My mortgage company gave me a reference for the last RE agent I used and he was worthless. I did all the work myself, looking everything up on my own, looking at houses on the outside on my own, etc. The only thing he did for me was have a key to the lockboxes and for that he made quite a pretty penny. The houses HE'D show me weren't anything near what I said I wanted
When I finally found this one on my own, not only was it EXACTLY what I said I wanted, but it was even listed BY HIS OFFICE and he didn't think to show it to me.
But I made sure I told the mortgage company what a crappy experience I had and they took him off their referral list
I'm in the process of getting my RE license and if I ever become an agent, I hope I learned from being on the other side, lol!