How to tell who is the best realtor/brokerage

[Agustin Figer]

I have a friend selling his home in the las vegas NV / Henderson NV area who is looking for THE BEST realtor/brokerage to help him sell his home. Is there a way, other then yelp, to find out who is the best? Is there a realtor rating system or site? Thanks for any help.

Agustin Figer

[Cooper Bert]

Lots of good information already. Here's a few factors to consider:

You're looking for a good agent primarily, don't be too concerned about the brokerage. I know plenty of great agents that work in crappy brokerages for various reasons. Note - a crappy brokerage is not a shady brokerage which must be avoided at all costs.

I only use full-time, experienced agents. Yes, it's biased but I'm allowed that as a consumer. The full-time guys who "eat what they kill" and are available during the biz day and off hours are indispensable in my view.

The agent must "fit" the property. Considerations are price point and neighborhood. The agent should have a track record with both. The "Best" agent can't help you if he sells kabillion dollar homes on the other side of town and doesn't know bupkis about your neighborhood. ("bupkis" is a technical RE term meaning "A real estate professional that doesn't know the MLS metrics, analytical analysis or micro-market metrics in a specific trade area")

Reputation is paramount for this type of "once and done" transaction if there is no previous personal relationship. You'll have to rely on someone else's judgement of their personal relationship with the agent.

Here's how I'd go about finding agents with the above criteria:

1. Create talking points from the above. "I need an experienced, full-time agent who typically deals with homes in the $???,??? range in the XYZ area."
2. Talk to anyone you know that might deal with RE transactions: Lawyers, Accountants and Bankers are the best.
3. I wouldn't solicit the opinion of previous single transaction residential homeowners. Their review of their agent is typically very binary (great or horrible) and much of their review of the agent is really a review of the process and their perception of a full-value property sale or not.
4. Once I identify the professionals that have some connection with RE, I ask them a simple question: "I need an experienced, full-time agent who typically deals with homes in the $???,??? range in the XYZ area. Do you know of anyone like that?" Note that I didn't ask for a reference or recommendation .... yet. That allows the respondent to be unencumbered from responsibility for their suggestion. We humans tend to remember the best & worst first so the first suggestion if probably the best.
5. After you ask the question, shut-up. Let the references come forth (those of you with sales training will understand this concept).
6. Allow the questionee time to provide multiple references as they peruse the recesses of their memory. Your silence will give them the incentive to continue. The more names the better.
7. Continue to restrain your urge to talk (see a trend here?). Let the questionee pontificate about the reference(s) as long as possible, you may be surprised what they say. Many times, they will actually rule out references as they continue to remember the circumstances where they dealt with the reference. Don't be surprised if the questionee goes full circle and comes back to say their first reference would be the best one.
8. I just put #8 in as an intermission. I didn't realize this post would be so long.
9. After the blathering of multiple references, relationship circumstances and business parables has stopped, ask your questionee another simple question: "If you were me, which would you use?" Again, shut-up. (life hack note - you can use this question for just about anything in life)
10. Now that the interrogating, er, questioning is done, you should have a potential list of epic proportions ... possibly two or three good candidates.
11. I would only use social media & review sites to vette candidates. I totally disregard the glowing social reviews and only look for negative reviews of substance. This has been discussed at length in previous posts so I won't go into detail on my opinions and use of SM.
12. The result of a true vetting is that you are looking for anything unsavory, unethical and/or deceptive so you can rule out a candidate. If you have an otherwise great candidate but you find something unsavory, especially on SM, ASK him/her about it.  Don't just rule out an otherwise great candidate just because some random internet trigger-troll decided to Yelp-bomb an innocent RE agent because their grammy's house didn't sell due to the massive dog poo stains on their carpet & ceiling. 
13. This brings us to the point where you have a vetted agent that fits the sale, which was your initial question. I'll leave the further RE agent interview, seller's agent contract, pre-listing DD, listing contract responsibilities, showing responsibilities, negotiation parameters, pre-closing duties, closing performance and communication for a future post.

I hope this helps your friend. Main point is that I wouldn't rely on a review/site/ranking or anything on SM to rate a RE agent that makes a living based on personal relationships (a.k.a. reality).