A First-Time Homebuyer's Guide, Start To Finish - The Strategic First-Time Homebuyer Book - Chapter 7 Selecting a Real Estate Agent

April 28, 2026

r/NewbHomebuyer

......This is chapter 7, just scroll down a little beyond the intro and you'll pick up where you left off......

Hey guys, I spent a lot of time writing this book, and I had this subreddit in mind as I was writing it, so I thought I would post it here for you for free. If you want the physical book you can always go on Amazon, but here's my gift to you 😄

I'll include links so you can jump between chapters easily.

I hope you find it helpful.

The Strategic First-Time Homebuyer

Start to finish, with strategies to get approved and save thousands in interest, costs, and the down payment.

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 How Much Can I Afford? 3

Chapter 2 How Much Cash Do I Need? 16

Chapter 3 How To Find The Down Payment 30

Chapter 4 Your Debt To Income Ratio 41

Chapter 5 Choose Your Lender 69

Chapter 6 You’ve Been Denied (Your Credit) 80

Chapter 7 Selecting a Real Estate Agent 90

Chapter 8 Shopping For a House108

Chapter 9 Under Contract: Inspections and Appraisals 121

Chapter 10 Under Contract: Rate Lock and Underwriting 129

Chapter 11 How To Lower Your Rate 144

Chapter 12 Closing 163

Chapter 13 Post Closing 171

About the Author 190

Glossary 191

Chapter 7

A real estate agent is someone who will be by your side through the whole process.

They're your advocate and your intermediary. They shield you from the stresses, but keep you informed. A good agent will shape your whole experience.

But also remember, the agent works for you, and you choose who you work with.

The real estate agent industry is interesting. In Utah, the barrier to entry is 120 hours of education, passing a test, and a couple thousand dollars in fees and licensing.

But the executives of the Association of Realtors consider the industry similar to that of opening a restaurant.

Many enter, and few succeed.

Here are some statistics for you:

● 75% to 87% of agents do not renew their license in the first two years

● 22% to 31% of real estate agents are part time

● 40% of agents complete 1–2 transactions per year

There’s a statistic floating around that 70% of agents closed 0 transactions in 2025. There isn’t an official source for that statistic, only that it was a comment made by a Redfin executive. An official number suggested it was closer to 5% of agents reported 0 transactions.

The difficult position you have here is you can’t tell who is more experienced.

Newer agents can hit the ground running and process over 20 transactions their first year, which might take another agent over 4 years to process.

If you were to ask me who is more experienced between an agent with 20 transactions over 1 year, and another agent with 10 transactions over 5 years, I’d pick the rookie.

Here’s what I’ll cover to keep in mind when selecting a real estate agent:

● Experience

● Communication

● Dual agents

● Family agents

Experience

Years of experience doesn’t mean what you think it means.

I just mentioned this, but I’ll make one more point.

When you think about a software developer who has been employed as a ```developer for ten years, you’d imagine that they’d be experts at software development, or at least experts at their specialty.

You imagine them going in and logging 8 hours of daily consistent work, five days a week.

When you’re forced to put in the hours of active work, you get better and better, and suck less and less. Athletes practice and put in so many reps that they suck less and less each day until you see the result on television.

To be an active agent for ten years, agents don’t have to do that.

When it comes time to renew their license for a few thousand dollars, some might think to themselves “Did I make more than $2,000? Would I be losing money if I paid the fees to renew?”

Here’s how much money an agent can make:

● The median home sales price in 2025 was about $405,000

● The average commission for a buyer’s agent was about 2.5% for 2025

● One transaction is about $10,000 for that buyer’s agent

So the thought going through this agent’s mind when it comes time to renew their license is: “Did I sell at least one property last year?”

If the answer is yes, they’ll likely renew their license and maybe drop to part-time.

The issue you might run into is that not a lot of agents disclose their statistics, or number of transactions. If they self-disclose, are they lying? Where can you find a real estate agent’s statistics from an unbiased source?

Brand new agents don’t instill a lot of confidence either.

As wary as I am of the part-timer or ‘experienced’ agent with more years licensed than actual deals, I would be just as wary of an agent that is brand new to the business.

Who wants to test their first-time home purchase with a first-time agent? Any volunteers? This is an expensive transaction, and it would be frustrating to experience the pitfalls that a more experienced agent would have pointed out in advance.

Communication

Consider someone who communicates well.

Someone who communicates well is a good fit because they’ll be able to effectively educate you on the process.

You’re a first-time homebuyer after all. You’re going to have a lot of questions.

You wouldn’t want someone who gives short answers, expecting you to know it all.

A good communicator will be able to effectively negotiate on your behalf.

A poor communicator will make excuses like “they didn’t respond to my texts.” Or “I emailed him last week, but he still hasn’t gotten back to me.”

An effective communicator will get answers fast, and clearly articulate expectations. They have a high standard of performance and can help lift others to their level.

Dual Agents

A dual agent is someone who represents both the buyer and the seller.

When an agent represents both, they represent no one.

This might happen to someone who is searching for homes online, finds one, and reaches out directly to the listing agent.

This person will say “I love the property, can I see it?”

“Do you already have an agent?”

“No”

The listing agent will have a hard time getting their heavy breathing under control when they hear that. If they can represent both, they’re in for a much bigger paycheck.

There are a few states where this is illegal, to represent both buyer and seller, but there are several where it’s acceptable if disclosed.

The agent turns into more of a transaction coordinator at this point. She can’t give you negotiation tips, or suggest anything that could impact the seller negatively.

If you’re looking for extra help as a first-time buyer, you won’t find it with an agent that has one hand tied behind her back.

Can you hold your cousin to the same standard you’d expect from any other professional?

It’s fine to use your licensed relatives to help you buy a home. There’s a degree of trust there that this family member wouldn’t screw you over, or treat you like a sale.

You’d expect them to have your back because you share some of the same blood.

But just consider everything else I’ve covered here. Is your cousin a freshie? Does he have the experience to guide you around the traps? Is he a part-timer that needs to shake off some rust? Does he communicate effectively? Can you talk with anyone else that has worked with him? How did that transaction go? If you lost a few thousand dollars due to his negligence, could you still keep things peaceful at Thanksgiving dinner?

Where to Find One

Fill out the form at newbhomebuyer.com/agent if you need help getting connected with a pre-vetted agent.

I have a large network of good real estate agents that I’ve worked with, who have experience closing complicated transactions and have an education-first mentality. On top of that I use software that tracks the agent’s performance and transactions over the past twelve months.

Here are some other ideas on finding an agent.

Check out online reviews

When going through the reviews, sort it by newest first. If it’s been a while since the last review, then perhaps there’s a little rust that’s starting to build up.

Drop by an open house

There’s always an agent hanging around an open house.

Talk to her as sort of an interview, see if it feels like you’d enjoy working with her. Did she communicate well? Was she professional?

If it feels right, double check by digging around a little. By digging around a little, all you can really do is check out her online profile and reviews.

The online agent

There are websites that have built a business around connecting buyers to agents.

Zillow is the biggest player in this field. Let me explain how this works:

Zillow shows you all of the homes on the MLS (the home listing service).

Right next to the pictures is a big blue button saying “schedule a showing” or “talk to an agent”

When you click that button, you’ll receive a phone call from the agent on deck.

That agent pays Zillow a monthly fee for leads.

They’ll be very accommodating and schedule a time for you to see the property.

They’ll also push for you to sign what is called a ‘buyer/broker agreement’.

The Buyer/Broker Agreement

This is a form that you’ll want to read over. This could be brought to you in person, with pen and paper, but it will most likely be sent to you over email.

Some states require you to have signed an agreement like this before you begin touring homes with the agent.

Quick explanation of the word ‘broker’. I’ve mentioned mortgage brokers, but this means ‘real estate broker’. A real estate broker employs agents. A buyer gets into an agreement with the broker, who is like the manager of the real estate agents, and then the manager pays the agent a percentage of the commission, or takes a fee from the commission.

Here are the two main points of what is covered in that agreement:

Commission

I have to cover this one first.

It’s very typical that a seller will pay for the buyer’s agent.

But there are always exceptions.

In the buyer/broker agreement it will address commission and will most likely say something like “Buyer agrees broker will receive x% of the purchase price, any compensation offered by the seller or listing brokerage will be credited toward that amount”

This means that if you buy a house, the broker has a set fee, and if the seller doesn’t cover it, you’ll be responsible for it.

Here’s the great part:

They can’t force you to buy a home.

So if you’re in negotiations with the seller, and the seller is refusing to pay the agent’s commission to the full amount, you don’t have to buy that house. You don’t have to sign that purchase agreement.

Review this buyer/broker agreement for other forms of payment. Check if this real estate agent wants to be compensated by an hourly rate if you decide not to buy a home.

Here’s a quick tip for you: These agreements can be long and wordy. If the agent is breathing loudly on the other line, waiting for you to sign it before he schedules the tour of the home, you’ll feel the urge to sign it just to not keep him waiting. Rather than do that, give it a good read, let the agent wait.

Length of Agreement

“How long are you going to be handcuffed to this guy?”

I’ve heard of agreements lasting as long as twelve months. I’ve also worked with agents who are open to the idea of something like this:

“Let’s work with each other for a month, and if we don’t like each other, we can part ways.”

As a buyer, I like the flexibility you get with an agent like that.

Most states (except Montana) are “at-will” employment states. Meaning a company can terminate an employee at any time for almost any reason.

In a way, I would argue that you are the agent’s employer, but this contract prevents you from being able to terminate your employee, even if the employee is garbage.

Push for shorter contracts when you can.

A word about the NAR settlement

In 2024, the Association of Realtors settled over a lawsuit claiming that the NAR practiced ‘cooperative compensation.’

Agents had a script that sounded something like this:

“If you want to sell your home, you’ll have to put at least 2.5% commission for the buyer's agent. Anything less than that, and the agent won’t even bring the buyers to see your home.”

Even though it settled for $418 million, NAR claims no wrongdoing. Stating “commission is always negotiable.”

It’s true, commission is negotiable. If you want to sell your home, and be charged less than the expected 5%-6% for an agent’s services, you’ll have to be prepared to negotiate.

But the settlement left a big question mark of how it would impact the industry.

Many thought it would lead to the seller refusing to pay for a buyer’s agent. Buyers thought it would mean that they’d have to pay their agent out of pocket.

“Forget saving the minimum 3.5%, now I have to save an extra 3% to pay my agent.”

But that’s not what happened.

What the settlement did is it ended the practice of listing the agent compensation on the MLS (the catalog of homes listed).

On the house listing, it used to advertise how much the buyer agent would make.

The reason they agreed to end that is because they wanted to dissuade real estate agents from only showing properties to buyers that had a high paying commission.

Imagine that as a buyer: There’s a property that you see online, and you love it, but your agent lies to you and says “it already sold” or “you don’t want that property because of _ and _”

Buyer agents used to go as far as refusing to send their clients any listing alerts if the commission wasn’t high enough.

This change was necessary.

One other change was something I’ve mentioned earlier. Before you tour homes with an agent, you need to sign a buyer/broker agreement. Alabama and Louisiana don’t require this, but in other states, you’ll hear the agent say “we need this signed before we can see the property.”

What else changed?

Not much.

Agents are asked to be more transparent with setting the commission. But the commission is, and has always been, negotiable.

The majority of sellers continue paying for the buyer agent's commission.

….Or DON’T Work With an Agent

About 90% of buyers use an agent.

If you have aspirations of being one of the 10% that did not use an agent, then here’s a section just for you.

Some people skip working with a real estate agent because they've had a bad experience in the past, they’re trying to save money, buying from family, or maybe they already found the house they want and see no need to ask an agent for help.

Let me cover what an agent does for you, and what you’d have to do instead, and let’s see if that changes your mind.

● Schedule house showings

● Help evaluate the property

● Write and negotiate your offer

● Coordinate with your lender, inspector, title company, and keep your deadlines on track.

● They’re the buffer between you and the seller or the listing agent.

I’ll elaborate on each of these.

Schedule Showings

85%+ of homes are listed on the MLS.

When you see homes for sale on websites like Zillow.com or Realtor.com what’s happening is those sites are pulling the data from the MLS and they’re making it public for everyone to access.

Agents use an internal scheduling system to coordinate showings for these homes.

There’s a lockbox on the door, and a code is delivered to the agent in this internal system, and the agent is granted access.

This makes it so the listing agent doesn’t have to be present at each and every showing.

Listing agents love it.

As an outsider, you’ll need to find the listing agent’s phone number and contact him directly in order to schedule a showing.

When you ask to see the property, his first response will be to represent you himself, but once he realizes that you’re planning on going without representation you may start to feel the resistance. He may only let you see the property when it’s convenient for him.

Your best bet is checking for an open house.

Open houses are scheduled events where an agent babysits the home while a bunch of strangers walk through it.

They’re usually held on the weekends for a couple of hours in the day.

Reach out to the listing agent first, but if you can’t reach him, check for any scheduled open houses.

“It feels like a club, and I can’t get in”

I’ve helped several people on the mortgage end of things with buyers who decided to buy without an agent.

Scheduling showings and making offers is where most buyers feel like they can’t get into the club.

Some seller agents love finding those unrepresented buyers, because it means their client pays less in commission. But others look at the unrepresented buyer as a pest.

Here’s how they view it: they have to deal with an emotional uneducated buyer rather than an educated industry professional.

Sometimes it takes the right listing agent to be able to break into the club as an unrepresented buyer.

It also takes a few other professionals to help guide you through pieces of the process.

Evaluate the property

Experienced agents have walked through hundreds or even thousands of homes, and have seen just as many home inspection walk-throughs.

They can help by connecting you with a home-inspector for your basic inspection, or if you see a concerning crack in the wall of the basement, they can help you connect with a structural engineer to evaluate it.

The agent might not be an expert on the home’s condition, but they have quick access to professionals who can review it, and either give you peace of mind, or a quote for repairs.

Write and Negotiate Your Offer

Real estate agents understand contracts and how to write it in a way that the listing agent will understand. They’ll help walk you through things like realistic deadlines and how to structure it favorably for you and the seller.

Here is some vocabulary you’ll want to educate yourself on before writing an offer:

● Earnest money

● Addendum

● Due diligence, option period

● Appraisal contingency and deadline

● Financing contingency and deadline

● Time for occupancy

● Property tax and special tax prorations

Coordinate With Your Lender, Inspector, Title Company

A title company does work early in the process to make sure the home is free of any claims on the property. They make sure no one will come knock on your door demanding that the house is actually theirs.

Before writing an offer, an agent will communicate with the lender to make sure proposed deadlines are doable.

On day one of being under contract, the agent will give recommendations for an inspector, who you’ll want to have scheduled an inspection with ASAP to give you time to negotiate needed repairs.

Buffer

Talking directly with the seller can be more efficient. But it can be much more emotional as well. The agent helps fight for your position, and you don’t have to get red in the face with anger.

If you have a good agent, you won’t get pushed around.

If you have a good agent, the deal won’t blow up over something small. The agent will communicate what you find important, and deliver it in a way that also makes sense to the listing agent and seller.

Frustration rises when you don’t feel understood, and good agents will take all of that emotion and transmit it into a clear signal.

When It’s Worth One

If you’ve read that and thought “I can do this” just know that I’d recommend an agent in the following situations:

● If it’s your first home.

● If you’re making an offer in a competitive market.

● If you’re nervous about the process or don’t have time to manage all the moving parts.

● If you’re not confident with negotiations or contract terms.

● If the seller is already working with an aggressive listing agent, it can help to have someone on your side who knows how to push back.

But if it’s a simple deal, if you trust the seller, and if you’ve done your homework and maybe looped in an attorney to double-check things, you can absolutely do it without one.

It’s just not as easy as people think.

If you want help finding a great agent where you're looking to buy, go to newbhomebuyer.com/agent and fill out the form and I'll connect you with a good one.