What Experience Should Your Real Estate Agent Have?

The typical REALTOR® has 13 years in the business, up from 12 a year earlier. (NAR 2026 Member Profile) That sounds reassuring until you look at the spread: 15% of members have two years or less of experience, and 23% have 26 years or more. (NAR 2026 Member Profile) The agent in front of you could be anywhere on that range, and years alone will not tell you what you need to know. The research on agent experience points to a more specific answer: recent, local, relevant, and with time for you.

Years are not the same as transactions

The NAR profile breaks its membership down by experience, and the gap between tenure groups is wide:

Source: NAR 2026 Member Profile. Sides are individual residential transactions, not team totals.

Two things stand out. The median agent with two years or less closed two transactions in a year, and 68% of that group had no repeat clients at all. (NAR 2026 Member Profile) But past about six years, the median transaction count stops rising. An agent with 20 years and ten closings a year, and an agent with eight years and ten closings a year, have roughly the same recent reps. What separates them is what those closings were and where.

What the research says experience is worth

A study in the Journal of Housing Research compared agents licensed two years or less (“rookie”) with those licensed ten years or more (“veteran”). Properties listed by veteran agents sold “32% faster,” and “while the inexperienced agent does not significantly influence the probability of a sale, the more experienced agent does significantly increase the probability of a successful transaction.” (Waller and Jubran, Journal of Housing Research, 2012) The same study reported a price advantage for veteran listings as well.

But volume is not the same as skill, either. A later study in the same journal found that the busiest listing agents moved homes faster at a cost: “listing agents in the most active quintile are associated with an 8% lower transaction price and 14 fewer days on market.” (Beck, Scott and Yelowitz, Journal of Housing Research, 2022) An agent carrying too many listings has an incentive to close them quickly. For buyer-side agents, activity level shortened the search but showed “no statistically significant differences in transaction price.” (Beck, Scott and Yelowitz)

And the variation between individual agents dwarfs the averages. Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta researchers found “selling prices varied widely among real estate agents, with a large proportion of them producing undesirable results,” and that a seller “would have to hire an agent in the top 79th to 90th percentile to obtain a selling price high enough to justify the commission.” (UF Warrington on Cunningham, Gerardi and Shen)

The takeaway is not “hire the oldest license.” It is “hire the agent whose recent results in your situation are good, and who has room on their plate for you.”

What Mississippi requires, and what it does not

A Mississippi salesperson license requires 60 hours of coursework and an exam. (Miss. Code § 73-35-7) A broker’s license requires that the applicant “shall have held a license as an active real estate salesperson for twelve (12) months,” complete “a minimum of one hundred twenty (120) hours of courses in real estate,” and pass the broker’s exam. (Miss. Code § 73-35-7) Licenses are granted only to those who prove “they are trustworthy and competent to transact the business of a real estate broker or real estate salesperson in such manner as to safeguard the interests of the public.” (Miss. Code § 73-35-7)

Nothing in the statute requires a licensee to have ever closed a sale. Experience is something you verify yourself.

The four kinds of experience that matter

1. Recent volume in your county and price range

Ask for the number of closings in the last 12 months, then ask how many were in your county and within 25% of your price. Buyers who chose their agent in 2026 cited “local expertise: deep-seated reputation or presence in community” (38%) and “specialized skills: specific experience with my price point or property type” (33%) as their top reasons. (Zillow Consumer Housing Trends Report 2026, Buyers) A strong agent in Madison County’s $600,000 market is not automatically a strong agent for a $180,000 first home in Hinds County, and vice versa.

2. Your kind of transaction

First-time buyers using FHA or VA financing, new construction, relocation, estate sales, divorce sales, investment property, rural land with wells and septic: each has its own paperwork, lenders, inspection issues, and failure points. Ask the agent to describe the last one of yours they closed, start to finish. The answer should include a problem and how it was solved.

3. Negotiation and recovery

Ask: “Tell me about a deal in the last year that nearly fell apart, and what you did.” Experienced agents have a ready answer, because every year produces one. The 2025 NAR profile found buyers wanted help negotiating terms (13%) and price (12%) second only to finding the right home (NAR 2025 Profile, Exhibit 4-4), and sellers in 2026 ranked “led contract negotiations” as their second most valuable agent service. (Zillow 2026, Sellers)

4. The broker behind the agent

Every Mississippi salesperson works under a principal broker who is responsible for their conduct and their agreements. (MREC Rule 3.2(C)) A newer agent with an engaged broker who reviews every contract can serve you well. A newer agent whose broker is a name on a wall cannot. Ask who the broker is and how often they are involved.

How to verify all of it in 15 minutes

1. Look up the license. The Mississippi Real Estate Commission’s public search shows license type, status, the supervising broker, and the original issue date. (MREC Find Licensee) Check the disciplinary page separately. (MREC Disciplinary Actions)
2. Ask for a list of the last 12 months’ closings with addresses. Any agent can print this from the MLS. Addresses let you see the counties and price points yourself.
3. Call the three most recent clients, not three the agent selected. Ask what went wrong and how the agent handled it.
4. Ask the “nearly fell apart” question and listen for specifics.

When a newer agent is the right call

Everyone starts at zero. A newer agent often has more time, returns calls faster, and may be hungrier for your referral. The 2026 profile shows agents with two years or less working a median 30 hours a week with a median of two closings, which means a lot of available attention. (NAR 2026 Member Profile) The conditions: an engaged broker, honesty about their experience, and a transaction that is not unusual. If yours is a straightforward resale and the broker is reviewing the file, a second-year agent with a good mentor can be an excellent choice.

My experience, so you can check it

I was licensed as a salesperson in 2020 and earned my broker’s license in April 2024. I have closed 387 transactions, 63 of them in the past twelve months, concentrated in Rankin, Madison, and Hinds counties and on the Gulf Coast. I am the principal broker at HomesRX, so the person reviewing the contract is the person who wrote it. The National Association of Real Estate Brokers ranked me first in Mississippi and ninth nationally on its 2026 Top 100 list. All of that is verifiable: the license on the MREC site, the closings in the MLS, and the clients by phone. I will give you the three most recent.

Frequently asked questions