Finding the right real estate agent to get started in hacking

[Jake Drappi]

Hello all!

I am new to real estate.  I have been listening to the podcast and reading about it for almost a year now, and I am now financially and mentally ready to start my journey.  I currently live in a townhome, about an hour from my current sales role (about 2 hours from some of my clients).  I want to get started by house hacking.  The plan is to buy a duplex closer to my territory, and rent out the other unit.  I may also rent out my current home instead of selling it.  I am looking to move to central or north NJ.  I am looking for the right real estate agent to help my find my next purchase: someone that knows real estate, the NJ market, what rents are looking like, how to leverage low down payments, etc.  I also have a 3-5 year plan of buying at least 5-7 more duplexes, while still maintaining my current role.  My question is: how do you go about finding the right agent to help you with this journey.  Obviously, with my goals, I have a lot of potential to offer this person, so I need to know I am picking the right person for the job.  Also, do you interview them in a way before you accept that they are the one that can help?  This week, I asked for more information on a listing, and now that agent thinks he is the person I am going to work with, but I never met them, and had less than a 10 minute conversation.  This is the biggest investment of my life and I feel like I should be making a more educated decision rather than just picking the first person whom happened to have a listing I was interested in.  If I do interview them, what questions should I be asking?  I look forward to hearing some feedback! 

Thanks in advance,

JD