The very best reference we can give a prospective client is our recognition in New Jersey Monthly Magazine as consistently ranking among the top realtors in New Jersey.
 

Five Star Professional works with New Jersey Monthly Magazine to conduct research to identify NJ real estate agents who satisfy objective criteria that are associated with providing quality services to their clients.  Award candidates are identified through nominations received from consumers. Those selected receive the Five Star Real Estate Agent award.
 
Each year a survey is provided to:

1. all New Jersey residents (more than 40,600 households surveyed for the 2013 ranking) who purchased a home over $150,000 within an 8-month period,

2. 1,000 subscribers of New Jersey Monthly, and

3. 250 mortgage and title companies.

Survey respondents are asked to evaluate real estate agents they know through personal experience and to evaluate them based on nine criteria.  Both negative and positive evaluations are included in the scoring.
 

All qualifying real estate agents are then screened with the New Jersey Real Estate Commission's database to verify that licenses are current and with no disciplinary actions pending.

Finally, a panel of local realty company executives, professional and trade association officers review the final list.
 

Less than one percent of the 80,700 New Jersey Realtors are selected each year.  Fewer than 120 agents in the State have been selected in each of the last four years, as have both our Brokers.

What about personal references?

Buyer’s Advisors does not provide personal references for the two reasons:

1.   We do not believe a prospective client is well served by accepting references supplied by a Realtor.  Realtors naturally only provide positive references.  No one provides negative or critical personal references.  

As a result, a prospective client is only getting the references the Realtor wants them to see.  We prefer to rely on an independent resource like New Jersey Monthly Magazine’s annual ranking of the NJ's top realtors.

2.   In the past, when we did provide personal references, our clients told us that they received pretty detailed checklists from potential clients requesting information which they felt was unreasonable to complete.  They also had privacy concerns with supplying their phone numbers and/or email addresses to people they and we did not know anything about.  As a result, we agreed with our clients that we would not divulge their private information.