in South Florida, where I oversaw 35 offices and roughly 7,000 agents who sold $12.9 billion in real estate. I have personally recruited, trained, coached, and yes, fired more agents than most people will ever meet. The gap between the best agent in town and the average one is not 10 or 20 percent. It’s a different profession entirely.

Here’s how to find the good ones.

Start with production, not personality

Every market follows the same pattern: a small slice of agents does the overwhelming majority of the business. The typical agent closes only a few transactions a year. The top people in your town close that many in a month. HomeLight’s data puts numbers on what I saw from the inside for two decades: the top tier of listing agents sells homes for meaningfully more than average, and top buyer’s agents save their clients real money on the purchase.

So before you talk to anyone, build a short list based on evidence:

• Pull recent sales in your specific neighborhood and price range. Not the whole town. The agent who dominates the luxury waterfront market may be the wrong choice for your $350,000 starter home, and vice versa.
• Look for names that keep showing up on sold listings near you over the past 12 months. Repetition is the signal. One lucky sale is noise.
• Read the recent reviews, not the star rating. A 4.9 average tells you nothing. Reviews from the last six months that describe how the agent handled a problem tell you a lot.

Yard signs, bus bench ads, and “Top Producer” trophies are marketing spend, not proof of skill. Some of the best agents I ever worked with did zero advertising because referrals kept them fully booked.

Referrals are a starting point, not a verdict

Most sellers still find their agent through referrals or by reusing someone they’ve worked with before, and a growing share now find them online. Both paths have the same flaw: convenience masquerading as diligence.

A referral from a friend answers exactly one question: “Did this agent make my friend feel good?” It does not tell you whether the agent priced the home correctly, left money on the table, or got bailed out by a hot market. Take every referral, add it to your short list, and make that person interview like everyone else. The best agents expect this. The mediocre ones act offended by it, which is itself useful information.

The rules changed in 2024, and most consumers haven’t caught up

If you last hired an agent more than a couple of years ago, the ground has shifted under you. The NAR settlement that took effect in August 2024 changed two things that matter when you’re picking an agent:

1. Buyers now sign a written buyer agreement before touring homes with an agent. That document spells out what the agent will be paid and by whom. It’s a real contract. Read it before you sign it, negotiate the term length (I’d push back hard on anything longer than 90 days for a first engagement), and make sure there’s a clean way out if the relationship isn’t working.
2. Commissions are openly negotiable, on both sides. They always technically were, but now the conversation happens in daylight. An agent who gets flustered or defensive when you ask about their fee structure is showing you exactly how they’ll negotiate on your behalf. Watch for it.

This is good news for you. The new rules turned agent selection into what it always should have been: hiring a professional for a defined job at a stated price.

Five interview questions that expose a weak agent fast

Interview at least two or three agents. Here are the questions I’d use, with the answers that separate the pros:

1. “How many transactions did you personally close in the last 12 months, and how many were within two miles of my home?” You want a specific number without hesitation. “I’m part of a team that did…” is a dodge. Ask what they personally handled.

2. “Walk me through the last deal you had that almost fell apart. What happened and what did you do?” Every working agent has these stories. An agent who can’t produce one either isn’t doing volume or isn’t honest about it. The good answer includes a specific problem (a low appraisal, a financing collapse, an inspection blowup) and the concrete steps they took.

3. For sellers: “What price would you list my home at, and show me the comps that support it.” Beware the agent who quotes the highest number. “Buying the listing” with a flattering price, then grinding you down with reductions, is the oldest trick in residential real estate. The right agent shows you data and sometimes tells you something you don’t want to hear.

4. For buyers: “How will you find me properties that aren’t sitting on the portals?” The best buyer’s agents work their networks for coming-soon and off-market opportunities. If the entire plan is “I’ll set you up on an MLS alert,” you’re paying professional fees for something you can do yourself.

5. “Who actually does the work? You, or your team?” Teams aren’t bad. But you deserve to know whether the impressive person in the interview will hand you to a junior associate the moment you sign. Get names and roles.

Ten minutes of this and the difference between agents becomes obvious. I’ve watched thousands of these conversations from the broker’s side of the table, and I promise the strong ones enjoy being asked.

Red flags that should end the conversation

• They can’t name recent sales in your area without looking it up.
• They pressure you to sign a long exclusive agreement on the first meeting.
• They quote a listing price before seeing your home or any comps.
• They badmouth every other agent in town. Confidence is fine. Insecurity dressed up as confidence is a problem you’ll inherit.
• They’re a part-timer in a market that demands full-time attention. There are skilled part-time agents, but in a competitive market you need someone answering the phone at 2pm on a Tuesday, because that’s when deals move.

What “the best agent in town” actually looks like

After watching billions of dollars in transactions, here’s my honest definition. The best agent in town is rarely the most famous one. It’s the person who knows your micro-market cold, tells you the truth when it costs them, answers fast, negotiates without ego, and has closed enough deals recently to see problems coming before they arrive. Find that person and the commission becomes the best money you spend in the whole transaction.

If your town happens to be Vero Beach

I practice what I’m preaching here. After selling real estate on three continents, my family and I settled in Vero Beach, Florida, where I run The Jon Sterling Team. If you’re considering a move to the Treasure Coast, start with my complete Vero Beach relocation guide, and feel free to put me through the exact interview above. You can read my background here and reach out directly when you’re ready to talk. And if you’re anywhere else in the country, use this playbook, interview hard, and don’t settle for the first friendly face with a license.