I’ve never purchased a home but I imagine it’s hard to find a good realtor AND trust them. There may be tons of great realtors who are worth more than their commissions but the bad ones probably say the same things the great ones do AND have basically the same headshot.

I feel like I wouldn’t know if I had a good realtor until after the transaction, if at all, or until I’m fucked.

The only time I’ve used a realtor was to rent a house and I am pretty sure she worked with the listing agent to get me to agree to pay $100/mo more because there were other people wanting to sign for the house. Which, I feel dumb for but didn’t realize until later. But I’ll also never know if that was the case.

I’ve used Optery since they posted on Hacker News a few years ago. Really satisfied with them - I get quarterly reports that show screenshots of my information being found on a site, then the same site and search not showing results after they’ve finished the takedown. The spot checks I’ve done myself show the same. Can’t find me by phone number, name, etc.

They have different tiered plans and over time I’ve upgraded my account to the top one for a few hundred per year just for extra peace of mind and to support them. Their plans range from $3.99/mo to $24.99/mo.