Hiring an agent
How to Read a Luxury Agent's Sales Record Before You Interview Them
Career volume is the number agents lead with. Average sale price, the count behind it, the range and the addresses are the numbers that tell you whether they actually work your tier. Here is the ten-minute check.
How to Read a Luxury Agent's Sales Record Before You Interview Them
Every luxury agent will tell you they sell at the top of the market. The public record tells you whether that is true, and reading it takes about ten minutes once you know where to look. This is the check we run on every agent in our directory, and it is the check you should run on the three you plan to interview.
Start with the average, not the headline number
Agents lead with career volume because it is the biggest figure they have. A career total of two hundred million dollars sounds impressive until you learn it came from four hundred sales at five hundred thousand each. That is a strong mid-market practice, not a luxury one.
The number that tells you what an agent actually does is the average price of their recent closed sales. Public listing portals show it on the agent's profile, usually alongside a price range. An agent whose average sits at three million, with a range that runs to twelve, closes the kind of home you are buying or selling. An agent whose average is six hundred thousand, with one four-million-dollar outlier, does not, however the marketing reads.
Our rankings weight this figure most heavily for exactly that reason. The method is published on the methodology page.
Check the count behind the average
An average built on three sales is a coincidence. An average built on forty is a practice. Look for the number of closed transactions on record next to the price figures, and treat anything under ten recent closings as unproven at this price point, no matter how polished the presentation.
Two things distort this count and both are visible if you look. Team accounts pool every member's closings under one name, so a team lead's forty sales may be five people's work. And an agent who recently moved brokerages can show a short record at the new house while the long one sits under the old brand. Neither is disqualifying. Both are worth asking about.
Read the range, not just the top
The price range on a profile shows the lowest and highest recent closing. The top of the range is the number agents quote. The bottom is the one that tells you where their business really lives.
An agent whose range runs from two million to nine million works your tier full time. An agent whose range starts at three hundred thousand and reaches four million sold one expensive house and a great many ordinary ones. The second agent may still be excellent, but they are learning your price point on your transaction.
Look at the addresses
Recent sales on a public profile carry addresses and dates. Spend a minute on them. You are looking for three things: whether the closings are in the market you are actually in, whether they are recent, and whether the agent represented the seller or the buyer.
A listing agent who has closed six homes on your street in the last two years knows your buyer pool by name. One whose closings are thirty miles away and three years old is starting from the same place a newcomer would.
Cross-check with the license
Before the first meeting, confirm the license is active with the state. Every state page on this site links to the official lookup. It takes thirty seconds, it shows any discipline on file, and it is the one part of this process that an agent cannot dress up.
What the record cannot tell you
Documented sales tell you what an agent has done. They do not tell you how the agent works, how they price, how they negotiate, or whether they will answer the phone on a Sunday. That is what the interview is for, and the questions to ask before you sign are the ones that separate a strong record from a strong fit.
Use the record to decide who gets the interview. Use the interview to decide who gets the listing.