What Should You Expect From Your First Meeting With a Realtor?

By the time most buyers sit down with an agent, they have already been looking. Forty-three percent of 2025 buyers started by searching online, and the median buyer spent two weeks searching before contacting an agent at all. (NAR 2025 Generational Trends Report, Exhibits 3-1 and 3-3) In Zillow’s 2026 survey, the typical buyer contacted an agent twice before hiring them. (Zillow Consumer Housing Trends Report 2026, Buyers) So the first meeting is rarely the first contact. It is the first time you are both in a room, and in Mississippi it comes with a specific legal script. Here is what should happen, in order, and what should not.

A note on the word in the title: I am a REALTIST®, a member of the National Association of Real Estate Brokers, rather than a REALTOR®. What follows applies to a first meeting with any licensed agent in Mississippi, whatever association they belong to, because most of it is set by state law rather than by a trade group.

The meeting at a glance

The first five minutes: the disclosure form

In Mississippi the meeting opens with paperwork, and that is a good sign, not a sales tactic. The “Working With a Real Estate Broker” form “MUST be completed at the FIRST meeting a real estate licensee has with a prospective client.” (MREC instructions) It explains who the agent can represent and what each relationship means. A buyer’s agent or seller’s agent owes their client “the fiduciary duties of loyalty, confidentiality, obedience, disclosure, full accounting, and the duty to use skill, care, and diligence,” and owes the other party “a duty of honesty and fair dealing.” (MREC form) The form also says what an agent is not: “They can explain your options to you, but the final decision is yours, as they cannot give you legal or financial advice.” (MREC form)

Signing this form does not hire the agent. It confirms you received the explanation. An agent who skips it has skipped a legal step before the conversation started.

What the agent will ask you

A good first meeting is mostly the agent listening. Expect these questions.

If you are buying: When do you want to be moved? Have you talked to a lender? Zillow found 47% of 2026 buyers got pre-approved within their first three homebuying activities, and 94% of mortgage buyers were pre-approved before closing (Zillow 2026, Buyers), so if you have not started, the agent will suggest it. What are your must-haves and deal-breakers? Half of buyers say what they most want from an agent is “help find the right home” (NAR 2025 Generational Trends Report, Exhibit 4-2), and the agent cannot do that without a clear brief. And: are you already under an agreement with another agent? They are required to ask. (NAR 2026 Code of Ethics, Standard of Practice 16-9)

If you are selling: Why are you moving and by when? What do you owe on the house? What has been repaired or replaced, and what has not? What price do you have in mind, and where did it come from? The last one matters because the single service sellers value most is “helped me price my home and/or understand my local market.” (Zillow Consumer Housing Trends Report 2026, Sellers)

How much to share: everything, if this is the agent you are hiring. Post #9 in this series explains why your own agent needs your real numbers and the other side’s agent needs none of them.

What you should ask

Keep it to five if time is short. Post #6 in this series has the full list; these are the ones that reveal the most in a first meeting:

1. How many homes did you close in the last 12 months, and how many near here?
2. What is your fee, and what does it include?
3. How long is your agreement, and how do I cancel it?
4. How will we communicate and how often?
5. Do you have any financial interest in a lender, title company, or inspector you recommend?

The fifth question has a federal law behind it. Settlement-service referrals cannot be bought or sold, and affiliated businesses must be disclosed in writing. (CFPB, 12 CFR § 1024.14)

What you should leave with

Buyers: a copy of the written buyer agreement to read at home. Since August 17, 2024, agents who use an MLS must have a written agreement with you before you tour a home together, and that agreement must state the fee as a specific number or rate and include “a conspicuous statement that broker fees and commissions are fully negotiable and not set by law.” (NAR, What the Settlement Means) But the meeting itself does not require one. “If you are simply visiting an open house on your own or asking a real estate professional about their services, you do not need to sign a written buyer agreement.” (NAR Consumer Guide to Open Houses and Written Agreements) The agreement is due “after you begin ‘working with’ an agent and at any point before you tour your first house together.” (NAR)

Sellers: three documents. A comparative market analysis showing the actual sold properties behind the recommended price. A net sheet estimating what you would walk away with at that price after the fee, payoff, and closing costs. And a draft listing agreement, which in Mississippi must be in writing and include “the sales price, the considerations to be paid, the signatures of all parties to the agreement, and a definite date of expiration.” (MREC Rule 3.2(B)) If an agent quotes a price without the comparable sales, ask for them.

What should not happen

• Pressure to sign today. “You don’t have to sign an agreement that you don’t agree with, and you or the agent can walk away from a negotiation at any time.” (NAR Consumer Guide to Negotiating Written Buyer Agreements)
• A request for money. A first meeting costs nothing. Retainers exist but are unusual and must be spelled out in the agreement. (NAR, Written Buyer Agreements 101)
• One lender, one inspector, no alternatives. A recommendation is a service; insistence is a flag.
• A listing price higher than anyone else’s, with no data. Mississippi’s license law lists “making any false promises of a character likely to influence, persuade or induce” as grounds for discipline. (Miss. Code § 73-35-21)

Frequently asked questions