Portland Real Estate Agents

Curious about Realtors?
We write regular articles about average real estate agent commission rates, the number of real estate agents working in the Portland metro area, the difference between different types of local real estate licenses, where to find the best real estate agent reviews, best questions to ask when interviewing local agents, and much more. Enjoy!

Two Steps to Choosing the Absolute Best Real Estate Agent

December 13, 2021

Let’s say you want to buy or sell a home and you want advise, a local expert to help you sell for the highest price or buy a home in the right area at the right time. How do you pick a Realtor? Hopefully you’re looking at experience (years licensed and sales completed) as well as client satisfaction (reviews and recommendations). These are the two necessary steps to picking the absolute best real estate agent. You’ll need both to find the best available real estate agent. One or the other is not enough! You could find an agent with hundreds of great reviews only to find out they don’t represent actual sales or clients. Or you could find someone with...

Zillow Agent Finder Alternatives

December 10, 2021

So, you’ve decided it’s time to sell or buy a home. How do you find a reputable and experienced agent to help you? You could go with the agent attached to a property you like or the one showing it at an open house, but how much do you know about that person and their experience? In our 2022 Real Estate Agent Forecast, we reported that after the 1.4 million record high in 2021, the number of real estate agents is expected to grow to 1.55 million in 2022. Oregon has a total of 17,000, and over 8,000 of those are in the Portland metro area. With all these options it can be hard to know where to start. Buying...

How Much do Real Estate Agents Make? 2022 Report

December 3, 2021

Each year, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) releases a report detailing how much real estate agents make. Or in Oregon’s case, how much Realtors make. Not sure about the different between a real estate agent, Realtor, or Broker? Read our article, REALTOR, Agent, Broker – What’s the difference? The 2021 reported median gross income for Realtors was $43,330, a decrease from $49,700 reported in 2020. This decrease while not unusual, as we can see from the graph below, was likely due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. While there was surprisingly still a demand for homes during the pandemic, the market saw a notable slump in real estate inventory in 2021, the lowest in 40 years, according to...

EXP Realty Exceeds 65,000 Agents, Growing Daily

October 4, 2021

About EXP Realty EXP Realty is a cloud-based brokerage founded on the belief that agents and brokers do the heavy lifting in real estate and deserve the benefits of being shareholders and earning income based on the level of their contribution. The international company’s core values focus on community, agility, innovation, and integrity, along with service, sustainability, collaboration, and transparency. These, along with a focus on fun—not taking yourself too seriously—have, not surprisingly, drawn top selling and buying agents from around the world History of EXP Glenn Sanford founded EXP in 2009 as the first cloud-based brokerage. By 2012, Sanford became recognized as one of the Top 100 Most Influential in Real Estate. After becoming publicly traded in 2013, the...

How Many Real Estate Agents Are There? 2022 Update

September 3, 2021

We will have another record high number of real estate agents in the U.S. in 2022. Not all real estate agents are Realtors, but the vast majority are, as the vast majority of licensed Realty companies in the U.S. require all of their licensed real estate agents to also carry a National Association of Realtors membership, both a national and state (and sometimes additionally a Metro or County) Realtor membership. The National Association of Realtors requires its members to abide by a strict code of ethics to better serve and protect the public. Realtor is a membership title while the term real estate agent is for a state-issued license. Different states have different license terms for their licensed real estate...

5 Reasons Why Every Realtor Should Join eXp Realty in 2021

July 26, 2021

1. Online is the present and the future of real estate. Our clients are online. This is obvious. Homebuyers, for all intents and purposes, are exclusively shopping for homes online with the occasional open house stop along the way. Homeowners constantly check their home values online. More and more frequently homebuyers and homeowners are finding their next Realtor online too (whether it is through a social media platform or website). Realtors are online. Realtors primarily work from a smartphone and not an office. The NAR Member Profile Report 2021 says 96% of Realtors use a smartphone and 93% use text as the primary communication method with their clients. Only 25% of Realtors report any office expense whatsoever (exhibit 3-9). Home...

What Interview Questions to Ask a Realtor Before you Sell a Home?

May 21, 2021

About to interview a Realtor to sell your home? Whether you were recommended to this real estate agent by a friend or you found the Realtor online, the next best step is to interview the agent at your home. Yes, you could interview the Realtor online or on the phone, but we recommend the first step (as long as everyone is comfortable) is to schedule an appointment at the home you are considering selling. This will help you gauge the Realtor’s reaction to your property and help you know if the agent is a good fit for your home sale. 1. What are the Exact Terms of your Cancellation Policy? Okay, I know that sounds like a strange place to...

Learn How to Become a Licensed Real Estate Agent in Oregon – 2021 Update

May 10, 2021

Why should I read your guide to getting licensed? I run a top 250 real estate team in the U.S. according to Real Trends. Personally I got licensed in Oregon in 2003 as a Broker, then later upgraded to a Principal Broker’s licensed and have also obtained the highest level of license in Washington, Managing Broker. I’ve overseen more than a thousand local sales. In addition to all of that, it would be because I run this website which produces annual, local real estate market research reports on the topics you would want to know before becoming a licensed agent in Oregon, and follow after you are one. I have a genuine passion for the industry, my clients, my fellow...

Top 5 Sites to Help you Choose a Real Estate Agent in 2021

March 24, 2021

In many ways the internet is like the Wild Wild West. A land of opportunity, but one that’s so unregulated it’s hard to know which way is up. You can glean a ton from online reviews of real estate agents, but a lot can be misleading too. Fake reviews still run rampant in 2021, meaning you either have to sift through the slush pile and judge for yourself or find a trusted real estate agent review site. That’s why we’ve put together this guide, which will steer you towards the most reliable resources while providing some insider insight into how different review sites operate. Spoiler alert: a lot of them are dubious. But there are sources of information that can...

How to Pick a Brokerage: Splits, Leads, Training

February 22, 2021

I’ve been licensed nationally since 2003 for residential sales, and in the last eighteen years or so have hung my hat at a few different Brokerages. Choosing the right Brokerage or Realty company to work with has always had a significant impact on my personal business and on the business of the team I run in Oregon and Washington. I could easily rank each Brokerage by a multitude of factors including Realty splits, leads, fees, training, oversight, office space, technology, and more. I could tell you which Brokerages are best for individual real estate agents, real estate teams, new agents or experienced veterans in the industry. It would be impossible to put everything I’ve learned in one article, but let’s...

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Stephen FitzMaurice

Team at eXp Realty