Our survey found few differences among the major real-estate companies, either in overall performance or on specific measures, such as success in attracting buyers. So if you’re looking for an agent, shop by personal recommendations of friends and neighbors or by commission. Interestingly, we did find meaningful differences in companies’ willingness to negotiate on their commissions when asked, as shown here.





Ratings are based on 9,141 responses to the Consumer Reports National Research Center’s Annual Questionnaire about selling or trying to sell homes using real estate agents from 2004 to 2007. The total doesn’t include those who did so without a broker. Reader score represents overall satisfaction with the selling agent. A score of 100 would indicate everyone was highly satisfied; 80 would mean respondents were, on average, very satisfied; and 60, fairly well satisfied. There were no statistically meaningful differences among rated companies. % that lowered commission reflects the percent of sellers who tried to negotiate and were successful. Note that our readers may not be representative of the overall U.S. population.