Realtors aren’t just around to sell you a house! If you’re looking into renting a home, a realtor can be a lot of help in finding you the perfect place. But just like with any important matter, it’s best to do your research before picking the person who’s going to help you find home.

If you have multiple realtors in mind, get a bit of info on them that you can compare to find your best option. Talk to the realtors and ask them about the recent clients they’ve worked with and their contact information. Reach out to the clients and see what kind of feedback they can provide you about the realtor and how their experience was. Clients are going to give you real information, so they’re a really good resource for intel. Another way to make sure that your possible realtor is totally legit is to check out their licenses. Your state has a board in charge of licensing and regulating those who want to work in real estate; contact the board and confirm the realtors’ licenses and check to make sure that their haven’t been any incidents pertaining to them.

Social media and the internet in general also provide you with all kinds of info that can help you decide if a realtor is right for you. LinkedIn is a good social media site to check because it shows you a persons professional background. You can see what contacts the realtors have, what jobs they’ve had, and even how long they’ve been in the real estate industry. Even a simple Google search can lead you to lots of information. Check out and see if there’s any local news about the realtors you’re looking at and see what you find; you may find out that they’ve won tons of awards, or may also find out that they’ve dealt with fraud. Real estate forums are also good because aside from seeing what previous clients have said, you can also see what other realtors have to say. Granted, these may be biased, but they come from a more professional point of view so they’ll have validity.