What we required of the agent we sent you
If we introduce you to a real estate agent, this is what that agent had to do before we would send them anybody. We publish it so you can check it rather than take our word for it — and so that an agent who has not done these things cannot claim they have.
The four things, before a single introduction
What we do after you are introduced
The bar to get in matters less than what happens next, and this is the part almost nobody does.
- We email you at seven days and ask two questions: did they get in touch, and how did it go. We ask you, not them. An agent who did not call will say they did.
- We ask again at six months — how did it go with the house.
- We search the county deed records at 90, 180 and 365 days. A transfer of title is a public record, so we do not need anybody’s cooperation to know what happened.
- We tell agents all of this before they join. An audit somebody knows about works better than one they do not, and we would much rather have agents who return calls than agents we have caught.
A written warning first. Then ninety days during which they stay listed and receive nobody. Then removal from the panel.
One thing skips all three: a closing we find in the public records that they did not report. That ends it the same day.
If we remove an agent while you are mid-sale, you keep them — pulling your agent in month two of a listing would harm you rather than them. The exception is anything to do with your safety, where we will call you.
What none of this means
What we can honestly tell you
- Their license was active and clear on the date we checked it.
- They have closed at least six sales in two years.
- They are well reviewed by the people who have used them.
- They have been told, in writing, what an automatic order is.
- They did not pay to be on our list, and they cannot. Certification is open to any licensed agent who passes; a place on the small panel we actually refer to is separate, scarce, and filled by the order in which people certified. A panel starts at two and gains a place for every six genuine inquiries a year, never exceeding five. Some agents license our mark for their own marketing, annually — that buys a graphic and buys no preference here of any kind.
What we cannot
- That they will be good for you. We checked a license, counted six sales, read a rating and asked twenty questions. None of that is the same as being right for your situation.
- That they are the best agent in your area. We have no way of knowing that and neither does anybody who claims it.
- That you should use them. Meet them, and if they are not right, tell us and we will find somebody else. That costs you nothing and it costs us nothing.
Why we do not publish a list of the agents
You will notice there is no page here listing the agents by name, and that is deliberate rather than an oversight. The honest reason is that we are paid on the introduction.
If we published the panel, you would find the name and call them directly, and there would be no referral fee and therefore no reason for any of the rest of this to exist. We would rather say that plainly than dress it up as a privacy measure.
An introduction is not a commitment. You are given a name, you meet them, and if they are not right you say so and we find somebody else. Nobody is charged for that and nobody should feel awkward about it.
The professional directory works the opposite way, for the same reason. Every attorney, mediator, financial analyst and therapist on this site is listed publicly and free, with their name and their contact details, whether they have heard of us or not — because we are paid nothing when you call them. Where we have an interest, we hold the name. Where we have none, we publish everything.
And the part where we are paid
If you are introduced to another agent — anywhere outside Fairfield County, Connecticut and Palm Beach County, Florida — and that sale completes, their brokerage pays a referral fee — currently 30% of the commission on your side — and our founder receives a share of it. It comes out of their commission and is never added to what you pay.
So we earn something when a house sells and nothing when it does not, which means the advice to wait, or not to sell at all, costs us money. We give it anyway, on the page that comes first, and that page has no form on it and asks you for nothing.
No agent has ever paid us to be listed, ranked or recommended, and none can. Everything about how we are paid is on one page.