Ask them to price your home in front of you
The single most revealing test: ask the agent to walk you through which comparable sales they would use and why. A Farmington agent working at street level will immediately separate the historic core, the east bench, and the west side — because a comp from the wrong pocket is not a comp. An agent reciting a ZIP-code price per square foot is telling you they will price you from a radius average.
Listen for adjustments: view corridor, lot grade, finish level, and which pending sales they are watching right now. You are not testing whether they flatter your home — you are testing whether their number has a paper trail.
Questions worth asking every candidate
Bring the same list to every interview so you can compare answers directly.
- Which sales would you use to price my home, and which would you exclude — why?
- What would you tell me NOT to fix before listing?
- How many homes have you sold in Farmington specifically, not just Davis County?
- Who will I actually work with after I sign — you, or a team member?
- What is your plan for the first seven days on the market?
- How do you handle a home that is not getting showings in week two?
Red flags that predict a hard listing
Some patterns reliably show up before a bad listing experience. None of them require inside knowledge to spot.
- A recommended list price noticeably above every other agent's, with no comp set to defend it — that is buying the listing, and the price cut follows.
- No written plan for prep, photography, and launch week.
- Vague answers about who handles showings and negotiation after the paperwork.
- Marketing talk that is all about the agent's brand and none about your home's specific buyer.
- Pressure to sign at the first appointment.
Verify the license and the record
Every Utah real estate license is public. You can look up any agent's license status and history through the Utah Division of Real Estate's license lookup in a couple of minutes — do it for anyone you interview, including the agent whose site you are reading now. Ask for their recent Farmington-area sales and check those addresses against the public MLS history.
A trustworthy agent welcomes this. Verification is not an insult; it is the same diligence a good agent will tell you to apply to every other part of the sale.
The honest bottom line
There is no objective "best" agent — there is the agent whose comparison set, preparation plan, and first-week strategy hold up when you question them. Interview two or three, ask the same questions, and pick the one whose answers came with evidence. If that process leads you to interview Dr. Haws, he will bring the comp set for your pocket and tell you what not to fix — the same test this article describes.