Client Reviews

How to choose a REALTOR®, and what reviews can and cannot tell you

Reviews are useful, and they are also the easiest thing on any agent's website to take at face value. Read them for patterns rather than adjectives. If several people independently describe the same behaviour, responsiveness, honesty about price, how a problem was handled, that is signal. A collection of short five star ratings with no detail is not.

Here is what I would actually compare if I were hiring someone for this, including where the honest answer is that you should check more than one agent.

Local knowledge

Not whether they can name neighbourhoods, but whether they can tell you why two streets a block apart sell differently, what the zoning allows, which basements flood, and what the school and transit picture really is. Ask a specific question about the area you are targeting and see whether the answer is detailed or general.

Communication

How quickly they respond, whether you deal with them or with a junior, and whether they tell you things you did not want to hear. The most common complaint about agents is silence, and the second most common is being told only good news.

Pricing honesty

A seller should be wary of the agent who quotes the highest number. Ask for the comparables and the adjustments behind any price opinion. An agent who can explain how they got there is more useful than one who simply offers a bigger figure to win the listing.

Negotiation and process

Ask how they handle multiple offers, whether they recommend open bidding or a closed process and why, and what they do when an inspection turns up a problem. The answers reveal experience quickly.

Marketing

Photography quality, listing copy, floor plans, how listings reach buyers beyond the MLS® system, and whether the agent has a real buyer database rather than a claim about one. Look at their current and past listings, not their brochure.

Investment and rental experience

If you are buying a rental, a duplex, or a tenanted property, ask specifically about that. It involves financing, legal second unit rules, the Residential Tenancies Act and different math, and not every residential agent works with it regularly.

Technology and systems

Whether you get a personalized property alert built around your criteria or a generic city feed, how documents are handled, and how showings are booked and followed up. Small things, but they are what the experience actually feels like.

Availability and fit

Someone with fifty active listings has less time for you. Someone with none may have less experience. What matters is whether they have the capacity and the interest to take your situation seriously, and whether you can work with them for several months.

Where I stand on this

There is no official ranking of REALTORS® in Ontario, and I am not going to claim to be the best one. What I will say is what I do: I work across Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, Guelph, Wilmot Township and into Hamilton, Burlington, Oakville and the western GTA. I handle buyers, sellers and investors, including tenanted purchases and small multi unit property. I answer my own phone and my own email. I will tell you when a property is a bad idea, and I will tell you when I am not the right person for a particular transaction.

The reviews above are from people I have worked with. Ask me for a reference if you want to talk to someone directly rather than read a quote.

Next step

I am buying · I am selling · What is my home worth? · Current market conditions · Talk to Mathew

By area: Kitchener · Waterloo · Cambridge · Guelph · Wilmot & New Dundee · Hamilton · Burlington · Oakville

Mathew Toussaint, REALTOR®, eXp Realty of Canada, Inc., Brokerage. Reviews shown are from past clients. No independent ranking of REALTORS® in Ontario exists, and nothing on this page should be read as a claim to any such ranking.