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132 Comments on Zillow Launches A Free Online Agent Endorsement System
Sara - count me in the corner of those who "like" the idea and concept and hope very much that all your team's efforts to stop the problems and abuse in the system will be successful. Reviewers who are specific in their reviews (there is a comments section isn't there?) will be more useful for consumers looking to find a good agent. Similar to someone commenting "nice post" on a blog is not very useful comment. If someone gives one star across the board but has no specific information to back it up will be of no use. If any specific information given is not true it should hopefully be pretty apparent (by moderators before and disapproved post). Anyway, I like the idea and look forward to seeing it implemented. hoping for the best!
Ratings websites for real estate agents have been around for a couple of years however it didn't seem like most of them were being used much by agents or consumers. With the popularity of Zillow, this might change!
I'll be sending out a request to my client database via Top Producer and using the create a hyperlink function within their email program. It'll same something like "rate Eddie Perez on Zillow.com"
A quick FYI to those that use Top Producer, when I paste the direct link provided at zillow, an extra http// is added so I have to remove that first otherwise it will not work.
Thanks for the post!
So it's another marketing campaign for Zillow to get more viewers to their sights in order to increase or maintain their advertising revenue using content from RE agents' clients. Shouldn't Zilllow pay the RE agents a recurring monthly fee to attract viewers to their site?
Posting reviews or testimonials on the Internet is so unreliable and incredible as to the veracity of the post, therefore very suspect to say the least. I don't read testimonials on company's, products or services regardless if it's on the Internet, flyer's, or any publication because it's non verifiable, yet if it gets your phone to ring because of a review posted on Zillow, more power to you, just my opinion.
Mark - Is there something wrong with a company making a profit? "New next best thing"??? Agent review sites have been around for years. ANd they certainly aren't going away.
The solution is pretty simple. If you don't want to be reviewed on Zillow, don't create a profile. If you don't want Zilow to make a profit, don't buy ad space.
I simply don't get this aversion to agent review sites so many seem to have. Seems like people must have something to hide. I wrote an article about it: Real Estate Agent Review Sites. On Zillow, Gaming and Whining
We're giving away our profession because Zillow rolls out an agent review system. Really?
I saw the email from Zillow and then while I was out showing property they called me to encourage me to sue the system.
I was working with clients, so I asked them to write a review. At that moment I did not realize the review had to be tied to a property. I have to get that one closed so I can get a review!
Thanks for the suggestion to email my past clients. It's another opportunity to touch them. Joy
Sara,
I hope this works out for all involved. I am not going to solicit my clients for ratings, but if they find their way to Zillow and decide to rate me that would sure be nice.
I registered for Zillow about a month ago because they are offering more benefits for the agents. I think it is a good benefit to enhance the agents profile and gain possible leads from it. I will add it to my current "follow-up" system. Like anything it will have its pros and cons...not sure how much possible leads pay attention to the testimonials, but I figure it doesn't hurt to have it there.
Thank you for sharing!
Good to know. I have been contacted by potential clients who state they called me because they read my client reviews online. It does increase the odds that you'll be contacted.
Thanks for the info. I'll check out zillow.
Wow, this sounds great...I'll check out zillow and see how I can utilize it!
Hey Robert - let us know if you need any assistance. I'm also doing a class today on the "10 top Zillow tools" I've discovered over the past couple months. You're welcome to join us for that as well if you like.
Just go to zillowacademy.com and register, it's free. Happy Holidays~ :-)
This looks like a useful expantion of Zillow.
sarah- thanks for posting this. I should have known- I looked on Zillow for a half a day for a tutorial- when all I had to do was search in activerain. I am grateful that I can show consumers that I stand out from the crowd, but can't help but feel a little resentful that we spend our lives making sites like zillow try to out compete eachother on the backs of agents toiling through all theses profile updates. Maybe zillow can offer discounts on premium services to agents who have complete profile pages??
Hey Bill - (#137) Regardless of if you are a premier advertiser or not - I can definitely tell you that agents that have at least created a free profile on the site get far more consumer contacts on the site than those that haven't!
Its great and easy to use. I always mail a form to my clients after a closing for ratings and testimonials, but some never get around to filling it out. Now, I can send them the zillow link and most have responded with (rave) reviews.Thanks!
Quick update here on the endorsement system - Consumers can now see which agents have reviews, all over the site. When launched you had to go directly to the agent's profiles to see if they had reviews. Now we are surfacing those agents with more good reviews on the site more prominently. Brad wrote a blog post about it here - http://activerain.com/blogsview/2076682/agent-ratings-and-reviews-go-public-on-zillow or if you just go to Zillow, you'll see what I mean.
Hi Sara-sounds like a great program-consumers certainly use Zillow a lot and this can help us
Don't you wish you could in fact review other Realtors on the site? Now, that would be fun! However, it probably wouldn't look good to consumers to have us beating up on each other all over the internet...which is what makes "Members Only" designation so important on ActiveRain.
how is this working for all of you? so far, for me not bad but i find it's hard to get a good online review. most clients still prefer to write a testimonial letter.
Vlaney, I have asked a few clients to give reviews on Zillow. Since I already have a survey sent out to clients after each transaction, it's a bit much to expect them to take time to review me on Zillow, Trulia and all the other aggregators.
Zilllow is now allowing anyone to review an agent on Zillow. This is an alarmingly irresponsible action on their part and I hope that Zillow rethnks their position on this. Please refer to Leslie's post for details.
Most of the 'leads' I receive from Zillow are of very low quality; one could hardly call them leads at all. I understand that that is the nature of unverified internet inquiries and am okay with that part of it. But to allow one of these casual inquiries to write a review of an agent is outrageous.
Only clients should be allowed to review an agent and the agent should have the right, as we were promised, to approve the review before it is posted. Posting agent reviews written by casual web surfers is irresponsible, unprofessional, and possibly libelous.
If Zillow feels that a particular agent is not performing the way Zillow wants, Zillow should refund the agent and brokers' money paid to Zillow, cancel their listings from showing on the site, and stop sending that agent leads. If they want to keep taking the agent and brokers' money and using their listings, Zillow needs to treat the agents and brokers with respect.