Calgary • Airdrie • Choosing An Agent
How To Choose A Calgary REALTOR®
Most articles like this are written by agents hoping you pick them. So here is the version that is actually useful: the questions worth asking, why some agents dodge them — and our own answers, with the numbers attached.
Start Here
Interview Three. Including Us.
Talk to at least three agents before you sign anything. That is not false modesty — it is the only way to tell the difference between someone who is genuinely right for your home and someone who simply got to you first.
Tell each of them they are being interviewed. Good agents expect it. And pay attention less to the answers than to whether the answer contains a number.
Below are the questions we would want asked if we were sitting on your side of the table, and what our answers are. If another agent gives you better ones, hire them.
The Questions
Ask These. Watch What Happens.
1. What was your slowest listing last year, and how long did it take?
Every agent has a fastest sale ready to quote. Almost none volunteer the slowest, and it tells you far more — because it shows you what happens when a listing does not go to plan, and whether they stayed.
Ours: our longest took 351 days. In Coopers Crossing, where we have sold most, our range runs from 3 days to 150 and the median is 28. One home took 120 days; another in the same community and the same year took 10. Both are published here with the numbers.
2. How many homes have you sold in my community specifically?
“I serve all of Calgary” is not an answer. Community knowledge is knowing what buyers here are shopping for and which comparables actually apply — and it only comes from repetition.
Ours: 500+ since 2017, and the record is deliberately lopsided. 47+ in Coopers Crossing, 31+ in Windsong, 18+ in Williamstown. If your community is not one we know well, we will tell you that rather than pretend.
3. What marketing does every listing get — not just the expensive ones?
Ask specifically whether the treatment changes with price. For many agents it quietly does. Also worth knowing: professional marketing costs you nothing extra as a seller. It comes out of the agent’s side.
Ours: every listing we have ever taken got a video. Not most — every one, alongside photography, a measured floor plan, a brochure and its own page on this site. Our first listing in 2017 had a professionally produced video, in Airdrie, when nobody here was doing that.
4. What do you think my home is worth — and what would you say if I disagreed?
This is the one that separates agents. Some will quote a number high enough to win the listing, then spend two months walking you down from it. An overpriced listing usually sells for less than a correctly priced one, and takes longer doing it.
Ours: we will give you a number from what has actually sold nearby, and if we think yours is wrong we will say so before you list rather than after sixty days of silence. Sometimes the honest answer is that this is not your moment.
5. Can I speak to a past client on my street, in my price range?
You are hiring them. References are normal. Reluctance is itself an answer — and a general reference is easier to arrange than one from a seller whose situation matched yours.
Ours: yes, and in the meantime every review we have ever received is public on Rate-My-Agent and Google, on platforms we cannot edit.
6. What could go wrong with my sale?
An agent who says “nothing, don’t worry” is either inexperienced or managing you. Financing falls through. Appraisals come in low. Inspections turn up surprises. You want someone who names the risks before they happen.
Ours: we will walk you through what could go wrong on your specific home, and what we would do about each one. We do not use guarantee language, because nobody can guarantee a buyer.
Beyond The Interview
What To Check On Your Own.
Look at their current listings, not their sold ones. Sold listings tell you the market was good. How they are marketing someone’s home right now is exactly what they will do with yours. If the photos are dark and there is no video, that is your preview.
Read reviews on platforms the agent does not control. Testimonials chosen by an agent for their own website are, by definition, the ones they picked. Google and the review sites show everything, including the unhappy ones and how the agent responded.
Check whether they publish numbers or adjectives. “Top producer” and “#1 agent” can mean almost anything. Days on market, sales in your community, and price relative to list mean something specific.
Notice whether they ever say no. An agent who agrees with everything you say is easy to work with and expensive to hire. You are paying for judgement, and judgement sometimes sounds like disagreement.
Interview Us Last.
Seriously. Talk to the other two first, ask them everything above, and then come to us with what you learned. If we are not the right fit for your home or your community, we will tell you — and we would rather do that at the kitchen table than sixty days into a listing.