Questions to ask a realtor before you sign with one
The questions to ask when buying a house fall into four groups, and all four belong in the first meeting with an agent rather than in week six. What have you closed lately, and where. What do you charge, and who pays it. How will you run the offer and the escrow. What am I signing today. Everything below is those four, written out to read off a phone.
They belong in the first meeting because the paperwork moved. Under the National Association of Realtors settlement practice changes, effective August 17, 2024, an agent working with a buyer through the MLS has to have a written buyer agreement signed before touring a home, that agreement has to state the compensation as an objectively ascertainable amount rather than an open-ended one, and the agent may not collect more than it says from any source. So the first conversation is a negotiation as well as an interview, which is the reason to have at least two of them.
Before the meeting: the license and the numbers
Check the license first. The Nevada Real Estate Division runs a free public lookup that returns whether a license is active, which brokerage holds it and whether there is disciplinary history. Two minutes, and almost nobody does it. How to choose a realtor covers finding the same regulator in another state.
Questions to ask a real estate agent about experience and fit
- How many buyers have you closed with in the last twelve months?
- Which areas and which price band were those in?
- How many clients are you working with right now, and how many are buyers?
- Who covers for you when you are away, and will I have met them?
- Is this full time?
The twelve-month window is doing the work in the first question. It filters out a career total earned in a different market, which is why the ask is closings rather than years in the business. Not the biggest number, the one that resembles what you are about to do.
Money: compensation, the term, and referral fees
- What is your compensation, and who pays it?
- If the seller offers less than that, or nothing, what happens to the difference?
- Is this agreement exclusive, and for how long?
- Can I cancel it, how, and does anything survive the cancellation?
- Do you receive referral fees from lenders, inspectors, title companies or home warranty providers?
These are the questions people are shy about and they are the ones the new paperwork exists for. Ask for the number, ask whether it is a percentage or a flat fee, and ask what happens when the seller is not offering enough to cover it.
The second question is the expensive one. The seller is under no obligation to cover what your agreement says your agent is paid, and the gap lands in your closing costs or your pocket. Who pays the realtor fees is settled in the offer, weeks after you sign this.
A long exclusive agreement with no exit is the one thing here worth pushing back on, and a short initial term you both extend is a reasonable ask.
Questions to ask when buying a house, from offer to closing
- How do you find homes before they hit the portals?
- What does a competitive offer look like in this market right now, and how do you decide the number?
- How do you handle a multiple-offer situation, and what will you advise me not to do?
- Walk me through your inspection and repair-request process.
- How do you help me read an HOA resale package, and what do you look for in one?
- How do you handle the appraisal if it comes in under contract price?
- What do you do between offer acceptance and closing? Who chases what?
The offer question separates people. A good agent answers it with comparable sales, days on market and the price-cut pattern in that specific area, and tells you the answer is different in two neighborhoods four miles apart. If you get a percentage off asking, ask what it is based on.
The waiver question matters more than it sounds. In a competitive round the pressure runs toward giving up contingencies, and an agent who will say what they think is a bad idea beats one who says yes to everything. Read what happens after an offer is accepted first so you know which parts of that answer you are testing, and the home buying checklist for where the interview sits in the order.
Questions to ask a real estate agent when selling
On the other side of the table, a listing agent is hired to set a price, spend money on your house, and hand you a form you have to fill in yourself. Six questions, three of them with no buyer-side equivalent.
- What would you list it at, and what is that number built from?
- What do you spend on a listing, who pays for it, and what happens to that spend if it does not sell?
- Is this an exclusive right to sell, for how long, and is there a protection period after it ends?
- How do you handle the Seller's Real Property Disclosure form, and when does it have to be served?
- If your own buyer wants the house, what happens to your fee and to my representation?
- What will you tell me to fix before listing, and what will you tell me to leave alone?
The disclosure question has a statute behind it. Under NRS 113.130 the seller completes the form and it is served on the buyer at least ten days before the property is conveyed, and the same section says a seller's agent may not complete it on the seller's behalf. An agent who offers to fill it in for you has told you how they read the rest of the file. The Nevada disclosure form, line by line covers what goes on it, the listing agreement is where the term, the protection period and the fee live, and what it costs to sell a house is the whole deduction.
The Nevada questions to ask a realtor
- Explain the Duties Owed form to me.
- Would you ever ask me to consent to dual agency, and how would that come up?
- Will you show me new construction, and how are you paid on a builder deal?
- What do you know about days on market and price cuts in this ZIP code?
- Who holds your license, and what does the brokerage do if we disagree?
The Duties Owed form
Real paperwork, not a formality. NRS 645.193 has the Real Estate Division publish the forms setting out the duties a licensee owes, and NRS 645.252 requires an agent to give the right one to every party they represent and to every unrepresented party in the deal, and to disclose each source from which they will be paid. Ask them to explain it in their own words. If they cannot, that is the answer.
Dual agency, and the version of it that needs no consent
Dual agency, one licensee acting for both buyer and seller in the same sale, is allowed in Nevada only if the licensee discloses it and obtains each party's written consent before continuing to act, under NRS 645.252. That consent has to say in so many words that the parties have adverse interests and that nobody is required to consent. The part most buyers miss is the exception in NRS 645.253: when a broker puts two licensees from the same brokerage on the two sides, no consent is required from anyone. Ask which of the two you would be in, because the day it arrives you will be under a deadline.
New construction
Builders run their own sales offices, most register a buyer's agent only if that agent is there at the first visit, and the compensation is set by the builder rather than by your agreement. Ask before you tour a model home alone.
What a good answer sounds like
Six of the questions above, with the shape of a useful answer beside them. Not a script to grade against word for word.
| The question | What a good answer sounds like |
|---|---|
| If the seller offers less than your fee, what happens to the difference? | A number, and where it lands: your closing costs, your cash at closing, or a concession they will ask the seller for. Not "that never happens". |
| Is the agreement exclusive, and can I cancel? | A stated term, a stated cancellation route, and a willingness to shorten the term. Not a twelve-month exclusive with no exit clause. |
| How do you handle multiple offers? | A walk-through of terms other than price, and a clear statement of what they would advise against waiving. Not "we go in strong". |
| Explain the Duties Owed form. | A plain-language account of who they represent and what they owe you, without reading it aloud. Not "it is a state form, sign here". |
| What would you list my house at? | A range built from three or four closed sales they will show you, with the reason each one is comparable. Not the number you hoped to hear. |
| What do you know about this ZIP code's days on market and price cuts? | Actual figures, or an honest "I will pull that and send it today". Not an impression of how the market feels. |
The questions to ask yourself afterward
The interview tells you about them. These tell you whether it will work.
- Did they ask me more questions than I asked them? Someone who does not understand your situation cannot represent it.
- Did they talk me out of anything, ever?
- Did they give me a number when I asked for one, or a feeling?
- Do I understand what I would be signing without going home to look it up?
- If this deal goes sideways in week three, is this the person I want on the phone?
Where to start
The agents on Kouzr are the roster, and the market report is what to bring. Read what an inspection costs and who pays closing costs before you go, because both come up and neither carries the number people expect. If two of you are buying, settle the budget before the first interview rather than in front of the agent, which is where house hunting together begins. And if the interviews leave you unconvinced, do you need a realtor to buy a house and how to sell a house without a realtor take the other road, where the deadlines become yours.
Sources
- Nevada Revised Statutes chapter 645: 645.193 (the Division publishes the duties-owed forms), 645.252 (the duties of a licensee acting as an agent, the form given to every party, and the written consent required before acting for more than one), 645.253 (two licensees from one brokerage on separate sides need no such consent, amended 2023), and 645.300 (a copy of the brokerage agreement, delivered when it is signed, amended 2025).
- Nevada Revised Statutes 113.130, the seller completes the residential disclosure form and it is served at least ten days before conveyance, and a seller's agent may not complete it for them.
- Nevada Real Estate Division licensee lookup, for license status, type, brokerage and disciplinary history.
- National Association of Realtors settlement practice changes, effective August 17, 2024: the written buyer agreement before touring, compensation stated as an objectively ascertainable amount, and no more than that amount received from any source.
- Kouzr's own daily snapshot of active Las Vegas listings, for the count, the median asking price, the days on market and the price-cut share.
General information about hiring a real estate agent in Nevada, not legal advice. Statutes change and the text of the current section governs. Nothing here is a recommendation of any particular licensee or brokerage.
