Christian Real Estate Professionals : Zillow’s New Agent Rating and Endorsement Tool

just read Sara's take on this one too.  I love it :)  Thank you

Thanks Christina - This will be a great tool and feature for both agents and consumers!  :-)

This is a great addition to Zillow. I'm happy that there will be another quick and easy way to be found by consumers.

Thanks for posting this news, I just alerted my clients about it. Seems like an excellent feature!

What a great idea, let the users do the reviews....good job.

Can anyone enter in a feedback for these agents? Can agent approve or deny the rating before it's posted? What about malicious doings? Our MLS.. HAR.com has this type of feature as well. The Realtor is given the opportunity to decline or accept a rating. As you can imagine some people can't be made happy!

Brad, you always give us information that is helpful, thanks so much!

Greg- I think Brad is traveling most of today, so I'll try to step in for him, and he can add color later if he'd like.

Anyone with a profile/account on Zillow can leave feedback on any agent with an active Zillow profile. Agents cannot review other agents.  When the person leaves a review, they must associate it with a home address and state the nature of the relationship (buyer/seller), to confirm they are a past client.  Only the Zillow moderator and the agent will see this address, it won't go live for privacy reasons.  Once the review is submitted, a person at Zillow will read it to check that there's no profanity, it looks legit, etc.  The agent who got the review will be notified via email.  That agent can publicly respond to each review.  They can also flag it if something isn't right and Zillow will investigate it.  So the 'malicious digs' shouldn't ever make it to the site. 

Greg - Reviews are designed for buyers and sellers who have worked directly with an agent.  We have built several checks and balances into the process to ensure reviews work the way they were intended.

First, we have a dedicated customer service team that personally looks at every single review before it is published, to ensure that it adheres to Zillow’s Good Neighbor Policy and is respectful and appropriate. If we feel a review does not comply with our Guidelines and Policies, or is generally inappropriate or off-topic, we won’t post it.

Agents always have the opportunity to respond to reviews and provide context. This has worked very well in Zillow Mortgage Marketplace’s lender ratings over the past two years.

Thanks for another informative post!

Thanks Brad for this post, very interesting. What are the safe guards against realtors ( some ) engineering the results in their favour or against others ?

What about tagging the responses to an MLS listed transaction ( as part of the checks and balances ) or is this just going to be about a feel good about this agent approach ?  I can see good and bad in this.

Wish Zillow success in helping the real estate industry ! ( When is it coming to Canada? )

Cheers

Nor Yeretsian

Oh wow thanks for the heads up Brad. I am always looking to jump onto the next big social media push. I hope I can get in early and ask my previous clients to post a review for me. Thanks again!

Nor - Agents will not be able to review other agents and gaming the system will be more than just difficult.  There are safeguards and preventative measures in place making sure that can't and won't happen. 

Regarding Canada?  Zillow does have the desire to go internationally one day, but it is long term aspiration right now.  However, when that day comes, Canada seems to be one of the more obvious places to move into first.  :-)

We will have to check it out and let our clients know about the feature.

Looks like a cool feature, Brad. Got an email frpm Zillow today. I'll be asking several recent clients imemdiately for an endorsement.

Jeff

Brad, Definitely a great addition to Zillow - will check it out.  

I've already asked recent clients for an endorsement...  Looking forward to see it in action!

Thanks everyone for reading and commenting. 

I have been really excited about this new feature ever since I heard we were going to launch it. I can't wait to see some of the success stories and results that I know are going to come from this. Please keep me posted and send me links as the reviews start coming in. 

I have been really busy down here at REMS in San Diego and I'm really looking forward to getting back home tomorrow.  :-)

G -- nite!

I'm glad to hear there are safeguards in place. There are way too many people out there that would take advantage of this to further their careers by trying to take someone else down.

Hi Brad!  Todd's concern was mine as well but, I see that Zillow has safeguards in place to prevent misuse of the system as in yours and Sara's comment.  I do like Greg's idea of allowing the agent approval/disapproval of a comment though.  Don't know how difficult an adjustment that would be to make but, I like it!

I've already sent requests to a couple of folks to see if I could get something up immediately but, they haven't responded as of yet.  I'm anxious to get some up and showing on my profile as I think this is a great way to allow our clients to speak to how we run our businesses--NOTHING is more powerful to a reader; no amount of self-declaration, self-promotion does as good a job as a great testimonial!

Thanks to Zillow for being proactive and even cutting-edge for REALTORS--we appreciate it!

Hi Brad,

It's true! I have heard that the next wave for real estate agents is that every consumer will rate every transaction with every agent.

Yelp, Incredible agents, now Zillow!

It is good in the long run...

Phil

I received the email announcement about this last night.  Not to sure how to keep this fair and equitable.

Excellent!  Thank you, Brad, for (as usual) keeping us on the cutting edge of the news that affects us and our business! 

Kudos to Zillow for this great new feature!

Brad - I figured this was coming soon enough.  Just listen around the real estate tech world long enough and you'll hear everyone abuzz about the idea of ratings and reviews.  I see it as a good thing, as long as there are controls in place to be sure that shady dealings or outright lies with a malicious intent aren't flying around.  It will be very interesting to see how these review sites fare and in the end, who becomes the standard.  My guess is that Trulia and Realtor.com will be launching these soon enough as well.  Then associations, franchises, brokers...what I have to wonder is how many will be too many, will a new industry boom around it (such as a "review alert" system that will work on an agent's behalf to find, respond, correct, dismiss, etc. - if someone builds it, I want credit for the idea)?  A lot of questions in my head about them, even though I'm all for them.

Wouldn't it be interesting if someone bought a house, complained publicly about their agent saying they paid too much for such a dump with huge issues they 'should have known about', then decided to sell the house a year later? Future buyers could find their rant, see how unhappy they were with the house, and forget about negotiating position. 

I guess agents should look up potential clients before they take them on, to see if they've publicly ravaged past agents. Will there be a way to search for reviews by reviewers' name?

I think it is a very good thing. Thanks for the post!

Todd - that is sad but true.  Why can't we live in a perfect world!?!  :-)

Debe - I forwarded your comment over to the staff at Zillow that have worked very hard over a long period of time putting this all together. As always, thank you so much for your feedback and comment.  You know how much I value, respect, and appreciate your opinion.

Phil - you're 100% correct.  In a single day yesterday, I saw exactly that on iTunes, Amazon, Yelp, Foursquare, Google maps, eBay, and GoDaddy.  Consumers love this and I myself being a consumer, love it and use it as well. I just put up a review myself at the Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego yesterday.

Gabe - Won't it be nice that you won't have to?  :-)

Trish - I too believe that this is a "great new feature" even though we've been doing this already on Zillow Mortgage Marketplace for over 2 years now.  Thanks for taking the time to read and share your comment.

Matt - I can't speak for the other sites but I know everyone here at Zillow both upfront and behind the scenes are very excited about this launch. I honestly believe great things will come from this for those who use it and provide great service...which by the way are most the folks that I know and try to surround myself with like yourself.  It's great to hear from you, hope all is going well.

Joetta - not sure that scenario sounds like an agent review, but I'm also not one of the folks or part of the team that reviews them. This new launch and feature is an agent review and endorsement, not a house review and endorsement.  I apologize if I didn't make that clear in this post.

Samuel - thanks for commenting, most everyone I have come across feels and believes the same. :-)

Hi Brad.... I just sent out my first review request.  She closed on  Tuesday and it was a complicated and difficult short sale.  She was not a happy camper some days, but we closed.  So I guess we'll see if she thinks I problemed solved well enough. LOL  Of course... I've always been a risk taker.

I'm excited to reach out to my clients and get their feedback posted.  I am hoping this is going to be a great tool.

Okay, new question... once a client does review... how long before it shows up?

Tammy - I'm proud of you for being a risk taker, I bet the review will shine!!  :-)

Simon - I hope everyone who reads this gets just as excited and inspired as you to reach out to their clients as well.

Hi Tammy (again) lol~  Great question. 

Each review that comes in is personally moderated in the order they are received, so it could/should be a few days at the most.  Agents will receive an email notification when reviews are published.  If you have any other questions, please don't hesitate top ask.  :-)

Hi Brad, Thanks for the info.  I'm thinking... Hmmmm - need to think about this one.  Sometimes I jump in  too quick and don't go back to manage things on a site.  There are SOOOOO many sites to go to... Zillow, Trulia, etc....

Hi Brad - I look forward to seeing how this new feature has been implemented on Zillow for its American operations.

Thanks for sharing Brad. This sounds like a great idea!

Thought this was a nice way to ask for a review and wanted to share. This just came in this morning from the hotel I stayed at last night.  I like how they also shared their social networks at the bottom.

A quick "shout-out" and thanks to Michael Johnson for reblogging this post, I liked his quote:

"Here is a great blog by Brad explaining the new Agent Rating and Endorsement Tool by Zillow.  This is a great opportunity to have your former clients express their love and appreciation for you so the world may know of your greatness.  ;-) "

Hi Brad,

No offense, but I'm not sure about how well this will work.  Unless it is required many people once they are finished and have bought or sold their home they are moving on.  My manager sends out a letter for feedback on agents with a return envelope (stamped and all) to make it easy and even getting these back are difficult.  People are too busy these days.  I find even with myself that I'll put things like this on the back burner for when I have more time and then eventually delete the email or throw the survey away because it was so long ago.

Hi DeeDee - I know that the NAR sends out surveys to buyers and sellers each year and then provides a published report.  I think this is a much easier way to get information and these reviews will most likely get much more involvement and attention from both the agents and consumers.  Why?  For one, because there is no stamp, no letter, no snail mail.  And two, this is easy, free, and it's all online.

I predict this will work out very well, mark my words on this one.

With every launch and new idea or tool, there will always be the aggressive implementers, the watchers, the one who waits for proof, and then the followers who come kicking and screaming.  I saw plenty of this here in the rain. This launch and new feature will most likely be no different.   :-)

I agree that getting responses via email rather than snail mail will be easier. The sample from the Hotel Del is excellent. I would take a minute to respond to that at the end of the day. Brad, the new Zillow rating system for agents sounds good; can't wait to see it in action.

Brad - Thanks for the heads up.  This looks like a wonderful feature at Zillow.  Looking forward to see it in action. 

Brad, I will have to check it out and I'm just curious if these clients don't post or take survey, will we just have a poor score? I think I read through them all and didn't see this question... or I missed it... Thx~

I see way too much potential for abuse with these types of features....careful it does not become an Angie's List for the real estate industry....

Love the idea. Think it will be big. My association tried to do this about a year ago BUT no SEO so nobody can find it.

Brad,

Don't see this on the Zillow Academy calendar.  What is the class called?

Great tools, I find it interesting that agents can't review other agents. (probably good)  how does it know??

Hi Lauren - no postings or reviews on your Zillow profile does not leave a poor score, just no ratings or endorsements.

You can view some of the reviews and samples of ratings and endorsements on Zillow's Mortgage Marketplace

Morning Anne - I think it will be BIG too.  Plenty SEO on Zillow, in fact I wrote this yesterday and the Google alert below was sitting in my in-box this morning.  Made me remember how excited I used to get when I saw the same SEO results here on ActiveRain.

Hi Irene - I will add the class this week, it will most likely be called "Ratings and Reviews - The Most FAQ's"

Cindy - "How does it know?"  We have a department of moderators committed to making sure "it knows" :-)

One of my clients did this and I was notified. I feel rating realtors and broker is the next big online step. People want to know who they are working with before they start the process.

I am not sold on these type of recommendation postings. Too many times people manipulate them and it doesn't give a clear review, word of mouth is the best review I could recieve...just my humble opinion

Gerry - people will try to manipulate this sure, they do everything, but their failure will be our greatest deterrent.  I'm confident in the Zillow staff and the experts that put the time and effort into putting this all together, they are a sharp bunch.

Word of mouth by a third party is "as good as it gets" in my opinion, and then there's "the written endorsement" the next best thing?!?  Right?  Think about it... combined, these are powerful wouldn't you agree?

In comment #38 I showed a sample of what the Hotel Del sent me as a request for a survey.  This was their follow-up email to me this morning, so I went ahead and filled out their survey.  I like that they didn't give up after just one request for a review.

Well Brad... I came back with the answer to my own question... FYI

My client emailed me at about 1:20 p.m. on the 3rd and said. "Done" & at 5:18 p.m. I got the email from Zillow saying it was posted.  That's pretty darn good turn around time. 

Hi Tammy, I just let the entire Zillow team know you shared that, I know they'll really appreciate your comment. Thanks.

... oh yeah, I tweeted it too!   :-))

"All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them." - Galileo Galilei 1564-1642

Don't see a class yet, Brad, but understand how busy you've been.  I need the webinar because I get a "Microsoft Outlook Web Access" screen when I try to use the Zillow ratings.  Must admit, that alone has me stumped!

Hi Irene - I thought I'd wait till after the holidays since there's a few other classes already scheduled for DEC.  I could try to squeeze one more in I suppose...    I'll just contact you in the meantime to see what I can do to help until then.  (ring ring)  :-)

Irene - nice talking to you today. 

Thanks for pointing out that the link in this post was bad.  I corrected it, Happy Holidays!  :-)

Hi Brad!  I just got a congratulatory call from my friend, Margaret Rome, who told me that she clicked on your link and read my review.  I just had to stop by and say thanks for that--of my two sent out, I only had one response but, it's the holidays and I'm sure the other one will make it around sooner or later.  There's nothing better than a testimonial from a client, that's for SURE!  This type of thing needs to be linked from our websites too.  We no longer need to transpose all of the testimonials that we receive but, just put this Zillow rating page as a link in the future--smart advertising I say!

Hope you have a wonderful New Year and that it's your best year YET!

Hugs...

Debe - you're right, it doesn't get much better than a personal testimonial or referral, maybe word of mouth, but ratings and reviews are a very close second.  I'm sure you'll be getting many more of those in the weeks, months, and years ahead.  :)

Great to hear from you, Happy Holidays~