Short term, I suppose you are right.  Long term, we are just supporting them to take over our industry.  My website still ranks above them, for my key terms, and I don't to buy back my leads.

Yes, I agree, reviews can be very important.  They have helped us on Angie's List, Yelp, houzz and google. There are also options to build reviews on your WP site w/ various plugins.

Zillow and Trulia may dominate the online portals but the people on the ground are the one making the deals happen.  They will continue to change the way people find properties and even find agents, but they will not affect the selling and closing process. 

Positive client reviews and testimonials are the key to a successful real estate business. If done right, you can build a by-referral-only business and not even need Zillow or Trulia.

Yes, Zillow & Trulia have made an impact on how buyers and sellers view homes on the internet.  With homeowners believing Zestimates and buyers believing they know everything because these websites give them information that they think its correct.  As Realtors its our job to analysis information on a local level and inform our clients why these portals are only stepping stones to getting the correct view of what is happening in their subdivisions.

By illustrating what we mean and bringing it down to a more understandable level we earn our clients trust - Having past clients send us referrals is still the best way to continue in the business - not by relying on internet leads that we buy no matter where they came from.

It's totally anti-consumer and one day the buying public will wake up!

Interesting concept Ben Ganje + Partners ! I will have to give my posturing some more thought!

I was an eBay Power Seller from 1999 into the early 2000's.  I had over 3000 transactions.  The challenge with "Feedback" is the extortion factor.  People on the other side of the deal who say, "if you don't do this or that for me, I will leave you bad feedback".

And of course, Yelp, who won a recent Court Case that allows them to manipulate reviews for a fee.  You can pay Yelp a fee to have good reviews appear at the top of your page, and bad reviews disappear from your page.

Very interesting! Thanks for sharing!

Uber has nothing to do with the real estate business.  My son is an Uber driver.  No one "selects" a driver based on their good / bad reviews.  They want a ride, and want to be picked up in <10 mins, so they put in their request on their Uber app.  That's it.  They're are not comparing drivers.  I hate Yelp, and Z&T are third-party leech sites.  

Good reviews are imperative.  I am wondering how listhub not providing a feed to Z and T will affect things.

Z & T don't receive solds from the various MLS who partner with them and I am sure they would be very happy for us to give them our sold data.  I will not.

Isn't this amazing that your post got featured two weeks short of a year after written?  Go figure...

Ben Ganje + Partners - well, we have to protect our online reputation for sure. (There are a few sites for that!)

And having more reviews on Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com and ActiveRain does make a lot of difference.

I have same question as Evelyn Johnston  : how come this article gets featured nearly a year after it was written? That aside, I will post my listings on Z and T because of the exposure but I will not spend a dime with them.  I'm in the business of real estate, T&Z are media companies. 

I had to manually add in old data on trulia.  It was so time consuming, having to print out old MLS spreadsheets and manually enter them.  I had to stop after 2 hours and that still doesn't count any new construction homes I've sold over the years.  I really dislike Zillow even more... so I haven't taken the time to even do it there.  

And, how many times am I supposed to ask my clients to go post these reviews?  I feel like I am asking them to take on a full time job as my ambassador.

I know your right... it's just so very frustrating.  

eBay has all the gems theses days, but I don't as much about Uber. Seems good enough for a lot of folks!

yes they are not going away.  So you have to use their spots on line to be in the spotlight

I have mixed feelings about Zillow and Trulia,  Now that they are one ane the same, I like to give them a new name "Zillia" or "Trullo".  I still think they are trying to undermine the integrity of the real estate industry using the technology which unfortunately not the strength of industry.  They should try to reach out to our industry and form a team concept which helps everyone.  I don't see that happening now.

At a recent sales meeting at the Naples Board of Realtors, our managing broker who is also president of the Naples Board gave us a heads up on a recent mid term meeting of NAR where it is proposed that we will have to be rated......!  I don't know where they are going with this...but know, it could be the future of real estate.  You are way ahead of the curve.

Thank you for the reminder. One of the goals this year is to request past clients to post reviews. I have not done so yet.

I am always looking for ways to strengthen my online presence and ranking. Thanks for the post.

One of the major review sites (take a guess) marked my reviews as "suspect" using their special (i.e.voodoo) algorithm. When contacted about advertising there I mentioned that all of these reviews weren't showing up but I have the paperwork to prove that these were real transactions. They said they couldn't do that.

At that point I stopped asking for reviews.

I would not bother with any of these sites for my reviews, or anything else for that matter. I am part of our local mls and therefore my listings end up getting syndicated. I think that Z & T constantly look for ways to manipulate our systems. Sheep all follow as they think it is an easy way to get business. I for one will only ask my clients for a review on one site.. Google reviews. Seems Google prefers it that way. End of story. 

I respectfully disagree. First of all, I do not believe that Z will be around forever. Their inflated stock prices, their drop in stock prices, their hot air with no substance for investors, their losses year after year will one day catch up with the cap of patience of their investors. There is a very simple solution to the z, and that is for all agents who pay to buy back their leads pull the plug. The only revenue of their business is the money they get from the very agents that are losing their rankings. 

Second, you don't have to lose your rankings. That is a misnomer in our industry. Yes, the big ztr's have taken over generic terms in real estate but those are not good leads to begin with. Let them have them and we will fly under their radar to pick up the leads that are real buyers and sellers ready to work with us. 

Third, with more pressure from NAR and all the agents in the country who can round up consumer support - to take that to the FTC. The FTC can stop the sale of z buying Trulia. 

Fourth, Uber is an amazing company but their success comes more from demand and great customer service over reviews. Although in the taxi industry the reviews do help but for Uber- it is more about positioning. 

I also agree with Fred Griffin - reviews are overrated, inflated, paid for and I also think that soon the consumers will catch up. 

Marcia Hawken  Our REALTOR® board just came out with a review system called, RealSatisfied.  NAR is pushing for this because the z and others say that is the way the consumers are moving. It is certainly that way in some geo areas more than others. But in our area, word of mouth is huge and who you know is even bigger. The agent that makes the most money here is ranked #6 in the entire nation out of ALL the agents nationwide and out of ALL the companies- her listings tend to be over $12 Million and she has some at $32 Million. She did over 260 Million in sales and she has crappy service, she is mean, she is not likeable and NONE of that matters. Reviews sites won't help or hurt her. I think this is all very relative:). Don't jump on bandwagons too fast. 

Evelyn Johnston  Posts get featured years after they are written once in a while because the staff goes through old posts sometimes to find some gems. I have had old posts featured especially when it pertains to something going on today in the market or media, etc. 

This is spot on. I don't particularly like being forced to use these sites but I do and get business from them. I do not understand the Realtors that refuse to use Trulia and Zillow because they have taken over the market and are consistently wrong and misinform local buyers. This I understand but don't agree with because it is hurting your business and doing a disservice to your sellers if there homes are not being advertised on the Top 2 real estate websites. 

Hello again, Ben.  I just noticed something... your Blog was written ONE YEAR AGO.

  Any thoughts or explanations on why ActiveRain chose to Feature it now?

My point  is that it was explained to me that NAR is thinking of making it mandatory.  That we might not have a choice.  At our sales meeting we discussed it at length, and as I said, our broker is the one who gave us the heads up on this.  This is not money making on anyones part...it is NAR that wants to do this.

Trulia recently cancelled the agent blogging feature.

they charge a considerable amount but I think it's very important to pay their fees to lock other listing agents from showing up on your listings.  Here in socal it's $350 a month on zillow and around $60 on Trulia just to make sure my listing leads go to me.