Updated September 25, 2026
Most people choose a real estate agent the way they choose a dentist. Somebody at church mentioned a name, the name had a friendly headshot, and that settled it. Sometimes that works out fine. But a house is the biggest check most families ever write, and “my neighbor’s cousin” is a thin résumé for the person negotiating it.
Learning how to choose a real estate agent doesn’t take long: one or two real interviews, a short list of pointed questions, and a sense of what good local work looks like. That last part is where Germantown and Collierville get specific. A lot of buyers here shop by school zone, plenty of streets come with an HOA, and the gap between an agent who works these neighborhoods every week and one who drives in from across the metro shows up in a handful of predictable places.
Our rule of thumb, before any of the details: interview at least two agents, even if one of them is your cousin.
What a local agent knows that an app doesn’t
Listing sites are good at showing you houses. They’re bad at telling you which details about those houses will matter in six months.
School zones are the clearest example. Germantown and Collierville have run their own municipal school districts since 2014, and many east-metro buyers pick the district before they pick the house. But a Germantown mailing address doesn’t guarantee Germantown city limits, and zone lines don’t always follow the streets you’d expect. A local agent flags the listing that says “Germantown” and sits outside the district, then tells you to confirm the zoning with the district itself before you write an offer. An app just shows you the pool.
HOAs come next. Many subdivisions in both towns have covenants covering fences, sheds, exterior colors, and whether you can rent the house out later. A good agent asks for the HOA documents early, reads them with you, and checks for pending special assessments while you can still walk away. Finding out about a $3,000 roof assessment after closing is a bad way to meet the neighbors.
Then there’s the offer. In a school-driven neighborhood, a well-priced house can draw several offers its first weekend, and price is only part of what wins. Some sellers care most about a quick close, some need a few weeks of rent-back, some just want a short inspection window and no drama. Knowing which one you’re dealing with, and having the kind of relationship with the listing agent where your call gets returned, is local work. We wrote a whole piece on how to win against multiple offers without overpaying, and almost every tactic in it depends on that context.
Sellers get the local advantage in pricing. A good agent prices your house off recent sales in your subdivision, adjusted for what buyers here pay extra for, instead of a zip-code average that blends a 1978 ranch with a 2019 build. Getting that number wrong is the pricing mistake that could cost you your sale, and it usually happens in week one.
Where to find agents worth interviewing
Referrals are a fine place to start, as long as you treat them as leads to check out, not decisions. Ask the friend what the agent did when something went wrong. Everybody’s agent is great when the deal goes smoothly.
“Sold” signs on the streets you’re targeting tell you who closes deals on your kind of house. Open houses let you watch an agent handle strangers’ questions, which is a free preview of how they’ll handle yours. And read online reviews for specifics. “Sarah was amazing” tells you nothing. “Sarah caught the flood-zone issue our lender missed” tells you plenty.
Two or three candidates is enough. Past that, the interviews blur together.
Questions to ask before you sign anything
An agent interview should feel like a conversation, not a deposition. Still, it helps to walk in with a list, and to notice whether the answers are specific or rehearsed.
- How many clients did you help buy or sell in the last year, and where? You’re not hunting for the biggest number. You want recent work that looks like your situation, in your price range and your part of town.
- Is real estate your full-time job? Part-time agents can be excellent, but the good houses in competitive neighborhoods tend to hit the market on a Thursday afternoon.
- Who will I work with day to day? On a team, the person who interviews you may not be the one who shows you houses or answers your texts at 9 p.m. That’s fine if you know it going in.
- Tell me about a deal that nearly fell apart. This is the best question on the list. You want a real story with a real fix, not a speech about communication.
- For sellers: what would you list my house for, and which sales support that number? Expect to see the comparable sales and hear how each one was adjusted.
- What does your buyer agreement say? Ask about the fee, how long it lasts, whether it’s exclusive, and how either of you can end it.
- Which lenders and inspectors do you use, and why? Good agents have favorites because those people close on time. They should also be comfortable with you choosing your own.
Buying and selling at the same time? Add an eighth: how would they time the two closings? Anyone who has done it before will have an answer ready.
How agent commissions and buyer agreements work now
This is the part that changed most recently, and plenty of buyers still haven’t heard about it.
Since August 17, 2024, agents who participate in a Realtor-affiliated MLS have had to sign a written agreement with a buyer before touring a home with them. The rule came out of the National Association of Realtors’ legal settlement. The agreement has to state how the agent gets paid, as a specific amount or rate instead of something open-ended, and the agent can’t collect more than it says. Offers of buyer-agent pay also no longer appear on the MLS.
Commissions were always negotiable. The difference now is that your agent’s number is written down before you tour, so read it. A seller can still agree to cover some or all of your agent’s fee, either up front or as a concession in your offer, and in a lot of deals that’s still how it shakes out. It just isn’t automatic anymore, so ask your agent what happens if a seller says no.
Agreements also vary a lot in length and exclusivity. If you’re not ready to commit to one agent for months, ask for a short term, or an agreement that covers only the one house you want to see this weekend. Many agents will do that without blinking.
State law matters here too. Without a written agency agreement, a Tennessee agent can work as a facilitator who doesn’t owe you the full loyalty a buyer’s agent does. We explain that difference in our post on buyer’s and seller’s agents. If you want someone contractually on your side, the paperwork is how you get one. For how agent fees fit with everything else due at the table, see what buyers and sellers actually pay in closing costs in the Memphis area.
The details are still shifting in some states, so ask every agent you interview how they handle agreements today. A clear, unbothered answer is a good sign.
Red flags in an agent interview
The one we see most often is the inflated listing price. A seller interviews three agents. Two come in close to each other, with comps. The third comes in well above both, with enthusiasm and not much else, and gets the listing because of course they do. The house sits. Showings thin out after the second weekend, the price comes down in steps, and buyers start asking what’s wrong with it. The seller often ends up below where the first two agents started. If one number is far above the others, ask to see the sales behind it. No comps, no listing.
The rest are quicker to spot. Six months of exclusivity is a lot to sign at a first meeting, before you’ve seen a single house together. Watch for confident guessing on local questions, too: “I’ll check the zoning and get back to you” is a great answer, while a sure-sounding wrong answer about which school a house feeds into is not. Recommending a lender is normal, but making you feel your offer will suffer if you use someone else isn’t.
And notice who did the talking. If you leave knowing their sales volume and awards but they never asked about your timeline or budget, that’s how the whole search will feel.
For what it’s worth, the agent with the most signs in town isn’t automatically the right one for you. Volume tells you someone is busy. It doesn’t tell you they’ll have time for a first-time buyer’s fourth round of questions.
Check the license (it takes two minutes)
Before you sign, look the agent up on the Tennessee Real Estate Commission’s license search at verify.tn.gov. You’ll see whether the license is active, whether they’re a broker or an affiliate broker working under one, and any disciplinary history. Nearly everyone checks out. Look anyway.
Hire for the hard week
Every deal has a week where things go sideways. Maybe the inspection turns up a foundation question. Maybe the appraisal comes in $15,000 short, or the house you love gets two other offers overnight. Almost any licensed agent can handle the easy weeks. The hard one is where local knowledge and a phone full of people who pick up earn the fee, along with some calm negotiating.
So when you’re choosing a real estate agent, picture that week and ask yourself who you’d want on the other end of the phone. If you’re house hunting in Germantown or Collierville, we’d be glad to be one of the agents you interview. Reach out, bring the questions above, and hold us to the same standard as everyone else on your list.
