First, Often, Best
“Never believe any statistics you haven’t falsified yourself.” I don’t know who said it first but I like to say it often. Kris Berg said it best. Where you get the info, how you calculate and interpret it are all a part of determining how to twist it up like a wet dishrag.
Give Me A Bud
The list of sites offering to rank agents is growing. Unlike NAR who promotes us all like we’re a six pack – only there’s a million of us – these sites are differentiating agents using state of the art technology, showing that there are variations in quality, experience and substance. Oh, wait. No, they’re not.
The Pack
Yahoo news highlights four sites offering varying ways of calculating who’s top notch. Four sites – four different ways to come up with the same results, right? Uh, no.
AgentRank, one of the sites mentioned in the article, has four agents listed for San Mateo. Four? The guy in the top spot hasn’t sold a house in two years. Next.
Homegain has too many barriers to get to the info I want. Next.
IncredibleAgents list their criteria for scoring right there – easy to figure out. Okay so 5 stars on 11 reviews but I don’t have a welcome message, video or a list of the homes I’ve sold so I don’t get an A+. Huh? Next.
ZipRealty rates its own agents. What’s that again? Yes, they use an outside vendor, but c’mon you think they’re going to say their own agents suck? I don’t think so.
The Fly In My Beer
Not. “One sign ZipRealty’s approach may be on the right track — Lashinsky says: “Agents are nervous.” Huh? What agents? Their agents? Who, me? Big woolly mammoths make me nervous. Zip might have good agents – according to them? Who gives a rip. Everybody’s got good agents.
I’m a good agent. Aren’t you a good agent? There. Scoring done. We win.
teresa boardman
November 24, 2008 at 8:33 pm
my favorite was home thinking where people could anonymously rate agents. They got our names off the department of commerce web site and it took me several emails to opt off the site. They had me listed in the wrong area and I didn’t really want the anonymous ratings. They kept telling me what a big mistake I was making. LOL On most of the sites agents pay for a top rank and I have found some for my area who have never sold a home here.
By the way I think you need to ask Ines for permission before using the word “Mojito”.
Louis Cammarosano
November 24, 2008 at 9:32 pm
Rating agents is indeed difficult for a variety of reasons.
What criteria to use?
The homegain methodology,while not perfect has resulted in the selection of thousands of agents resulting in over 15,000 closed transactions in the past three years.
The vast majority of the consumers being satisfied with their selection according to our surveys.
Here is a nice blog post by Kristal Kraft called “Agent Evaluation – Dreaded Mistake or Welcome Opportunity”
Vicki Moore
November 24, 2008 at 11:50 pm
T – That’s classic – pay for top ranking on an agent ranking site. Wow. How ingenuous is that. Not sure why I’m surprised but I am.
Ines is the reason I even tried a Mojito. Good thing I don’t have alcoholic tendencies. I could be in real trouble.
Ines Hegedus-Garcia
November 25, 2008 at 12:28 am
LOL!! Have I told you lately that I love you Vicki….you have me in tears when you write these posts. RIGHT ON!
Vicki Moore
November 25, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Louis – I’m happy to hear that HomeGain has worked for many. It’s is a pay-lead service right?
Ines – No matter how many times you tell me it’ll never be enough. It just sounds too good.
Louis Cammarosano
November 25, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Viki
I forgot to mention that HomeGain’s agent evaluator program is not a pay per lead product, but rather a subscription one where the agent pays $29 a month to receive leads in 8 zip codes. If they close a deal they pay a referral fee ranging from 22-27% of the commission earned.
You can get more information on Agent Evaluator and our other products on the homegain homepage -click on “agents join here” at the top of the page
Benn Rosales
November 25, 2008 at 2:21 pm
Louis, thanks for the info, we’ve got it, and people know how to find you.
Best,
Lani Rosales
November 25, 2008 at 3:47 pm
Vicki, thanks for bringing this to light. I’m not an agent, but my opinion has always been that there is no feasible way for 1.2 million independent businesses (aka Realtors) to be effectively or consistently evaluated, especially if the evaluation is self-submitted, self-policed or paid for. In my experience, most consumers base their selection of an agent on word of mouth from people they *know* rather than anonymous internet users.
Here’s an evaluation- do you get referrals? Yes or no? If you selected yes, you win 100 points and a warm cookie. If you selected no, you fail and you probably won’t be renewing your license anyhow.
Lastly, how dare Lashinksy say that agents are scared, wth? If he were at a brokerage I was theoretically licensed at, he’d get a short letter that starts out with “Hey Lashinsky” and would end with “
Sincerely,Eff You Very Much, Lani”…Vicki Moore
November 25, 2008 at 4:43 pm
Lani – Pay per lead, pay per month – whatever. It’s another way for companies to make money from agents. Obviously some of us are paying otherwise they’d be out of business.
I still don’t understand the agents are scared remark. It was a stupid off-the-cuff comment – means nothing to me.