How to read these scores
This isn't a typical 5-star scale where anything under 4 feels disappointing. Some of these categories have a real ceiling based on how this industry actually works — lead quality, for example, realistically tops out well before a perfect score, so a solid-but-not-perfect number there is often close to the best genuinely available, not a weak spot. We calibrate our standard against what's actually achievable in this industry, not an abstract perfect score. A strong match won't always look like straight 5s across the board — and that's expected, not a red flag.
| Category | Passing Score | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Pay | 4.5 | Holidays can shift pay timing — most agencies actually pay before major holidays specifically to make sure people are paid, so a holiday-adjacent shift isn't automatically a red flag. |
| Contract Term | 4.5 | Nothing is perfect, and most agencies genuinely do abide by their contracts. Real red flags to watch for: an agency forcing 1099 contractors into fixed hours, or treating technically-optional 1099 activities as if they're mandatory — both are ways agencies quietly push contractor status toward something closer to employee status without saying so. |
| Culture | 4.0 | Most agents work remote, which makes culture matter more, not less — a baseline level is needed to keep the human element alive when there's no office to naturally build it. |
| Training — new agents | 3.8 | Higher bar — new agents genuinely need real onboarding. |
| Training — experienced agents | 3.0+ | Lower bar is fine — experienced agents need less hand-holding, not a real onboarding program. |
| Lead Quality | 3.5 | This is close to the realistic ceiling. In real experience, no agency consistently delivers what would honestly earn a 4+ on lead quality — a 3.5 here isn't mediocre, it's close to the actual best available in this industry. Treating it like a middling grade would be a misread. |
| Tech Stack | 3.5 | No platform is perfect; bar is "seamless enough to save time," not perfection. |
| Micromanagement | ≤3.0 | Personal tolerance-based, and the most personal category of the bunch. Some agents can genuinely tolerate more oversight than a 3 if the pay is strong enough to make it worth it — that tradeoff is real and varies person to person. It's not a clean "lower is always better" number the way Pay or Contract Term are. |