Earlier this week, Zillow “a popular real estate listing portal, home value estimating, forum wielding, data containing, subject to much assault from real estate agents web site” announced they were implementing a real estate agent review component to their oft-visited web site.
You know, a place where you can give a real estate agent a “five star” (or one star) review. Ostensibly a place where folks pondering buying or selling a home could go and find an agent, and by looking at reviews from past clients be privy to whether or not an agent was worth a damn at what they do. Or should be doing.
Within minutes of the announcement, the whining commenced
Good grief, you’d think by the reaction of some in the real estate community that this agent review system was the first of its kind, the genesis of a new way for real estate consumers to find more information on an agent. Some would even lead you to believe this is all some sort of vast conspiracy to steal databases and put real estate agents out of business.
Please. Take off the tin-foil hat. Wake up and welcome to commerce in the 21st century.
LOTS of people that use the internet look at reviews. Reviews of places, products, services, movies, books, service providers ”“ and real estate agents clearly fall into that last category. LOTS of people base their buying decisions, and their choice of service provider on consumer generated reviews.
I’ve done it. I suspect you probably have too.
What, you’ve never bought a book (or not) on Amazon based on the customer reviews? Never been looking for a new place to eat, drink or shop on Yelp and said, “This sounds good (or nasty), I think I’ll try (or avoid) it?” Never looked at a review online for hotels in an area you are travelling to?
Well if you haven’t, rest assured that many have.
Zillow adding agent reviews is far from innovative, new or original. There are many real estate agent reviews sites already in existence. Here are just a few that took 5 seconds to find via Google:
- RealEstateRatingz
- Homethinking
- Incredible Agents
- Agent Scoreboard
- Rate My Agent
- RealEstate.com
- Agents Ranking (regional ”“ MN, MO only)
- Rate Your Broker
- Neighbor City
- Quality Service Certification
- Redfin (if you are a Redfin agent or partner agent. Our example as a partner agent)
- Houston Association of Realtors (the best agent review implementation, in my opinion)
There are more”¦
In addition, there are many review sites that aren’t real estate specific, but have real estate agent review areas such as:
- Angie’s List (Phoenix example)
- Many local newspapers (Phoenix example)
- Yelp (our example)
- Yahoo Local (Phoenix example)
- That little site called Google (our example)
There are more”
Get over it. Real estate agent review sites are out there, like it or not.
So why all the negative waves about Zillow’s foray into agent reviews? There seems to be two primary concerns floating about: 1) people will game the system; and 2) it’s a ploy by Zillow to drive additional traffic.
Regarding gaming, sure it can happen. Probably will to some extent. Zillow says they be taking precautions and vetting reviews, but any system can be gamed by someone willing to take the time and make the effort. The gaming concerns generally fall into two categories ”“ agents will create fake positive reviews for themselves and agents will create fake negative reviews on competitor’s profiles.
Personally, I have far better things to do with my time than research who bought what property from what agent, create a fake profile under that persons name, and submit a fake review flaming that agent. Not to mention that it makes far more sense to just not worry about bringing down another agent, but instead step up your own game. Tearing down the competition to elevate yourself is just stupid.
Is Zillow simply trying to attract more traffic, or are they genuinely trying to help real estate agents?
I have no idea. I suspect it’s some of both. Zillow makes money selling advertising – advertising that agents buy. So they have a vested interest in both driving traffic to their sites AND in helping agents. More traffic = more eyeballs = ability to charge higher rates = better revenue for Zillow and their investors. Helping agents = potentially more customers buying ads = better revenue for Zillow and their investors. Yeah, the end result in both those equations is more revenue for Zillow and their investors. Well duh, that’s why they are in business.
Since Launch of Zillow Day One, agents have expressed concern and fear over Zillow. They are “the enemy”. They are going to put us out of business. Their Zestimates suck. Some are now proclaiming Zillow’s new agent review is designed to “steal our databases”.
Steal our databases? Yes, you can “invite” a client to review you on Zillow. This entails an email address. And yes, the client has to create a profile on Zillow in order to leave a review. This is hardly a “database of your clients”. And really, what exactly would Zillow do with a client database even if they had one? Zillow sells ads to real estate professionals, not home buyers and sellers.
Go ahead, wish hope whine all you like about Zillow and agent review sites
Agent review sites aren’t going away. Zillow isn’t going away. Love or hate either Zillow or reviews, but the fact is consumers want information. They want to look at homes. They want to see reviews of the best luxury estate agency in Estepona. Don’t want to be reviewed on Zillow? The solution is simple, don’t create an agent profile there (or delete the one you already have). No profile, no review. Don’t want your listings on Zillow? Don’t send them there. Blame your broker for sending them there? Find a new broker. Blame your MLS? Opt out of syndication. Don’t want to buy ads on Zillow? Don’t write them a check.
You can pretty much do the same on the large non-real estate specific review sites. Don’t put your businesses on Google, Yelp, Yahoo, etc. That’s no big deal anyway. After all, who goes to a place like Google to find you? /sarcasm.
But the existing real estate specific review sites? You may already be there. Don’t believe me? Go look. Many of these sites pull public information to create their agent databases.
Welcome to 21st century consumerism. You probably need to embrace this stuff, or get out of the way.
Here’s some additional information on agent ratings (and Zillows new offering)
Video of “Embracing Consumer Generated Reviews” session at 2010 National Association of Realtors Annual Conference.
Speakers: Bob Hale, CEO Houston Association of Realtors, Larry Romito, President / CEO Quality Service Certification, Inc., Margie Dorrance, HAR Chair, yours truly, and Larry McGee, Broker Berkshire Group. Moderator Todd Carpenter, NAR Social Media Manager.
Yes, it’s 1.5 hours long. But there is great stuff in here. Picture kicks in at about a minute. If nothing else, listen to Bob Hale in the beginning. He shares a lot of data on agent reviews.
Zillow announcement on Active Rain by Sara Bonert, Zillow Director of Broker Relations
The Phoenix Real Estate Guy was started by Jay Thompson, and I have a little blogging problem... he liked to say...
Jay- I don't know if I am cataloged as a whiner but I expressed a pretty healthy skepticism on my own post on this when they announced it on Active Rain. Like you, I am a Redfin Partner agent and I have no beefs with consumer surveys. I posted a screen shot of my Redfin rating. I have nothing to hide. If anything, they help me.
The question I raised was Zillow's ability to oversee the process, because, in my experience, there is plenty they could improve upon before embarking on this project. I see the system being gamed, and I see problems with unrealistic kooks, which are in no short supply in my area.
Ratings are fine. The devil is in the details. I can think of plenty of outfits I'd be more comfortable in dealing with this than Zillow. Given their prominence, I'll be happy to be wrong.
My recent post Westchester and Putnam Pre Foreclosures for Sale
I wouldn't catalog you as a whiner. Skepticism I don't have a problem with. It's the ones they doom Zillow to failure because Zestimates aren't always accurate that I don't understand. The agents who seem to strongly feel Zillow's sole purpose in life is to put them out of business — an odd proposition given that it's agents that generate revenue for Z.
Recently my banker used Zillow to estimate the value of my home, as I was trying to take out a HELOC. I was discouraged that the estimated value was less than the stated value that my tax bill claimed! I sure will be happy when the housing market turns back around! So far I've lost about half of the equity in my house in the past four years!
My recent post Don’t try this at home!
Mary Anne – personally I think any lender that uses an ESTIMATE to base a home value on out to be taken to the woodshed and beat. That's absurd. They should be using an APPRAISAL. There are FAR too many factors that a Zestimate can't possible know about a home to give an accurate valuation for something like a loan.
Great article. I wholeheartedly agree with the things you say. I think this was the logical move for Zillow. While there are websites for agent reviews as you mention, none seem to be fully utilized, or major sites. I think this will be a useful source for buyers and sellers looking for an agent. And agents who do a great job have nothing to worry about. Sure, there will be some manipulation of the system like any review site. But I suspect that will hopefully be a small minority, and overall it will be a useful, accurate feature and representation of agent quality. Thanks for your great articles!
Excellent point about the other review sites Richard. They really aren't used much, and to be honest, some of them have atrocious user interfaces. Zillow has a lot of experience reducing gaming on their lender reviews and that should help on the agent side.
Great post Jay. Bravo.
– Spencer (from Zillow)
Thanks Spencer, and thanks for stopping by!
Jay, I totally agree that reviews are here to stay so we might as well get used to it. Why shouldn't we be reviewed? It would be helpful to consumers to have more reviews to go on rather than all the hype from agents claiming to be the best far and wide.
Tend to agree with JPF though, Zillow has a lot of clout and may screw this up. The problem is that once something is in print it becomes true, whether it is or isn't. Gaming the system is definitely something I can see happening. Hope Zillow will have a handle on that. Time will tell…
My recent post Crafts Show at the IMU – Thieves Market December 2010
Time will indeed tell Denise. As I mentioned in my reply to JPF, I think Z's experience with handling lender reviews will be beneficial to reducing gaming (probably never eliminate it though)
Jay, Great post and I think more major sites need to incorporate this important information from the consumer. I wish someone over at Reatlor.com would have the guts to do it. I gave Zillow a lot of credit for being a major leader in this. If you are doing good business this is only a plus, if you are doing bad business, word is going to get around pretty quickly – that is a good thing.
"I wish someone over at Reatlor.com would have the guts to do it".
Sadly, it seem r.com "The Official Site of the National Association of Realtors" often lags behind Zillow (and other sites). R.com just introduced a mortgage rate quote component, which some were calling "ground breaking". Uhm, Zillow's been doing that for roughly 2 years….
That is true in the past, but I think they are making some real headway in Technology and provided some accurate search results. Times may be changing.
I give you five stars for this comprehensive post.
My recent post ALL CLEAR- FeedMedic Alert for SaratogaVoice
This is an excellent post … BULLSEYE!
Frankly, I think the Web has proved it can self-police in terms of reviews. Who has time for gaming? Not serious agents, for sure.
The clip with Bob Hale was perfect! Bob was the FIRST association exec to send MLS listings to Google Base, the FIRST to enable agent reviews in Houston.
Consumers demand this … Zillow is smart to implement a review choice.
I agree 100% with everything you've written here. It needed to be said!
My recent post Debunking Social Media Myths- Twitter Is A Fad
Bob Hale is a genius and visionary, and I don't use those terms lightly. He's also a really nice guy.
This is the kind of reaction to Zillow's agent review site that I simply can not comprehend. It was left on Sara Bonert's AR post:
"Corporate online giant Expedia's real estate web site Zillow was created with only one objective in mind. Profits. It's a bottom line company. Zillow's zestimates in the San Francisco Bay Area are routinely off by huge amounts? Now they want to roll out a "Yelp" component where people can make any kind of comments? This is a very dangerous slope to go down.
Why does the real estate community suck up to every new "the next best thing" that rolls off the online assembly line? Inman News kisses ass like nobody's business.
We gave away our MLS, now what? Our profession?"
Really? I mean REALLY? Zillow was created with profits in mind. Wow, I am stunned. Shocked I tell you. Where the hell does a company get the idea they should make a profit?
How utterly ridiculous.
And we're "giving away our profession" by letting another agent review site come on line?
What am I missing here??
Jay, Here is my humorous video response to the Zillow real estate agent rating.
http://www.realtyv2.com/2010/12/zillow-why-shake-…
Jay, Here is my humorous video response to the Zillow real estate agent rating.
http://www.realtyv2.com/2010/12/zillow-why-shake-…
As far as I'm concerned, agent reviews are nothing new. If you have poor performance on the job, you will go out of business. This is the natural result of how free enterprise and business works. A written review, for the world to see, is just a current tool to expedite the exit of all those poor performers from our industry.
I am a Houston REALTOR and my association, HAR, rocks! Very, very thankful for their vision!
I think Bob Hale's section was fabulous. I think the aging Realtor population coupled with increase Gen X and Y buying population says it all. I know as a Gen X'er that online reviews are important. I will say though that I don't look up doctors, attorneys, CPA's etc online. I ask for personal referrals for what I would consider "serious" professionals. I think that is where we agents have demoted ourselves to the online review as if we were a book from Amazon. We have failed to have higher standards, and we brokerage owners (I say this as one) have failed, as a group, to properly train our agents. Since we haven't protected the consumer from the worst our industry has to offer, the consumer demands protection for themselves. Online review are one way to do that.
I have no issue with them and got my first Zillow review from a client the other day. There is no more hiding from ourselves. That's not a bad thing, IMO.
My recent post It’s all vile to me
As usual, well done Jay.
And as a Zillow shareholder, I hope they make a profit too 🙂
Count me as a skeptic that likes to whine. I share the same concerns of J Philip Faranda about gaming and kooks.
But I like the fact that consumers can get reviews. Who wouldn't? I would hope that Zillow could add a link to each state's real estate commission so the buyer or seller can research for any disciplinary actions also, if that is possible. It is in my state anyway.
Wow, Jay I wish I had something interesting to add to the post and comment stream – but you've said everything better than I ever could! So instead I'll just make an offer – if anyone has any specifc questions, concerns, or needs assistance with the Zillow review program – please don't hesitate to ping me at sarab at zillow.
My recent post Zillow Launches A Free Online Agent Endorsement System
I think I knew of agent review sites before I knew of Zillow years ago.
This is a long time coming —- if we do our jobs well, it shouldn't be an issue.
My recent post Opportunity Village Santa Fun Run
Well written. I was involved in the discussion at AgentGenius as well. My stance is similar to yours in that yes, this is the future, it's ubiquitous and may as well embrace it. But where and how you embrace it may vary.
I remain a little torn in that my goal is to move my sites up the rankings and capture visitors and leads. Same goal as Zillow and for any given keyword, there are only TEN spots!
My recent post How This Website Can Help You
In my opinion, bring on the ratings. At best it's going to weed out the agents that do poor or unethical work, at worst it's going to be gamed by the tech savvy. Seems like a win-win for us!
However, as you pointed out, the market for sites offering reviews on agents is fantastically segmented, and until/unless one site prevails over the others your average home buyer or seller is going to end up finding their real estate agent through more traditional sources.
-Robin Sherman Realtors
Pensacola Real Estate
As the owner of one of the real estate companies you mentioned, Agents Ranking, I'm glad to see I'm not alone in the belief that real estate agents need to get over the fact that real estate agent reviews are here to stay. I've modified my concept a number of times over the years, at times I've included a real estate agent database with thousands of client reviews and I've also offered the option for clients to review agents online. Last year I ran a test site at Gotagent.info to see how much traffic I could generate with a realtor review website. As you pointed out realtor databases are publicly available, since we're all required to be licensed by the state. After obtaining the realtor databases around the country I launched the site which included about 700,000 real estate agents. After testing the site for about six months I decided to take it down due to the fact that I was being contacted multiple times each day by real estate agents threatening lawsuits against me. You wouldn't believe the phone calls and emails I received from real estate agents who were furious about their contact information being published on the site. Most of the phone calls I received from agents didn't even have any reviews. They were just upset that their contact information was published on the website. Can you imagine being a real estate agent and trying to hide your contact information from potential clients! I finally pulled the site down to focus on my Agents Ranking website instead.
I'd love to discuss this topic in great detail sometime. Contact me if you're interested.
My recent post Are you looking for the best real estate agents and REALTORS®
Swell. One more place to check out reputation management. I sincerely don't have a problem with reviews. I just hope that we get a fair crack at a rebuttal.
There are plenty of crazies that come to my town and want to see things in an hour (and have me pick them up on the strip to boot) and pseudo investors that want to purchase a $50K property for half price.
I turn anything unreasonable or a waste of my time down. Those are the people who have the time to do this and WILL complain.
Renee – it's a darn shame, isn't it? I'm turning more down now that I'm working with these days and it's a real pisser since I've worked to hard to build a lead capture machine. (websites).
I just brought on a new agent that's young and wants any and everything so maybe I'll send those types to her, until she gets fed up….which WILL happen.
🙂
Sounds like burn out waiting to happen!
It was really hilarious how quickly the whining commenced. As for the service itself, I'm totally with you. Consumer reviews are now the norm. They're not going away. In the end, any agent worth his or her salt will only benefit.
My recent post Weird Real Estate to Perk up your Monday- Noahs Ark-Themed Park planned in Kentucky
It was really hilarious how quickly the whining commenced. As for the service itself, I'm totally with you. Consumer reviews are now the norm. They're not going away. In the end, any agent worth his or her salt will only benefit.
My recent post Weird Real Estate to Perk up your Monday- Noahs Ark-Themed Park planned in Kentucky
If somebody is willing to rate an agent on Zillow, they will go other places also. I don't see the big deal, really.
The belly-aching about Zillow's agent review forum amazes me. I personally don't have any qualms. Strive to be an expert in your service to your clients, and you will earn the respect of everyone (including your competitors). The folks with fallible ethics will eventually be exposed, and it likely won't be because of Zillow's agent review forum. Great post!
I maintain a profile on Zillow, upgrade my listings on their website and have even advertised there on occasion. But I doubt I will bother asking my clients to go to the effort of creating a profile, just to review me. Firstly, it is too much of a bother for a client to have to create a profile to do me a favor like this. I personally hate doing things like that so how can I ask a client to do that. I would rather have a recommendation on LinkedIn than a review on Zillow.
My recent post Desert Mountain Arizona Real Estate Recent Sales for November 2010
People aren't "Whining" about "Zillow And Reviews"
They have problems with HOW Zillow is going to do it's "Endorsements" for Leads and present them to the Public as a tool to find a good Agent….So very disappointing to learn those who have a differing view than you are Whiners
Dunes – I didn't mean to imply that anyone with a differing view than mine is a whiner. Far from it. Sorry if it came across that way.
A LOT of agents ARE whining though. No, not everyone, but a lot. I read too many real estate blogs and forums and see agents saying things like "Zillow wants our databases" and "I can't respond to sellers that bring up Zestimates" and "it's not fair that Zillow ranks higher than me in search engines".
They offer zero constructive ideas or opinions on what could/should be done. They just sit there and…. whine.
An agent doesn't know how to respond to a seller that says, "But Zillow says my home is worth X"? Really? Well, to be brutally honest, if they can't do that, they shouldn't be representing people in the largest financial transaction they'll probably ever make.
"I don't want reviews of me, my competitors will game the system". That's whining, not expressing concerns with how Zillow is doing this.
Sorry, but that's my opinion. Many agents have been whining about Zillow, Trulia and other such sites since the day they launched. If they put half the effort into their business and servicing their clients that they do complaining about everything, they would probably be wildly successful.
You know my opinion on this…. Realtor.donothingatallforus should have been out in front looooooong ago and instead the company with the eyeballs is Zillow. They are serving the needs that people have. Period. As a marketing company they've given everyone what they wanted, including me. I love being a partner with them. They deliver quality people to me and force me to ensure my Internet brand is spot on.
Think those folks are not checking me out a bit more beyond the little radio button on Zillow? Ha. Everything about what I do and how I do it is improved because of the importance of this lead generation. My game is definitely markedly improved. Ranking me is just one more addition to the toolset. When someone posts something negative I'll just deal with it as I do in life. It happens. We get over it.
The whining is at fever pitch for far too many issues. I think folks need to ratchet it down a few notches…
"Realtor.donothingatallforus" — LOL. I may have to borrow that…
Hey Renee –
Here in Vegas too
I love the calls on my VM at midnight that want to go view at 8 AM the next morning and are extremely put out that I won't accommodate them.
I have an auto-responder that explains scheduling, tenants, appointments with list agents, etc. – not sure if it helps but at least I know I am trying to be proactive.
UGH.
My recent post Sun City MacDonald Ranch Homes – Henderson NV 89012 November 2010
Hey Renee –
Here in Vegas too
I love the calls on my VM at midnight that want to go view at 8 AM the next morning and are extremely put out that I won't accommodate them.
I have an auto-responder that explains scheduling, tenants, appointments with list agents, etc. – not sure if it helps but at least I know I am trying to be proactive.
UGH.
My recent post Sun City MacDonald Ranch Homes – Henderson NV 89012 November 2010
It is the end of 2010, privacy and security online. Fighting it will not go well for those that do. Has anyone here been to http://www.pipl.com?
Pipl is scary and there too many like them to worry about.
I was pleasantly surprised to see that an old client (okay, maybe late 30’s) write a nice review of me yesterday on my little Zillow Profile for Doug Francis.
By the way, I have also had clients write recommendations on my LinkedIn Profile which seems, to me at least, to be a little more credible than some of these free sites. Also, one client wrote a post on her blog with a recommendation… it was kind of a funny tale.
Doug,
Congrats on your excellent review. Clearly there are some agents doing a great job out there… And then there are others, like our this one; http://www.neighborcity.com/GA/Atlanta/community-detail/991-subject-Do-NOT-use-John-Sherwood-or-Worthmoore-Realty/
Jay,
Great piece, I couldn’t agree with you more… My problem is that Zillow is too cozy with the agents to be an objective source. …
I’d like to know if Zillow, HAR, or the others have the nuts to publish negative, unedited and uncensored reviews like that one… Please, if anyone is out there, show me your “best” negative reviews. Surely with a site as large as Zillow, someone customers must be dissatisfied. If not, where did all those negative reviews go? Send them over to NeighborCity, we’ll publish them!
I received timely responses and polite service from Butler Patches throughout the entire process! I needed my patches early and getting them sent to me in 2 days with no additional charge was AMAZING! Great customer service overall.
Buttler Patches
First of all great article, thanks for taking the time to write it. I saw that they filed for an initial public offering this past Monday.
If you take a step back this is also a business decision. This is another example where they are generating more traffic to show year over year growth to potential investors. Traffic is name recognition which is potential income after all.
Awesome Article. Thanks for sharing. Keep updating more article like this.
I just wanna to point out the great service and professionalism that I received from my Real Estate agent at HIGHVIEW REALTY, Kiemmy Roberts Garcia, in my own language she speaks and translates for me in perfect Spanish thank you for your help.
This was a great listing of review websites. I am a consumer and really appreciate knowing where I can go to find reviews. Thank you for the time you took to post all this.
Agents should embrace fair reviews. As you mentioned Jay we use reviews all the time for things. I use amazon review for books, etc that I am considering buying. I use rottentomatoes for movie reviews prior to going to see a new movie. Reviews help us to make more informed decisions and I believe a better informed home buyer/seller is a good thing!
First of all great article, thanks for taking the time to write it. I saw that they filed for an initial public offering this past Monday.
If you take a step back this is also a business decision. This isa further example where they are generating more traffic to show year over year growth to potential investor-companys. Traffic is name recognition which is potential income after all.
Jay, Great post and I think more major sites need to incorporate this important information from the consumer. I wish someone over at Reatlor.com would have the guts to do it. I gave Zillow a lot of credit for being a major leader in this. If you are doing good business this is only a plus, if you are doing bad business, word is going to get around pretty quickly ”“ that is a very positive thing.
Jay’s note: I deleted this comment because it called out an agent by name and address. This is not an agent review site. I don’t know the agent, nor commenter, nor their situation. If the person that left this comment wishes to publicly review their agent they are welcome to do so on any of a number of sites that have been set up for that purpose.
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I recently wrote an article regarding agent reviews: http://www.geekestateblog.com/agent-reviews-the-good-the-bad-the-ugly/
By the way, very information video, Jay. I didn’t realize it was so long, I spent the better part of an hour watching it.
Thanks JAY THOMPSON for such an informative article and yes Zillow right and i think its effective and helpful.
By the way jay said….Zillow is too cozy with the agents to be an objective source. ”¦ but compare it with other ..i think you will find your right ans. by your self.
stowe real estate