How we check agencies
You’re trusting someone with a big purchase, often in a language you don’t speak. So before an agency appears on our site we check a few things, and we’re upfront about what we can’t check.
Three things every listed agency passes
- 01
The licence is real
We look up the AMI number on the agency’s website in IMPIC’s official register. No match, or a match to a different company, means no listing.
- 02
An office in the city
The address, phone and opening hours come from the agency’s Google Business Profile, and the office has to be in the city we list it under.
- 03
In their own words
Services, languages and neighbourhoods come from the agency’s own website. We don’t guess, and we link to the site so you can read it yourself.
Each profile shows the date we last checked it. You can run the licence check yourself in the IMPIC register, and each profile walks you through it.
Highest-rated lists
How the order works
Our highest-rated lists sort agencies by their Google rating, adjusted for how many reviews they have. An agency with a handful of reviews is pulled toward the average of the agencies we list in that city, so it needs a longer track record to reach the top. That stops five 5-star reviews from outranking four hundred 4.8-star ones.
To appear in a highest-rated list, an agency needs a rating of at least 4.0 from five or more reviews. Ties go to the agency with more reviews.
It’s an ordering of public data, not our opinion of the agency, and it can change whenever new reviews come in.
Our limits
What we can’t check for you
- We don’t vet the individual consultant you’ll deal with. The licence belongs to the agency, and consultants work under it.
- We don’t check whether reviews are real. Ratings are what each agency’s Google Business Profile showed on the date we checked.
- We don’t handle your money, draw up contracts or give legal or tax advice. For the purchase itself, use a Portuguese lawyer or solicitor.
- Being listed isn’t an endorsement of the agency.
Corrections
Spotted something wrong?
Send us a message with the page and what’s changed. We’ll check it and fix the page.