Choosing a realtor advice?

You can look at the houses that this realtor shows you and go on to see houses shown by other realtors. However if you like the first realtor and want them to be 'YOUR' realtor, you can let them know that you will be asking to be shown houses you happen to see for sale signs for or that you see on realtor.com or zillow.

Generally realtors try to sell the houses they have listed because their commission is higher. You want to be able to work with someone that will show you houses that meet your needs, not just what they have in inventory.

Have fun shopping for your new home.

If you are looking in a particular area or neighborhood, find someone who specializes in that area - in other words, if you are looking in Town A, a Realtor who mainly has homes in Town B isn't your best choice. (Yes, I realize that any Realtor can sell a home or may know any area, but my experience has been that when buying or selling, it's best to find someone who really focuses on an area, especially in a fast market)

Don't use family or friend. Just don't.

Also, my experience (so don't shoot me if it's not your experience) is that newer Realtors are usually doing open houses, often subbing for a more experienced Realtor when they have either multiple listings going on the same day or want to help a newer Realtor get clients. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but you may find they are less experienced if that is the case.

It used to be that you were almost 100% dependent on your Realtor to bring prospective listings to you but in this day and age, I think clients find homes and ask to see them. However, if it's a really hot market, look for a Realtor who reviews listings as soon as they arrive in their office so that they can get a jump on seeing the house. One of our homes sold because a Realtor saw it be faxed into the office and knew it was what her client wanted. She had them at our home within 2 HOURS of us signing the paperwork to list it. She was really taking care of her clients by staying on top of new listings.

Not sure if this is the same everywhere, but when we moved to CA I was working with a Zip Realty agent. I loved their website and wanted to do most of the legwork on my own. The one thing that she asked was to always let anyone at an open house know she represented me otherwise if we ended up buying something I saw first without her, she could be out her commission.

Make sure the realtor suits your personality and understands what you want in your house and is willing to put in the work to find it for you. When our realtor showed us our current (and only) home, we walked through, he looked at us and said "Well, if this isn't exactly what you're looking for, we haven't been communicating properly" He was right. It was the one. We had looked at more than a dozen homes over two or three weekends. This place was out of our preferred location, but not too far. We love the area, we love our home.

I think she means that if you're talking to a realtor at an open house and they offer to show you something else similar that realtor would get the commission instead of the one that had been working with you all along.   Open houses work differently.  They don't count as a regular showing.  

You don't have to sign an agreement to work with anyone.  It's fine to not do so and most realtors will do their best for you without one.  What the signed representation agreement gets you as a buyer is the realtor is held by law to keep whatever you tell them confidential.  Any bargaining positions you have, like how high you are willing to go, what your down is, how badly you want the house, etc.  they can't share with anyone.    Other than that, it's pretty similar on your side.  (There are a few protections for the agent, too, which is why most of them like to have clients sign one.)   If you decide not to sign a rep agreement with an agent, don't share anything you don't want sellers to know about you.  Your agent may still choose to keep things confidential, but they don't have to without that piece of paper.   (I'm just finishing my last week of real estate school and that piece of paper and what it means is drilled into our heads. )

If you want a good agent, go interview.  You don't have to choose one that's showing a house you like.  Ask your friends who they have used and who they like.   Word of mouth is how most agents get their business.   You could also call a loan officer or a title company escrow officer and ask them who they recommend.  They work with agents every day and they can tell you who the flakes are and who will follow through with you.   

ETA: don't worry about the professionals only recommending someone to get a kick back.  Those are illegal.  If they recommend someone it should be someone good.  I still suggest you interview a few before you choose.  

Interview and see whose personality matches yours.

Pick somebody who has done a lot of work in the area you wish to buy.

Choose a realtor and stick with them. Barring any bad experience, etc of course. Don't call multiple agents to each show you one house. When you don't choose ONE realtor to represent you, there isn't anybody looking out for YOUR best interest. You're going to get their left over effort after their committed clients.

Choose a full time agent. You wouldn't go to a part time professional for most other transactions (doctor, lawyer, etc). You'll be making one of the largest investments of your life so choose somebody who takes it seriously.

Also, when asking friends and family for recommendations, ask them how do they know that realtor. And meet that realtor before using them like go to one of their open houses. We met with a realtor that my parents knew from high school and had used in their dealings. We didn't like her. She talked to us like we were teenagers (I was in my early 30s). She said we were better off selling our house for $25K less than what we wanted. We went with someone else and got asking price.

Now I watch different agents to see whose houses are selling quickly and whose are sitting on the market for a long time. There are several houses in my neighborhood for sale, including the one just a couple doors down. I'm kinda watching to see how actively their agent is pushing the house.

My loan officer (who I had worked with in a previous job and had a good relationship with) recommended our realtor.  He had worked with him many times before and came highly recommended.

While working on your pre-approval I would start looking for and interviewing prospective agents. Let them know what you are working on and they may have some referrals for you as far as who to work with for pre-approvals (if, for example, you didn't want to go through your personal bank).

I will echo what many said and you'll know when you find someone you click with. We just bought and sold this year and we found our realtor from the house we wanted to buy. We had done some casual looking online as we were calling 2015 the year of getting ready for the big move. We hadn't started looking for a realtor or anything. Then we saw our house online and knew it was the one barring anything major. We contacted the listing agent and we immediately clicked with him as soon as we met him. He's been an amazing person to work with and someone we now consider a friend. He helped us navigate the home buying process (I never knew it would be so smooth) and worked with us to sell our existing house (there was drama but it wasn't his doing!) and we have referred several others to him. 

He also referred us to the lender we used to get our pre-approval. It was another thing when we met the loan officer that we instantly clicked. Don't rule out your realtors referrals to lenders as well.

Good luck!