Commentary • January 17, 2011

Giving Zillow Agent Reviews Credit

Last month when Sara Bonert wrote about Zillow’s new agent review system, I voiced my skepticism. I don’t have a beef with the idea per se, I’ve just had my ups and downs with Zillow, as many of us have. Sara, to her credit, answered me both online and in person when we met at the Triple Play convention that week that Zillow would take strong safeguards against system gamers and crackpots.

The system is only about a month old now, and I haven’t really made any effort to get my past clients to write a review yet, but one came through unsolicited just a few a days ago. It is a nice review, but more importantly, it is legit.

5 star review of J. Philip Faranda

Now, I probably shouldn’t hold myself up as a good example of the power of Zillow agent endorsements. For that, I’d suggest you check out Sheldon Neal’s reviews. Sheldon has TWELVE 5 -star reviews. He has 5 stars in all 4 categories from all 12 clients, or 240 out of a possible 240. AND since I follow Sheldon on Twitter, I have seen him Tweet the surveys when they came in. This is tremendous leveraging social media, but it is also another post.

My point is that thus far, the assurances I have gotten from Spencer Rascoff and Sara Bonert have been correct. They are overseeing the Zillow agent system and it is working. In light of my initial skepticism, I thought it only right to give them credit for doing what they said they’d do.

That means a great deal to me, because that’s how I run my own company.