How Does Hiring a Real Estate Agent Actually Work?

Most people hire a real estate agent the way they pick a dentist: a friend gives them a name, they make one call, and they sign whatever is put in front of them. In 2025, 74% of buyers and 80% of sellers interviewed exactly one agent before deciding. (Realtor.com, citing NAR’s 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers) That works out fine for many people, but it helps to know what is actually happening at each step, because the paperwork you sign in the first meeting determines who works for you and what you will pay. Here is the whole process, start to finish, as it works in Mississippi.

The short version

Step 1: Where people actually find agents

Referrals dominate. Forty-three percent of buyers used an agent found through a referral from a friend, neighbor, or relative, and 18% went back to an agent they had used before; 66% of sellers found their agent the same two ways. (Virginia REALTORS®, summarizing NAR’s 2025 Profile) Everything else, including agent websites, open houses, yard signs, and social media, accounts for single-digit shares each. (NAR 2025 Generational Trends Report, Exhibit 4-6)

A referral is a starting point, not a vetting process. The person who recommended the agent bought one house with them; you are about to bet a six-figure transaction on the same person. Spend ten minutes confirming the license is active on the Mississippi Real Estate Commission’s public lookup before you call. (MREC Find Licensee)

Step 2: The first meeting and the disclosure form

In Mississippi, the first meeting has a legal requirement attached. The Real Estate Commission’s “Working With a Real Estate Broker” form “MUST be completed at the FIRST meeting a real estate licensee has with a prospective client. It MUST be signed by all parties, MUST be in the licensee’s files for that client or property, and the customer or client MUST receive a copy IMMEDIATELY!” (MREC)

The form is not a contract; it says so in capital letters. Its job is to tell you whether the agent represents you, the other side, or both, because “Mississippi real estate licensees are required to disclose which party they represent in a transaction and to allow a party the right to choose or refuse among the various agency relationships.” (MREC Working With a Real Estate Broker form) If an agent starts asking about your budget or your reasons for selling before handing you this form, that is a procedural miss on their part, and a small warning sign.

Step 3: The agreement that actually hires them

Sellers sign a listing agreement. It sets the list price, the length of the listing, what marketing the agent will do, and the fee.

Buyers sign a buyer agency agreement. Since August 17, 2024, agents who use the MLS “are required to enter into a written agreement with buyers that outlines exactly what services will be provided and for how much,” and “these written agreements are required before any home tours, live or virtual, occur.” (NAR) Mississippi’s own rule is slightly looser, requiring the agreement before an offer is submitted, but MLS members follow the stricter standard. (MREC Final Rule Text, 2026)

Both agreements are negotiable in every respect: the fee, the term, whether you can cancel, and whether the representation is exclusive. NAR’s consumer guidance to buyers is direct: “Agent compensation is fully negotiable and can take many forms, such as a flat fee, a percentage of the purchase price, or an hourly fee.” (NAR Consumer Guide)

Step 4: The work

For buyers, the median search in 2025 lasted 10 weeks. (NAR 2025 Profile highlights) What buyers wanted most from their agent during that stretch was help “finding the right home to purchase (50 percent) and negotiating the terms of the sale (13 percent),” followed by “price negotiations (12 percent) and help with paperwork (seven percent).” (NAR 2025 Profile highlights)

For sellers, the priorities were “helping market the home to potential buyers, pricing the home competitively, and selling the home within a specific timeframe.” (NAR 2025 Profile highlights)

Step 5: Contract to closing

This is where the job gets heavy and invisible. NAR’s own checklist of agent tasks runs to 179 items, 86 of them in the listing-and-marketing phase alone and another 21 in “Processing for Closing,” from “Record and promptly deposit buyer’s earnest money in escrow account” to “Receive and carefully review closing figures to ensure accuracy of preparation.” (NAR, 179 Ways) In Mississippi, every one of those tasks is performed under a broker’s supervision; a salesperson cannot legally collect a fee from anyone other than their broker. (Miss. Code § 73-35-21(l))

Step 6: How the agent gets paid

Nobody is paid until closing, and the money runs through the brokerage, not the individual agent. Who pays is whatever the agreements say: a seller pays the listing broker per the listing agreement; a buyer pays the buyer’s broker per the buyer agreement, often by asking the seller to cover it as part of the offer. The agent “cannot receive compensation that exceeds the amount agreed to in the written buyer agreement.” (NAR) If the deal never closes, the agent is paid nothing for the weeks of work.

Does it work?

Mostly, yes. Ninety-two percent of 2025 buyers were satisfied with the buying process (NAR 2025 Profile highlights), and 88% said they would use their agent again or recommend them to others. (NAR 2025 Generational Trends Report) The weak point is the front end: three-quarters of people never compare. The next few posts in this series are about how to do that well.

Frequently asked questions