12 Questions to Ask a Realtor Before Buying a Home in Lafayette, Indiana

Choosing a buyer's agent is strange. You are hiring someone for one of the biggest purchases of your life, usually based on one conversation, and most people have no idea what to ask.

So here is my honest attempt to fix that: the twelve questions I would want my own family to ask before hiring any agent in Greater Lafayette, including me. For each one, what a good answer sounds like, and what should make you keep looking. Ask them all. A good agent will enjoy answering. I'll be straight with you, question eight is the one most people never think to ask.

1. How well do you know the specific areas I'm considering?

Real estate is street by street. An agent can be excellent in one part of a county and guessing in another.

Good answer: specifics. Recent sales they have handled nearby, what homes on those streets have been doing, which blocks have quirks a portal will never show you.

Keep looking: generic praise of the whole city, or answers that could apply to any town in Indiana.

2. How will you tell me what a home is actually worth?

Listing price is a marketing decision. Value is a fact question, and you cannot Google it. The online estimates are often off by more than people realize.

Good answer: a comparative market analysis from real closed sales near the home, adjusted for condition, walked through with you before you offer.

Keep looking: an agent who anchors on the asking price or on an app's number.

3. Will you tell me NOT to buy a house?

This is the trust question. Your agent's job is to protect you, and sometimes protecting you means talking you out of a home you have already fallen for.

Good answer: a real story of doing exactly that, told without hesitation. It happens on my team regularly, and the clients it happened to are our loudest referrers.

Keep looking: anyone who treats every home you like as a home you should buy.

4. How do you find homes beyond what I see online?

By the time a listing is on the portals, every buyer in the county sees what you see. The edge is knowing what is coming.

Good answer: agent networks, coming-soon pipelines, relationships with local listing agents, and a team that hears about homes before they list. What is coming to market next week is exactly the local knowledge that protects you.

Keep looking: an agent whose search strategy is the same portal alert you already set up yourself.

5. What happens when the inspection turns up problems?

It usually does, especially in our older housing stock near campus and downtown. The inspection response is where a buyer's agent earns real money for you.

Good answer: a clear process: separate the safety and big-ticket items from the cosmetic ones, price the fixes with real contractors when needed, and negotiate repairs, credits, or price with evidence.

Keep looking: "we'll cross that bridge when we get there."

6. How do you help my offer win without overpaying?

When a well-priced home gets multiple offers, price is only one lever.

Good answer: terms. Deposit size, timeline flexibility matched to the seller's needs, smart but safe contingency choices, and a pre-approval letter that a listing agent takes seriously. Winning by being the cleanest offer, not just the highest number.

Keep looking: an agent whose only move is "offer more."

7. Can you work with my timeline and my distance?

If you are relocating for Purdue or a new job, your buying process looks different: video tours, remote paperwork, a closing date pinned to a start date.

Good answer: a described process for exactly this. On my team it is called Buy & Move Smart, and it exists because a large share of our buyers start from out of state. Our relocation guide shows the whole timeline.

Keep looking: an agent who treats remote buying as an inconvenience.

8. How do you get paid, and what will I sign?

The question most buyers skip, and the one that recent industry changes made essential. Written buyer agreements are now the norm before touring.

Good answer: a plain-English walkthrough of the agreement before you sign, what the agent is paid, who typically pays it, how long the agreement runs, and how you exit if the relationship is not working. For most of my buyers the answer to "what does this cost me out of pocket" is nothing, and I show exactly why on paper.

Keep looking: discomfort with the question. That discomfort is your answer.

9. Who else will I be working with?

Buying a home involves a lender, an inspector, a title company, sometimes contractors, and the agent's own teammates.

Good answer: named, local professionals they trust and why, plus clarity about who on the team answers when your agent is at a closing. On our team you get the whole bench: I lead, and specialists like Erica Bohl, who works with many of our first-time and remote buyers, make sure someone always picks up.

Keep looking: no bench at all, or a referral list that feels like a kickback network rather than a trust network.

10. What do your past clients say?

Ask for reviews, then actually read them. Look for specifics: communication, problem-solving mid-transaction, and whether people felt pressured.

Good answer: reviews you can read, and ideally a client or two willing to take your call. You can read what our clients say here.

Keep looking: an agent with no trail at all.

11. How many buyers are you working with right now?

You are not hiring a logo. You are hiring hours and attention.

Good answer: an honest number, plus how the team structure keeps your search moving when things get busy. Busy is fine. Vague is not.

Keep looking: "don't worry about that." You are allowed to worry about that.

12. Why do you do this work?

Soft question, revealing answer. Listen for whether the answer is about transactions or about people.

For me it is simple. I get to wake up every day and do work that means something to people, in the community I call home. First-time buyer, growing family, downsizing, relocating for Purdue: whatever the moment, I want to help you get where you are going.

Bring this list to the conversation

Print these twelve questions and ask them, of me or of anyone else. A first conversation is free, there is nothing to sign to have it, and there is no pressure either way. If we are the right fit, we will both know it by the end of the call.

Book a buyer consultation with Erin, or keep reading our buying articles first. Either way, let's get you home.