How to Pick a Real Estate Agent

Selling or buying a home is an important decision. Choosing the right real estate agent can make all the difference. But it can be tough to pick the right Realtor for you.

Online reviews can be misleading. Personal recommendations are often given based on friendships or family relations, not on successful track records. Even when a unbiased recommendation is given, it typically only represents one successful transaction and doesn’t give a full picture of a Realtor’s track record.

Here we give advice on which real estate agent review websites are better than others and show the consumer how to check a real estate agent’s license for validity and past complaints. We also try to give a few different ways to check a real estate agent’s sales record.

If you’re thinking of selling your home in the next twelve months, Stephen would love to tour your home. Call today to set an appointment.

Stephen FitzMaurice, Realtor
4% Max. to Sell a Home
Cancel Anytime Policy
Licensed Since 2003
503-714-1111

If you’re considering buying a home in the next twelve months, Kami Price, buyers specialist would love to hear what you’re looking for. Call today to set an appointment.

Kami Price, Realtor
Represented Hundreds of Buyers
Licensed since 2004
503-773-0000

Number 1 Listing Agent in Portland Oregon

January 20, 2017

Currently there are over 10,000 real estate agents in our local MLS, and about 6900 in the greater Portland Metro area. Out of those 6900 who is the number one listing agent in the Portland metro? We are going to answer that question using the total number of homes sold (listings only) in 2016 and the total sales volume for homes sold (listings only) in 2016 in the tri-county area (Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas county combined). These numbers come direct from our local MLS, the RMLS. Certainly there are other ways to determine which agent is better than the next, and I recommend interviewing multiple agents to pick the best one to sell your Portland home. Here is the number...

Portland Real Estate Agent Reviews – A Guide

December 9, 2016

Do a Google search for real estate agent reviews and you’ll get plenty of options. But which sites should you trust? Are any of the reviews verified? The three major sources of real estate agents reviews you may want to consider. Zillow.com, Realtor.com, and Yelp.com all have ways to search for agents and their reviews. Here are the direct links, Zillow.com has “Agent Finder”, Realtor.com has “Find Realtors” and Yelp just has its basic search bar. Zillow is by far the best place to look, Realtor second, and Yelp is the least important (I will explain). Pro tip: There are a number of other sites to ignore. Most of the other sites that pop up when you’re researching for good...

Ten Signs You Hired the Wrong Buyers Agent

November 9, 2016

The Portland real estate market is tough! Your buyer’s agent has the power to make – or break – the deal when you’re buying a home. Loan officers can stall it, sellers can change their mind, but the buyer’s agent is the one who is there with you from start to finish, and their ability to perform is a crucial ingredient in getting you into the home of your dreams. Ten signs you hired the wrong buyer’s agent: 1. They don’t know how to negotiate well on your behalf. Multiple offer situations are the norm in Portland, particularly in the spring and summer months. I’ve heard of buyers losing out on deals 12, even 20 times! Sure, there is lots...

Portland Buyer’s Team versus Buyer’s Agent – Which is Better?

June 22, 2015

Looking to find that next Portland home? There are thousands of real estate agents to choose from. Out of those thousands, you’ll find a few individual agents that specialize in helping buyers and even a few teams that specialize in helping buyers. Why choose a team over an individual? In Portland the market is hot and home buying is tough business. Some local news outlets are calling it a “home buying war”. The Portland home buyer is faced with countless multiple offer situations (depending on the neighborhood they want) and at a minimum, low inventory and a seller’s market. In this fast moving real estate market that favors the seller, the buyer needs a few things. First, they need quick...

Four Tips for More Accurate Real Estate Agent Reviews

February 6, 2015

Real estate agent reviews can be incredibly helpful. Not only do they give the details you’re not going to find in an agent’s own marketing material, they give concrete information that you can use to compare and contrast agents. While it’s easy to find volumes of reviews for established agents, it’s not always easy to find helpful ones. A little online-review psychology: Most people are inclined to write them only if they’ve had a strongly positive or strongly negative experience, which widely skews the available information. Also, reviewers tend to be generic. It’s good to hear the glowing adjectives, but to learn what a client’s experience was actually like, you sometimes have to sift through pages and pages of reviews....

Five Questions to Ask a Portland Listing Agent – Before Signing

January 17, 2015

Putting your home on the market is a big decision, one that reverberates through your life and relationships. When the time comes to sell, however, the most important thing is the kind of relationship you have with your Portland real estate agent. After all, they’re earning their commission on your home, and you’re passing along your most valuable – and complicated – asset. Communication is essential! Get started early, make a list of desirable traits you want your real estate agent to have, and let him or her know what your expectations are as well. Most importantly, get the answers to the following questions: 1. Is he or she a REALTOR®? The title of REALTOR® is reserved for members of...

The Best Websites for Real Estate Agent Reviews

December 22, 2014

One of the best things about the Internet is the way that it allows consumers to provide feedback on the products and services they buy. Had a good experience? Your review will be glowing and drive business to that product or professional. Dissatisfied? Your review will not only prevent the next person from making the same mistake, it’ll give the company responsible a chance to make improvements. At least, that’s how it should work. Unfortunately, at least when it comes to real estate agent reviews, that’s not always the case – as a recent article in Inman News points out. Many websites host reviews, but they’re not always sorted in a way that’s useful or relevant. The reviewers themselves probably...

Real Estate Agent Review Sites – Top List

August 14, 2014

There are a number of places you can search for real estate agent and Realtor reviews. Below is a top list of places to check: Zillow.com. This is the number one real estate website in terms of online traffic and so a lot of real estate agents post their reviews on there. What is unusual about Zillow’s list of agent reviews is that the first page is randomly generated. So you can’t filter the search results by “most reviewed” or “highest rated” agents. You can search their real estate agent directory by most listings and by the most sales. However, the most sales category is deceiving, because there are some agents, for instance, in Eugene, OR, posting all their sales...

Should I trust Portland Real Estate Agent Reviews?

December 17, 2013

Can you trust Portland real estate agent reviews? I’ve made it a policy to get real estate agent reviews from my clients. I want to know if I provided the highest level of customer service – or not. I’ve collected over 100 positive Portland real estate agent reviews, see them here, and an award called Five Star Professional, which surveys thousands of home owners and home buyers in order to give out customer service awards in real estate. I feel good about the great reviews I’ve received over the years. When people visit my website or other websites where my reviews are located often they are impressed. However, I know some have had serious doubts when seeing online Portland real...

What Sellers Look for in a Portland Listing Agent

December 4, 2012

Selling a house is no small endeavor. And, as one might expect, it’s not something most of us would want to leave to someone we don’t trust. This is one of the main reasons we ask for referrals from our friends, family, neighbors and coworkers when selling a house. Did you know that getting a referral is the number one method used to find a Real Estate Agent? Well it is. According to the National Association of REALTORS® Yearly Publication, fully thirty-nine percent of people selling a house in 2011 found their listing agent by getting a referral from a friend, neighbor or relative. Involving a trusted friend’s referral can bring peace of mind and perhaps promotes more honesty, but...