How to find the best selling agent in your area?

How does one find an agent with the best chance to achieve the highest selling price if you have no recent recommendations from family/friends/investors?

I dont believe finding the agent with the most sold comparable sales in the past 12 months in your area or listings in your area is the best idea.

Nor do i believe reading any of the reviews from the online rating companies.

I was going to say you need someone with local market knowledge but then again i have seen many out of the area agents achieve top prices . All i can say for local agents is that they can and do bring other prospective buyers from their other local listings to your listing (and visa versa)

I tried using RPData 'Market Compare' and scanning all the recent sales in the area by 1)The Days on market (DOM), and 2)The difference between the first sale price and final sale price and then 3)finding the agents that averaged the lowest DOM and lowest price difference but this was hard as most listings did not have the final sale price or first sale price until you drilled into the listing.

I would say the best way would be to go to each of the agents listings who are selling a comparable property (and dont tell them you are selling) and see how they treat you as a buyer. How knowledgeable are they about the area and the property. Do they follow up with you on the monday and return your calls?

But if your time poor, is there another way?