Not really.... It is easy to tell a newbie right off the bat.

I do not. Too busy to worry of care about it, unless some 'red flags' pop up.

Of course not. I've better things to do.

When they called to schedule the showing, they invariably place on display EVERYTHING I need to know. Even you can spot in seconds the BS artist, the clueless newbie and the market mover just by the way they place and conduct the call.

Now if you delegate the phone answering tasks to others, you may have to spend time digging up meaningless stuff.

The only thing I check is if they are licensed but only if I don't know them. 

I do not check them out. 

Personally too much is made of the numbers; if they were capable of getting a home to a closing what differece does it make.

 Good Friday morning Vick. I don't see why it would matter if they were one-hit wonder or if they've done a zillion deals.

I don't care if it's their first deal.  None of my business,

Vick Pacheco ~ Luxury Homes & Lifestyles I always want to check the agent on other side - without any bias, though, just preparing myself on what to expect so that the deal goes through smoothly.

What difference does it make?  They landed this one, so I would work with them to make it happen...the key here is the transaction not who's who in the kazoo?

No, i don't care if they are new or 20 year agents, as long as the contract they submitted was solid, and seller accepted it. And same if I submit a contract to new or long term agent.

No, I do not check out the flip side agent. The only search I do is with the MLS to have their contact numbers and email address handy when writing up a deal. 

Always be recruiting if you're a broker

Vick Pacheco ~ Luxury Homes & Lifestyles No I don't. The only thing I check is that they are actively licensed.

yes I do - because I want to know what I am dealing with 

Absolutely especially with short sales....the agents who claim "that's not how  they do it" have never done it.

Generally not, but sometimes people leave clues.

No I just judge them by their actions.

I always ask my team members who the cooperating agent is.... I usually know from the answer if it will be a smoothly run deal or if we need to take extra, extra caution....

IN conversation with an agent if I feel uneasy I will check them out

oh of course. see who your dealing with. its part of the game.. we love the game :)

I do when I have questions about why they cannot fill out a contract correctly or seemingly are not sure of what they are doing because it is helpful to know if they are inexperienced or just incompetent. 

Vick - I have started checking some other agents out, but only after they got on my bad side for one reason or another. The first thing that comes to my mind is, how are they doing any business at all with that kind of attitude.

If I have a good working relationship with an agent and things are going smoothly, I really don't care if this is their first sale, or if they are the best selling agent in the country. I am only impressed with their communication, willingness to cooperate to get a deal done, and knowledge of what to do, not how many previous deals someone has.

No.  However, when an acquaintance began bragging about her broker friend who has a top agent in "x" area, blah blah blah, one too many times, I checked her broker friend's activity.  Next time she began spouting off, I quickly put her in her place; noting that she had sold one home in the past year <$300,000, so I was saddened to hear that that type of activity made her a top broker in that area. Zipped her lip.

If I don't know them --- I may check the Bureau of Real Estate to verify their license.