Baird & Warner Real Estate: Is it a Good Choice?

Overall rating | Customer experience | Agent quality | Brand visibility and reach | Service value | Methodology

Baird & Warner is a family-owned real estate brokerage that services buyers and sellers in the Chicago metropolitan area. It's been around since before the Great Chicago Fire, giving it more than 150 years to build its brand and reputation across the entire Chicagoland area. Today, it has 2,400+ agents covering operations in 29 offices.

Bottom line: Do we recommend Baird & Warner?

If you’re looking to buy or sell in Chicagoland, you'll probably be losing thousands ($14,000–17,000 on a $285,000 sale) on agent commissions. That said, Baird & Warner will likely give you your money's worth and a good overall experience.

Baird & Warner offers all the essential services you need to sell your home, as well as advanced marketing tactics. The average agent at Baird & Warner has more years of experience than the industry median: 13 years versus 8.

Sellers are generally happy with the service they receive, though buyers tend to have slightly worse experiences with B&W agents. Most negative reviews are from landlords, toward its property management services, not its agents.

But don’t hire an agent from Baird & Warner because of its reputation only. Even if it's one of the largest independent brokerages in Chicago, we still recommend sitting down with one of their agents and conducting a thorough interview.

Baird & Warner: Our in-depth breakdown

Reputation and customer experience

Based on public reviews, Baird & Warner’s customer service team seems pretty decent. On Google, the company has nearly 200 reviews with an average of 4.1 out of 5. That’s about what we would expect for a company of this size.

We ran these reviews through a program that identifies emotional language:

Many of the Google complaints came either from buyers with unresponsive or pushy agents or from homeowners unhappy with the company’s rentals services. On its Better Business Bureau profile, Baird & Warner has one complaint (also about property management) and an A– rating.

Don't ignore negative reviews, but interviewing an agent will always be more revealing — especially since people often use third-party review sites to complain rather than shower praise.

Agent quality

Baird & Warner has over 2,400 agents, who average roughly five more years of experience than the industry median of 8. Together, they’ve completed over 20,000 transactions. That comes out to an individual rate lower than the industry average (12), but forgivable given the overall brokerage quantity.

Even with these impressive numbers, we still recommend checking out individual Baird & Warner agents. You can browse agents by office location, designation (such as a Distressed Property Expert), and even by language spoken. Ask how many sales they’ve completed in the last year and if they can provide you with references from past clients.

Brand reach and visibility

Baird & Warner has excellent brand reach and visibility compared with other brokerages. Each local office has at least 50 agents — several have over 100 — giving it excellent coverage in Chicagoland. A dense network like this will work in your favor, as brokerages with strong local roots can connect listings with buyers faster.

Its websites receive over 23,300 visits every month, according to our analytics tool. Additionally, 6,000 people search "baird & warner" and other branded terms on Google monthly.

Service value

On top of basics like assistance with pricing, offers, negotiations, and closing, Baird & Warner offers both buyers and sellers some notable services:

Buyers who work with a Baird & Warner agent can get text notifications via text when a home that matches their criteria is coming soon to the MLS. If you’re out exploring neighborhoods in Chicago, you can also text "BW" to 59559 to receive information on homes near you. But note that individual buyers' agents may be less helpful than the sellers' agents.

For sellers, the number one priority is getting full exposure for their homes. Baird & Warner does that by putting you on a Chicagoland MLS, its own listing web page, numerous real estate websites (like Zillow and Trulia). Your agent will also email thousands of potential buyers before your home is listed publicly to drum up some interest.

You'll also get:

• A professional website specifically for your home
• Professional home staging and photography — in fact, several B&W agents are also Staging Specialists
• Google advertising to retarget people who visit your listing online
• A "For Sale" sign with text message capabilities

If you sign with a Baird & Warner listing agent directly, expect to pay 5–6% in commission, with little room for negotiation. For some guidance, here are the averages for Illinois:

» MORE: Average Commission Rates Across the U.S. 2022

Baird & Warner general contact info

Next steps: Start interviewing agents!

Interview multiple agents (ideally two to three) to ensure you get the best fit and value. Remember: always hire the agent, not the brand. When you’re ready to start searching, check out our guide on how to choose the right real estate agent. Clever’s free agent-matching service makes agent shopping fast and easy, and it can save you money.

Rating methodology

We evaluate brokerages based on four core criteria we think will help readers make informed decisions. We broke those criteria down into discrete metrics so we could make the score as objective as possible. Here’s a quick breakdown of that criteria and methodology: