{"id":5829,"date":"2015-11-13T08:12:24","date_gmt":"2015-11-13T15:12:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/therealdaily.com\/?p=5829"},"modified":"2015-11-13T09:22:06","modified_gmt":"2015-11-13T16:22:06","slug":"for-the-first-time-ever-realtor-com-will-pipe-in-third-party-real-estate-agent-ratings-and-reviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/corporate\/for-the-first-time-ever-realtor-com-will-pipe-in-third-party-real-estate-agent-ratings-and-reviews\/","title":{"rendered":"For the first time ever, realtor.com will pipe in third party real estate agent ratings and reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"

Finding an agent is a big challenge for consumers, and offering some semblance of accuracy in ratings and reviews is a tremendous challenge for real estate search sites – a challenge that has a long, convoluted history. Today, realtor.com is announcing their next move, confident that they’re appealing to both consumers and industry insiders, in yet another<\/a> push to assert the superiority of their offering. <\/p>\n

They’ve inked agreements to integrate content from Quality Service Certification, Inc. (QSC)<\/a>, RealSatisfied<\/a>, and Testimonial Tree<\/a> to agent profiles on realtor.com\u00ae, becoming the first online real estate website to offer a consolidated view of reliable information for consumers researching potential agents online.<\/p>\n

Adhering to stringent policies<\/h2>\n

The information will appear on realtor.com’s revamped agent profiles<\/a> and ratings and reviews system, offering very specific data. In fact, they’re the first to base these standards on the National Association of Realtors (NAR) guidelines for professional evaluation, established last year. The ultimate goal is to insure that ratings and reviews are by clients who have closed a transaction with a particular Realtor only – they say they’re the only real estate search portal to offer this. <\/p>\n

One source tells us that the realtor.com policies were so stringent, that it was actually a struggle to find any vendors that met their standards. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Separately, the system allows a recommendation section which can be provided by colleagues, friends, and so forth. In a statement, realtor.com states, “The combined system provides a standard for transaction-based information while allowing all agents to showcase their professionalism.” <\/p>\n

The industry has demanded a solution<\/h2>\n

\u201cBuyers and sellers of homes rely on an agent with one of the biggest investments in their lives, and they spend inordinate amounts of time doing their due diligence to select someone they can feel confident about,\u201d said Tapan Bhat, chief product officer at Move. \u201cIt\u2019s important for them to have a resource they can trust \u2013 one that offers consistent quantifiable metrics around an agent\u2019s performance and that provides a clear and reliable portrayal of the qualitative aspects as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBrokers and agents have consistently communicated that they want and need a solution that allows them to easily syndicate the ratings and recommendations they collect as part of their customer satisfaction programs,\u201d said Jeff Turner, president of RealSatisfied. \u201cFrom the very beginning, realtor.com\u00ae has supported this notion and their decision to continue to support this as part of their new platform is a testament to their forward-thinking approach to agent performance evaluation data. We are proud to be a part of this solution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leveraging the abundance of data<\/h2>\n

In a press release, the company notes, “Leveraging the abundance of reliable data collected by trusted affiliates while carefully managing the integrity of the new solution was no small challenge. The integration of third-party, transaction-based ratings and reviews content into the realtor.com\u00ae system is made possible by matching the external data to the criteria established by realtor.com\u00ae for display where possible.” <\/p>\n

QSC has decades of experience as a proactive performance management platform that helps brokers spot agent performance issues early. Realtor.com calls the affiliation a “natural fit,” having over 1.5 million surveys in the field to date – today more than 95 percent of buyers and sellers are \u2018satisfied or very satisfied\u2019 with agents participating in QSC\u2019s program, including 84 percent that are very satisfied, compared to a national average of approximately 58 percent.<\/p>\n

\u201cQSC was the first to offer consumers reliable information to make better, more informed decisions by collecting feedback only from real customers and after every closed transaction,\u201d said Kevin Romito, president and COO of QSC. \u201cThrough this agreement, realtor.com\u00ae will provide millions of consumers access to a level of accuracy and transparency not available anywhere else, and for participating brokers and agents, this will be a powerful differentiator and competitive advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Realtor.com\u00ae\u2019s recent agreement with Testimonial Tree will enable testimonials collected by real estate professionals to be integrated within recommendations at realtor.com\u00ae, and adds a social element to agents\u2019 profiles. <\/p>\n

R.com expects this to increase leads for agents<\/h2>\n

As credible and reliable content makes its way onto the realtor.com\u00ae profile platform over the coming months from these partners and through realtor.com\u00ae\u2019s built-in evaluation system, the company expects to see a boost in traffic, engagement and high quality leads for agents. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe resulting virtuous circle of visibility, combined with the reliability of the content we are gathering, fulfills our vision for this solution: to meet the needs of the consumer for a trustworthy resource while addressing the complexities of the industry which we are uniquely positioned to understand,\u201d said Bhat. \u201cWe are delivering a solution that works \u2013 not just today, but for the years ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

STORY UPDATE: It is important to note that Real Satisfied and Testimonial Tree are feeding the recommendations section, and QSC is feeding the ratings and reviews.<\/strong><\/p>\n

#RealtorRatings<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Realtor ratings is a hot button issue, but NAR has set standards, and realtor.com announces how they’re meeting, perhaps exceeding those standards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":335811,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[248,101],"tags":[371],"class_list":["post-5829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-move-inc","category-corporate","tag-realtor-ratings"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/335811"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5829"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5838,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5829\/revisions\/5838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}