Real Estate Agent Reviews Guide 2023
Finding the best real estate agent for your needs can be a challenge when there are so many to choose from! Whether you want to sell your home or buy a home, there’s no doubt that you have to sort through a lot of information to get the most expert help possible. Of course, there are plenty of sites that provide agent reviews, but how do you know which ones to trust? Is anyone moderating them, or can just anyone post a positive or negative review whether they’ve worked with an agent or not? And did you know that searching for Realtor reviews can sometimes cost you money?
Keep reading to learn more about which sites provide the best real estate agent reviews and which ones to steer away from.
HomeOpenly
On HomeOpenly.com, you can compare real estate agents and commission rates. The best part? It’s absolutely free. It doesn’t charge you or any of the real estate agents on the platform (unlike many of the other sites listed below).
ThreeBestRated
ThreeBestRated is an independent third party and a great resource for finding the top real estate agents in your area. And while it isn’t solely dedicated to real estate agent searches, you can get an at-a-glance view of the top three agents in your area. This site uses a 50-point inspection method to identify them, with a focus on a variety of specific items. You’ll find us there.
Realtor.com
Realtor.com’s Find Realtor Feature allows you to sort all Realtors in an area based on the highest number of sales. However, the default setting shows you the Realtor that completed the most recent sale in the area—even when it’s their very first and only sale ever. To get more accurate results, you have to use a different filter to get any real value from the Realtor.com agent search feature.
Oregon Association of Realtors License Lookup
Realtors are licensed by the State. If you’re looking for a real estate agent, you can check the status of their license with the state you’re in and read about any filed consumer complaints. Follow these links for for license status of real estate agents in Oregon and Washington. This is massively important! While many consumers will check one or more of these third party sites when picking their next Realtor, they often neglect to check the official licensing source and method of industry accountability.
Zillow’s Agent Finder
Once up on a time, Zillow Agent Finder ranked agents based on number of sales in a given area. This gave potential sellers and buyers a fantastic way to verify an agent’s degree of experience so they could make well-informed decisions. They also restricted how many people could be on a single agent profile. The best agents in a specific area could have their own profile and would show up at the top of the list based on real-world sales experience.
And then that changed.
Now, Zillow allows hundreds of agents on a single profile and ranks them by total number of reviews for all agents combined. This translates to larger realty companies with hundreds of agents—most of which could be new to the business—to rise to the top of the list for the best visibility. But most consumers aren’t going to hire a hundred agents to sell their house, nor does the Realty company work that way. Consumers pick typically pick individual agents or small teams to work with.
The problem with the new Zillow ranking method is that it misrepresents the data for the user, who now has to sort through large company profiles to find agents with true successful sales records. And there’s no way of knowing if the reviews are authentic or if they’ve been posted by family and friends of agents who are just starting out and trying to move themselves up on the reviews list. In fact, there are plenty of agent profiles with more reviews than sales.
Google and Yelp Real Estate Agent Reviews
Keep in mind that the majority of these agent reviews are not monitored, so you have no way of knowing they’re from an actual client who has worked with the agent, or a family member, friend, co-worker, or an adversary.
Warning—These Sites Will Cost You Money
Homelight.com
While you can find a top Portland Realtor list on Homelight.com, don’t enter your information. Once you do this, any Realtor you communicate with from their platform will owe Homelight a huge percentage of their commission. In the long run, this could affect the level of service the Realtor is able to provide you. Best to contact them directly. Homelight does, however, provide some helpful numbers on agent performance.
UpNest
Upnest promises to provide you with 3-5 commission quotes from top agents within 24 hours of entering your personal information. While the platform does compare local agents in your area, like Homelight, Upnest will also take a huge percentage of a Realtor’s commission if you sign up and make contact with their recommended agents.
FastExpert, Ramsey Solutions, MyAgentFinder
These sites are a lot like Upnest above, except their matching or comparison systems aren’t as streamlined. Ramsey Solutions claims to have a vetting process (not effective based on our experience, while FastExpert and MyAgentFinder don’t have any clear criteria for selecting real estate agents.
We Appreciate the Hundreds of Positive Reviews From our Clients
Take a look at our 500+ verified positive client reviews or see a few hundred on Zillow. Then get in touch with our top 1% seller’s team or our top 1% buyer’s team. We have almost 20 years of experience in the Portland metro area and would love to help you with all you real estate needs!
