What actually makes a good listing agent.

There's a part of the listing-agent interview almost no vendor knows to push on.

It usually goes like this: three agents come round on consecutive evenings. They each tell you the property is wonderful. They each give you a price range. The numbers vary a bit — sometimes by a hundred grand or more. They each leave behind a glossy folder with photos of their last sale. And then you're meant to choose.

The folders look the same. The price ranges all sound plausible. The agents all seemed nice. The honest secret of this industry is that on the surface, most listing agents do look interchangeable — and the difference only becomes visible after you've signed, by which point it's a six-month problem.

So here's what to actually ask. Six things, in the order they matter.

The price they quoted — show your working.

Some agents will quote high to win the listing, then spend the next four weeks "managing your expectations" downward until you're listing at the number a more honest agent gave you on day one. It's the oldest manoeuvre in the business and it's still the most common.

The defence is simple.

A good agent has those addresses on the tip of their tongue. A weaker one starts hedging.

What gets pulled before the campaign starts.

The number of campaigns that fall over because something turns up mid-marketing — a council compliance issue, an unconsented sleepout, a body corporate dispute, an easement nobody mentioned — is genuinely shocking.

The agent who pulls the LIM, the title, the council file and the body corporate minutes before the listing goes live is the agent who has run this play before and learned the hard way. They're not doing it because they're meticulous. They're doing it because they've watched a $1.2M sale collapse on the morning of auction over an $800 fence permit and they never want to be in that room again.

Who is actually doing the work?

Listing agents at busy offices sometimes hand large chunks of the campaign to assistants or junior team members the vendor never meets. Sometimes that's fine — assistants can be excellent. Sometimes it isn't. Either way, you deserve to know.

You're not being difficult by asking. You're being a buyer of a service that's about to cost you the better part of a year's income in commission.

The marketing decision tree.

Two-page DPS in Property Press, drone footage, a video walkthrough, premium listing on TradeMe — every one of these adds a few thousand to the marketing spend. Sometimes they're worth it. Sometimes they're not. A good agent has a reason for each one tied to your specific property and your specific buyer.

The answer reveals whether they've thought about your campaign or whether they're applying the same template they used last week.

The negotiation conversation — before the offer arrives.

Most vendors meet the offer first, the negotiation strategy second. That's backwards. You want to know, before the first open home, how your agent handles three specific situations: an early "knockout" pre-auction offer, a buyer who wants a long settlement to sell their own place, and two offers within $5k of each other.

A good agent has clear answers because they've handled each one many times. They'll tell you not just what they'd do, but what you should think about. That's the difference between an agent who works for you and an agent who is mainly trying to close.

How they leave.

This one feels strange but I think it's the best single test.

The answer tells you whether you're talking to a salesperson who only adds value when they close, or a professional who adds value either way. The first kind costs you opportunity. The second kind is the one you want.