I've found you can google the local area association of realtors and figure out who's done the most business. 90% of the agents sell almost no real estate, but can advertise the heck out of themselves. You may be able to google or lookup their awards ceremony.
Agreed. Go for high producers, as long as you don't get handed off to a junior person.. unless you are ok with that. You want someone who is used to putting in the hours / working hard.
Plus -- someone with several years history in an area (several years of awards in neigborhood). Just ask.
The best realtor we ever had made it a point over her 14 year career to visit every buyers open house, to always know what the homes were like. By the time we used her, I think she had personally been in half the homes in the neighborhoods we wanted to see. She would know which had been renovated before sale, and alternate interior layouts or lot problems in all the comparables, without needing to look anything up. She even had reference home plans gathered over the years, on the 50's through current homes (builder plans)
She never took us to properties on busy street / backing onto noisy rear highways, as she already knew that they were problems for our stated needs (family, peace and quiet, not investors, etc), This was all because she had put in a lot of hours in a single region, over a long career history.