Anonymous wrote:Our strategy: go to open houses in neighborhoods we like and talk to the agents. You'll get a sense of them pretty quickly and the fact that they have a listing in an area you like is at least a signal that they know the neighborhood.

I disagree with the suggestion to just Google "best realtor." We tried that but the "best realtors" tend to be high-volume folks who don't put in much work to earn their 3% and may outsource work to other agents or try to price you low (if selling) or high (if buying) to close quickly.

As you suggested, responsiveness is key. You want someone who you work well with, who notices things you don't, who won't pressure you to do things you're not ready for, and who will do real legwork to get you what you're looking for. Our agent, for example, drove around a neighborhood to find houses that met our specifications and sent letters to those owners to see if any would be willing to sell. Ultimately she found us a house before it went on the market and we were able to get it for below prevailing price.