How to Choose the Best REALTOR in BC: 7 Questions to Ask First

Why Your REALTOR Choice Matters

Buying a home is the biggest financial decision most people make. If you get the agent wrong, the cost can run into the tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars: an overpaid offer, a missed contract clause, a deal that collapses on subject removal, or a sale priced poorly out of the gate.

Your REALTOR is the only professional sitting on your side of the table the whole way through. They negotiate price, write the subjects, coordinate the inspection, mortgage broker, lawyer, lender, and possession. A great one earns their fee back many times over. A weak one quietly costs you across all of those moments.

The 7 questions below are exactly what I'd ask if I was the one hiring an agent. Bring them to your first meeting. The right answers separate a top-performing Fraser Valley REALTOR from the median in 30 minutes.

7 Questions to Ask Before Signing

Bring these to the first meeting (or the second if you're short on time). A good REALTOR will not just answer them, they'll appreciate that you're asking. The right answers separate a top-25% Fraser Valley agent from the median in 30 minutes.

Question 1: Are They A Full-Time REALTOR?

You can disqualify a lot of agents right off the bat if they're part-time. The market moves fast, the rules change constantly, and a part-time agent simply cannot keep up. Most full-time REALTORs work more than 40 hours a week as it is. Your agent needs to be flexible around YOUR schedule, which is extremely hard if they're juggling another job. More importantly: ask why they're part-time. To me it suggests they don't have the confidence or results to commit to the business full-time. If they don't have faith in themselves, why should you?

The exception: when someone is brand new, they often can't go full-time right away. We've all been there. That's where Question 2 comes in.

Question 2: How Many Deals Did You Close Last Year?

Years in the business is NOT the same as level of experience. Someone who has been licensed 10 years and sold 40 homes has less hands-on practice than someone who's been licensed 4 years and sold 150. Ask for the actual recent transaction count, not the licence anniversary.

Bare minimum: at least 12 transactions in the past year, 1 a month. Anything less and they probably aren't closing enough deals to stay sharp on pricing, contracts, and the negotiation patterns that change month to month. If they're newer than that, ask if they have a strong team or mentor backing them up. I've seen new-agent mistakes cost clients $25,000+ because of a single missing clause in the contract.

Question 3: Are They A Solo Agent Or On A Team?

Both setups work. Each has trade-offs. Solo agent: you're always in contact with the same person, which a lot of clients prefer. The risk: if they handle a lot of clients alone with no support staff, you may not get the attention you need, and what happens if they get sick or go on vacation? Most experienced solos have a colleague they trust to cover them. Ask about it. Team: someone is usually available even when your primary contact is busy. Typically one team member is assigned to you as the lead. The most common mistake I see: clients expect to work with the team owner directly, but if the team lead only handles listings and you're a buyer, you'll be paired with a buyer's agent on the team. That's often a good thing if they specialize, but it has to be made clear from the start, not introduced out of the blue.

Why: set the right expectation on day 1. Surprise hand-offs mid-search are one of the biggest sources of client frustration.

Question 4: What's Their Availability And Follow-Up Cadence?

This ties straight back to Question 1. If they have another job, it's hard to give you the attention you need. As a buyer: how often will they send you new properties? Will they take you on tours, or send you to open houses on your own on the weekends because they don't have time to come? How quickly do they respond to questions? Especially as a first-time buyer, you don't know what you don't know. You need a REALTOR who's reachable and patient. Frontloading the education matters: a great agent sets aside time at the start to walk you through the entire home buying or selling process before you see a single property, in as much or as little detail as you need. That's how I do it personally.

Red flag: if the first place you're meeting your REALTOR is at a property tour (and you're not an experienced buyer), that's a major sign they're skipping the education step. Don't make a major decision rushed and underprepared.

Question 5: Where Do They Get Most Of Their Business From?

The best agents get most of their clients from past-client referrals + word-of-mouth. That's a strong signal: they did good work, and people trust them enough to recommend them or come back themselves. It's something I personally pride myself on. The next-best signal is online reviews. Google + Facebook are the two main places people leave them. People are statistically more likely to leave a negative review than a positive one, so a page full of strong reviews tells you something real.

Best signal of all: ask if they have any video reviews or testimonials from past clients. Video testimonials capture the feeling a REALTOR left their clients with, which is hard to fake and almost impossible to write convincingly.

Question 6: How Do They Determine The Value Of A Home?

This matters whether you're buying or selling. The biggest fear of buyers is overpaying. The biggest fear of sellers is leaving money on the table. Either way, you need a REALTOR who can defend their pricing with data, not just throw out a number. Ask them: what's the methodology? What's the data? The answer should always include a CMA (Comparative Market Analysis): a structured comparison of your home or your target home against similar recently sold properties. The more detail, the better: square footage, condition, beds + baths, lot size, school proximity, road noise, and how recently the comparable sold. A 12-month-old comp is far less reliable than a 2-week-old one.

Watch for cherry-picking: one comp can be made to support any narrative the agent wants. 5 to 10 comps make the data harder to manipulate. If the agent only shows you 1 or 2 comparables, ask for more. If they suggest a list price or an offer price they can't defend with data, walk away.

Question 7: What Specific Area(s) Do They Specialize In?

This is the biggest mistake I see people make and arguably the most important question on this list. I personally specialize in Surrey + Langley but service other areas in the Fraser Valley. I used to go anywhere within reason, until I realized it wasn't the best use of my time AND I wasn't serving my clients as well as I could. So I partnered with an agent who lives in and specializes in Vancouver and surrounding areas. Now we cover the entire Lower Mainland with real expertise on each side. What I keep seeing: calls + emails from buyers about to write an offer in Surrey or Langley, whose REALTOR isn't from the area and doesn't know it well. I've had cases where the buyer already had an accepted offer and asked me whether to follow through. Because of agency rules, I can't advise them or I risk a fine, or worse, my licence.

The real risk: right vs wrong neighbourhood can shift in the space of a couple of streets. A REALTOR who doesn't know a sub-area's school catchments, traffic patterns, flood plains, strata reputations, or upcoming developments can miss things that meaningfully change the long-term value of your home. Choose an agent who specializes in the market you're actually buying or selling in.

5 Red Flags to Walk Away From

1. "I do this part-time on weekends": Question 1 directly. The market moves too fast and the rules change too often for someone juggling another job to keep up. Move on.
2. The first meeting IS the property tour: if a REALTOR skips frontloading the education and brings you straight to a showing, they're skipping the most important part. You're going to make a major decision rushed and underprepared.
3. They can't name their last 5 closed deals: if recent transaction count is fuzzy, they're probably below the 12-deal-a-year minimum. Closed deals are easy to remember when you've actually done them recently.
4. Pricing without data: if the agent quotes a list price or offer price they can't back up with 5+ recent comparables, they're guessing. Ask for the CMA. If they push back, walk away.
5. "I work the whole Lower Mainland": Question 7 directly. Specialization beats generalization every time. The cost of an agent who doesn't know your sub-area shows up in the offer they let you write or the price they let you list at.

Asking For + Actually Checking References

3 references from clients who closed in the past 6 months. Same price band, same area as you. A confident agent provides them within 24 hours. Then call all 3.

Better questions than "were you happy?":

• What almost went wrong on your deal?
• How did the agent handle it when it did?
• What's one thing you wish they'd done differently?
• Did final price come in above or below asking?
• Would you hire them again? Have you referred anyone?

"What almost went wrong?" is the highest-signal question. Every transaction has a friction point. How an agent navigates it tells you more than 100 5-star Google reviews.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

1. Hiring your cousin / friend / family member by default: their relationship with you is now tied to their income. Add the awkwardness when something goes wrong (and on a $1M+ transaction, something always does).
2. Working with the listing agent on a buy: in BC since 2018, this almost always makes you an "unrepresented buyer" and the agent owes their duty to the seller. You get less protection, the seller gets the same commission they would have anyway.
3. Picking based on volume of marketing (billboards, bus ads): marketing budget is a sign of revenue, not skill. The 30-deal-per-year FV specialist with no billboard often outsells the brand-recognition agent.
4. Signing a 12-month BC-wide exclusive: start with 60 to 90 days, your specific Fraser Valley sub-area, and a clean termination clause. Earn the longer commitment.
5. Not asking for the BCFSA licence number: 30-second verification + paper trail. There is zero reason not to.
6. Choosing on fee alone: a small discount on representation fee is easily wiped out by a single point of weaker price negotiation on the eventual sale or purchase. The math almost always favours competence over discount.

Frequently Asked Questions