This is the next piece in our series on how to find the right real estate agent. Today we're going to talk about asking the right questions regarding experience and the amount of business they do.

Ask any potential agent "Is real estate your full time profession?" The average number of transactions for a real estate agent in the US is 4 per year. Obviously, at four transactions no one is paying the bills with just real estate. And realize that 4 is the average! That means there are a lot of agents out there who do substantially fewer transactions!

Now, I'm not saying that a part time agent can't be a good agent. (Or that a full time agent can't be really bad!)However, at just a few transactions a year it's going to take the average REALTOR about 5 years to get the amount of experience that a full time, busy agent gets in one year. That matters because when something goes wrong, it helps to have someone who's seen it before!

And after asking the first question, if you feel the need for further clarification, ask how many transactions the agent did in the previous calendar year.

If you decide to hire an agent with not much experience I would recommend that you meet their broker. The likelihood is that they're going to be dependent on their broker for advice and counsel during the process. And you want to feel that the broker is someone you can trust.