Sagan Harborside Sotheby's International Realty

Four Google ratings, averaging 2.8, are the entire public verdict on Sagan Harborside Sotheby's International Realty — which says more about how little has been written about this Swampscott brokerage than about the work itself. The firm describes itself as a residential brokerage with offices in Swampscott and Marblehead, representing buyers, sellers and renters across Boston's North Shore, and says it operates as a Sotheby's International Realty franchise. Its stated territory reaches well past those two towns — Salem, Beverly, Lynn, Nahant, Gloucester, Danvers, Peabody and a dozen more. It is also listed as a member of the Swampscott Chamber of Commerce. Past that, there is little from anyone outside the company. A single written review exists and it is a one-star complaint, aimed at an agent's advertising conduct rather than at a sale or a purchase. One unhappy person is not a pattern, but with nothing else on the board there is nothing to weigh against it either. So research this one the old-fashioned way. Ask which agent would actually handle your listing or your search, ask what that agent has closed near you in the past year, and call two of those clients. The sign out front is a franchise brand; the individual doing the work is who you are really hiring.