We bought a townhome with a realtor that was referred to us by my boss. She was great and got us into a nice townhome, and gave us a nice gift after we got moved in. We'd get her postcards from time to time as well for that first year.
During that first year, real estate went nuts similar to what is happening now in a couple of years doubled our equity, but we knew we wanted to get a bigger home. My dad was a realtor and we looked into working with one of those companies that takes the realtor out & simply lists it on the MLS because we knew our home would sell like fast and it did.
Our previous realtor obviously saw the listing and called us and left us a nasty message basically saying after all she did for us that we didn't have the decency to call her. I get it, but in the end we're just trying to get the best deal for us, not you (the realtor).