Toronto’s real estate market includes over 73,000 licensed REALTORS registered with the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board. That volume creates a problem. According to an analysis published in March 2023, more than 32% of GTA agents recorded zero sales in 2021, and 79% sold fewer than 5 homes that year. Finding an agent with actual transaction history requires more effort than picking a name from a list.
The methods below range from personal networks to AI-powered matching systems. Each has trade-offs in terms of verification, effort, and the quality of information you receive before committing.
Ask Family, Friends, or Colleagues for a Referral
Personal referrals remain the most common starting point. According to questions for Wahi included in Sagen’s First-time Homebuyers Survey conducted by Environics in 2023, 45% of recent buyers or those intending to buy rely on referrals from family, friends, or colleagues to find their realtor.
The advantage is trust. Someone you know can describe how an agent performed during their own transaction, how responsive they were, and how negotiations played out. The limitation is the sample size. Your network may only have worked with one or two agents, and their needs may not match yours. A first-time buyer in a downtown condo building has different requirements than someone selling a detached home in Markham.
If you go this route, ask specific questions about the transaction. What was the list-to-sale price ratio? How long did the property stay on the market? Did the agent handle any complications well? Vague endorsements like “she was great” do not give you usable information.
Search the TRREB REALTOR Directory
The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board operates a public directory at trreb.ca. TRREB is Canada’s largest real estate board, and all members are licensed by the Real Estate Council of Ontario to trade in real estate in Ontario.
The directory allows searches by name, brokerage, or area. It confirms that an agent is a current, registered member. What it does not show is sales volume, transaction history, or client feedback. You can verify that someone holds a valid membership, but you cannot assess performance through this tool alone.
Use the TRREB directory as a confirmation step after you have identified a candidate through other means. It answers the question of legitimacy, not quality.
Verify Registration Through RECO’s Public Register
Before entering into a contractual relationship with any agent, you can check their standing with the Real Estate Council of Ontario. RECO regulates more than 110,000 real estate agents and brokerages in the province, administering the Trust in Real Estate Services Act, 2002.
The public register goes beyond simple license verification. It includes enforcement activities from the past 5 years, such as referrals to disciplinary hearings, discipline decisions, charges and convictions under provincial legislation, registrar’s proposals regarding registration, and decisions from the Licence Appeal Tribunal.
This step takes five minutes and can prevent a serious mistake. An agent may have a valid license and active membership in TRREB while carrying a history of complaints or disciplinary actions. Check the register.
Use Wahi’s AI-Powered Realtor Matching System
Wahi launched an AI-powered realtor recommendation system in June 2023, co-developed with The Vector Institute. The system automatically evaluates local realtor quality and surfaces the top 10% to users based on several factors, including property search location, type, and price, realtor performance, sales history, and area of operation.
The matching process accounts for your specific situation rather than presenting a generic list. An agent with strong results in Scarborough townhouses may not appear in results for someone buying a condo in Liberty Village.
Wahi’s Perfect Match Guarantee allows customers to change agents if the initial match does not work out. Since launching in 2022, Wahi has won the 2023 Canadian Business Award for Best Canadian Real Estate Innovator of the Year and was named one of the Top 25 Most Innovative Companies of 2024.
The system addresses a real gap in the market. Most search tools give you names without context. Wahi filters by demonstrated performance before you ever see a recommendation.
Browse Listings on REALTOR.ca to Identify Active Agents
REALTOR.ca is Canada’s most visited real estate website, attracting 13.64 million monthly visits as of February 2026. The site displays an average of 145,000 residential, commercial, and rental properties at any given time, owned and operated by the Canadian Real Estate Association, which represents more than 160,000 REALTORS nationally.
The site itself is a listing tool, not a realtor search function. But you can use it to identify which agents are active in your target area. Search for properties similar to what you want to buy or sell, note the listing agents, and see how often the same names appear. Agents with multiple current listings in your neighbourhood are demonstrably active in that market.
This method requires more effort. You are essentially conducting manual research by inferring agent activity from listing data. It works best as a supplement to other approaches.
Read Verified Reviews on RankMyAgent
RankMyAgent hosts over 110,000 verified reviews of Canadian real estate agents. The platform requires verified closed transactions before posting reviews, using automated and human moderation alongside triple-verification processes. Each review corresponds to an actual completed deal.
Users can filter by type of agent, neighbourhood, specialties, or client satisfaction scores. The site is free to use for consumers.
The verification requirement matters. Open review platforms allow anyone to post, which invites fake reviews from competitors or friends. RankMyAgent’s transaction requirement reduces that noise.
Read multiple reviews for any agent you are considering. Look for patterns in feedback rather than isolated comments. Consistent praise or criticism across many transactions tells you more than a single five-star review.
Contact Brokerages Directly
Every licensed agent in Ontario operates under a brokerage. Some large brokerages have hundreds of agents, while boutique firms may have a handful. You can contact a brokerage and ask for a referral to an agent who matches your needs.
This approach works if you have a relationship with a specific brokerage or have been referred to the company rather than an individual. The brokerage may match you with an agent based on their internal knowledge of who handles which property types or areas.
The limitation is obvious. The brokerage will recommend its own agents. You are not getting an objective assessment of the broader market, and the brokerage has a financial interest in the match. Treat these recommendations as one data point rather than a final answer.
Attend Open Houses and Meet Agents in Person
Open houses give you a chance to observe agents at work. You can see how they present a property, how they interact with visitors, and how knowledgeable they are about the neighbourhood and building.
If you are a buyer, this doubles as property research. If you are a seller, watching how agents conduct open houses gives you a sense of their marketing approach and professionalism.
This method has limits. You only encounter listing agents, which means you are seeing a subset of the market. An agent’s performance at an open house may not reflect how they handle negotiations, paperwork, or the less visible parts of a transaction.
Use open houses to gather impressions, then verify those impressions through the methods described above.
How Commission Costs Factor into Your Decision
According to Rate-My-Agent, the average commission a REALTOR makes in Toronto is 2.19% per side, meaning the total cost of hiring agents on both sides of a transaction averages 4.38%.
On a $1 million home, that amounts to $43,800 in commission costs. On a $1.5 million property, you are looking at $65,700.
These figures reinforce why agent selection matters. You are paying a substantial fee for representation. Choosing an agent with a strong transaction history and demonstrated results in your area is not a minor detail. It is a decision with direct financial consequences.
The Practical Approach
Start by asking your network for referrals. Verify any recommended agent through RECO’s public register to check for disciplinary history. Use Wahi’s matching system to see which high-performing agents are active in your target area and price range. Cross-reference with RankMyAgent reviews to confirm that past clients had positive outcomes.
No single method provides complete information. Combining several approaches gives you a clearer picture before you commit to representation.
