22 Questions to Ask a REALTOR® in Moncton Before You Sign Anything
An honest interview guide from a Greater Moncton REALTOR® with 20+ years of experience
Most people interview two or three REALTORS® before they pick one. They ask about commission. They ask if you've sold any houses in their neighbourhood. They thank everyone for their time and go with whoever felt warmest in the conversation.
That's not really an interview. That's a vibe check.
A REALTOR® is going to handle one of the biggest financial decisions of your life. Hundreds of thousands of dollars on the line. Your timeline for moving. Your stress level for the next two months. The interview should reflect that.
This guide gives you 22 questions worth asking, organized by what they actually tell you. Some of them will sort the part-timers from the professionals in about thirty seconds. Some will give you a real read on whether someone knows the Greater Moncton market. Some will tell you whether the person across the table can actually market a home or whether they're going to put it on the MLS® and hope.
You don't have to ask all 22. Pick the ones that matter most for your situation. But ask more than three.
How to use this guide
Read through the questions once before your first REALTOR® meeting. Pick the eight to ten that matter most to you. Bring the list. Take notes. (You'll forget half of what each REALTOR® said if you don't write it down.)
After the meetings, compare notes. Some questions will have clear right and wrong answers. Others depend on what you value. The point isn't to find the REALTOR® with the most polished answers. It's to find the one whose actual approach lines up with what you actually need.
Experience and Credentials
1. How long have you been a REALTOR®?
There's no magic number, but there's a meaningful gap between two years and ten years. A two-year REALTOR® has been through one full market cycle if they're lucky. A ten-year REALTOR® has handled buyer's markets, seller's markets, multiple offers, financing falling through three weeks before closing, and the dozen other situations that don't show up in textbooks.
Years aren't everything. A skilled five-year REALTOR® will out-negotiate a coasting twenty-year REALTOR® any day. But ask the question, and listen to what the answer leads to.
2. How many homes have you helped buy or sell in the last 12 months?
This is the question that separates full-time professionals from part-timers in about ten seconds. The average Canadian REALTOR® closes between five and ten transactions a year. A top-producing REALTOR® closes thirty or more.
Ask for the actual number. If they hedge, that's information.
3. Are you a full-time REALTOR®?
About a third of REALTORS® in Canada do this part-time. They have other jobs and do real estate on the side. Sometimes that works fine but sometimes, it means you can't get a hold of them when an offer comes in on a Tuesday afternoon.
You're hiring someone to be available, responsive, and focused. If they have a day job, ask how they manage both.
4. What's your specialty?
Some REALTORS® are jacks of all trades. Some have specific areas of focus. A REALTOR® who specializes in first-time buyers brings different expertise than one who specializes in investment properties or downsizing seniors.
There's no wrong answer to this question, but the answer tells you whether the person across the table actually knows their lane. "I work with everyone" is a yellow flag. Everyone is no one.
5. Are you part of a team, and if so, who handles what?
Real estate teams are common now, and there are good reasons for them. One REALTOR® can't be in two places at once. Teams let specialists handle different parts of the transaction (a buyer's agent, a listing agent, a transaction coordinator, etc.).
If they're on a team, ask which team member will be your main point of contact and who handles what. Some teams are set up so the lead REALTOR® takes the listing meeting, then hands you off to a junior agent who actually does the work. Find out before you sign.
(For the record on how we're structured: the Meet Me in Moncton Real Estate team works as specialists. Natalie Davison leads. Ryan Davison brings 20+ years and past presidency of the New Brunswick Real Estate Association. Tom Garland is a former home inspector. Tammy Cook is Moncton's LGBTQ+ affirming REALTOR®. Danika Albert handles investment properties. Darby Thibodeau coordinates every transaction end to end. You get a team, not a handoff.)
Local Market Knowledge
A REALTOR® who can describe the differences between Riverview, Dieppe, and the West End in concrete detail is a different REALTOR® than one who calls everything "great in this market."
6. How well do you know my specific neighbourhood?
This is a different question than "have you sold houses in my area." Anyone can pull up a couple of sales nearby. Knowing the neighbourhood means knowing the school catchment, the noise patterns, what the new development on the edge will mean for property values.
Ask for specifics. A REALTOR® who actually knows your neighbourhood will give them.
7. What's your read on the current Greater Moncton market?
A solid REALTOR® can tell you, in plain language, what the market is doing right now. Are listings selling fast? Are buyers pickier than they were six months ago? Is your specific price range hot or cool?
If they answer with platitudes ("the market is great," "it's a good time to buy AND sell"), that's a tell. Real REALTORS® can describe what's actually happening, with numbers.
8. How long do homes like mine typically sit on the market right now?
For sellers, this tells you whether your timeline is realistic.
For buyers, this tells you how aggressive you need to be when the right home shows up.
If the answer is vague, push for a number. Days on market is public data. A real REALTOR® can look it up in thirty seconds and give you the average for your price range and area.
9. What's a realistic price range for my home?
Different REALTORS® will give you different price suggestions for the same home. Some will lowball to set up a quick sale. Some will inflate to win the listing, then push for price reductions a month in.
The honest answer comes with comparables. Ask the REALTOR® to walk you through how they arrived at the number. If they can't show you recent sales of similar homes in similar condition, the price is a guess.
Marketing Approach (For Sellers)
This is where most REALTOR® interviews are too generic. Marketing is also where the gap between average and excellent REALTORS® is biggest.
10. How will you actually market my home?
The not-so-awesome answer: "We'll put it on the MLS®"
The awesome answer: a specific multi-platform plan that includes professional photography, video, a property-specific website, targeted social media campaigns, mailers, and a launch strategy designed to generate competing demand before the open house.
The Meet Me in Moncton Real Estate team uses what we call the 7-11-4 marketing rule (it takes seven hours of content, eleven touchpoints, and four different platforms before a buyer trusts a listing enough to act on it). Every home we list gets a property website, a Thursday launch designed to capture the entire weekend, and our full marketing system behind it. Our content reaches over 441,000 people in Greater Moncton in a 90-day window.
That's the kind of specificity a marketing answer should have. If your REALTOR® can't tell you exactly what they'll do, they probably don't have a system.
11. What's your strategy for each listing?
Some REALTORS® don’t do marketing beyond the MLS® listing and a yard sign. T
Real marketing costs real money. Professional photography. Video production. Targeted ad spend. Mailers. Property websites. Ask what the REALTOR® actually do to market your listing beyond the MLS®.
12. Where do most of your buyers come from?
A REALTOR® with strong marketing has buyers coming from everywhere… social media, other REALTORS®, their own network and yes, open houses. Why? Because their strategies are actually reaching people.
REALTOR.ca matters, but if it's the only channel, your home is competing against every other listing in the city for the same eyeballs. Marketing-driven REALTORS® create demand from multiple sources.
13. Do you do open houses, and what's your approach?
Open houses matter, but only when they're done well. A good open house is promoted ahead of time, with social posts that draw the right buyers, signage on the right streets, and a follow-up plan for everyone who walks through.
Ask what their open house turnout typically looks like.
14. What photos, videos, and digital assets will you create for my listing?
Photos are the front door of every listing. If the photos are bad, nobody clicks through. If the photos are great, you get showings.
Ask whether they use a professional photographer (they should), whether they include video (they should), and whether you'll get a property website specific to your listing (you should).
If the answer is "I take the photos with my phone," that's a no.
Fees and Contracts
The questions everyone remembers to ask. Save them for last so they don't dominate the conversation.
20. What's your commission, and what does it cover?
Commissions vary, and they're negotiable in Canada. Fees are split between the listing REALTOR® and the buyer's REALTOR® and not always evenly.
The dollar number matters, but so does what's included. Ask what their commission covers (photos, marketing, etc.) and what's extra.
21. What's the length of the listing agreement?
Most listing agreements run for 6 months - some for less, some for more.
22. Can you cancel? How does it work if you’re unhappy?
Ask what happens if you're unhappy with the service. Can you cancel? Under what conditions? If the answer is "no, you're locked in for six months no matter what," make sure you’re okay with that.
Red flags to watch for during the interview
A few things that should make you reconsider, regardless of how good other answers sound:
The REALTOR® badmouths other REALTORS® or other brokerages. (Real professionals don't.)
They promise a specific sale price without seeing comparables.
They can't tell you what they actually do for marketing.
They want to sign the listing agreement before you've had time to think.
They speak in superlatives ("the best," "the most") without backup.
They don't ask about your goals before pitching theirs.
How the Meet Me in Moncton Real Estate team approaches this
We're not the right REALTORS® for everyone, and we're upfront about it.
We're the right team for sellers and buyers who want a marketing-driven approach, a team of specialists rather than a single generalist, and a full-service experience backed by decades of real estate and marketing expertise. We invest in marketing each home. We're recognized as eXp ICON Agents (2024 and 2025), and RE/MAX Platinum Club members (2021, 2022, and 2023). We've helped hundreds families move in Greater Moncton.
We aim to be the team you tell your friends about after, the one that made selling or buying easier than you thought it could be.
If that sounds like what you're looking for, book a consult here. We'll walk through your situation, answer the questions on this list (and any others you have), and tell you honestly whether we're the right fit.
If we're not, we'll point you toward someone who is.