This is a screen shot of the agent review section found on the www.homethinking.com web site. I have written about this site before, explaining how it includes most of the agents in the US, and how I managed to opt out when I discovered that my information was wrong. I don’t see any value to consumers from this site, which allows people to anonymously post comments about real estate agents. The site exists to sell ads to agents and nothing more, yet it is disguised as a tool consumers can use to find a qualified REALTOR. Agents who pay for the ads come up to the top as consumers search for a REALTOR.
When it was first launched the public agent reviews were promoted. A home seller or buyer are supposed to be able to use the site to get information about local agents. In the screen shot above the person giving the feed back is "Anon" which is short for anonymous. The feedback could be valid but there is no way of knowing. The agents could have put the feedback in themselves, Negative feedback could be entered anonymously by a competing agent.
Is the feedback from "anon" valid? Is it as useful as interviewing an agent or getting recommendations from friends, neighbors, relatives, co-workers or anyone else who has actually done business with the agent?
When searching for a home or a real estate agent consider the source. Consider the possibility that anonymous posters to a web site may not be reliable sources of information. Transparency is the buzz word these days. Instead of giving us transparency, they are getting advertising revenue from real estate agents, and offering agent reviews for consumers by Anon.
See also The Truth About Real Estate Companies
Twitter
Flickr
LinkedIn
Facebook
RSS
Posterous
Email
FourSquare
Yelp
SlideShare
Teresa, many thanks for your thoughts and I do certainly appreciate your feedback.
I would have to disagree with you that we “exist to sell ads to agents and nothing more, yet it is disguised as a tool consumers can use to find a qualified REALTOR.”
By the same logic Google only exists to make money off advertising and is disguised as a search engine. Everything you have described (from advertisers turning up at the top, advertising supported business model etc.) is true of nearly every search site on the Internet.
A huge proportion of our index is free and always will be free. Agents are able to change their contact information and edit their sales record for free. They always will be able to. And we clearly mark sponsored agents as distinct from organic results.
As you have seen, we also allow you to opt out – but that hardly produces an ideal outcome as home owners searching in your area don’t see you and by consequence won’t contact you. That seems to me like everyone loses – the consumer, us and you.
In terms of the review, even anonymous reviews we gather the address of the house in question and also the user is required to enter in an email address. If the review is challenged we check the county records and also email the person to confirm that it is real and the transaction was real. If anything fails to check out we remove the review immediately.
Either way, I do appreciate your comments, and would be more than happy to chat further (I have left my email address with this post) if you would like.
Best.
Niki
Founder, Homethinking
Niki – thanks for stopping by. I don’t get the comparison to google. I don’t pay for google ads yet come up number one on certain real estate searches. I guess my point is why do we need a home thinking web site? where is the value in feedback from “anon” I would much rather have people find me in google like they do now.
This is a site designed to sell space rank to agents. It serves no useful purpose and is completely misleading to the public.
Well said Lenn, useless is O.K. with me but I am becoming more alarmed by misleading. Ther are huge beautiful state of the art web sites out there that are telling great big lies and they use the word transparency as their battle cry.
Anonymous: A message left with no responsibility to be accurate, truthfull, or accountable.
My favorite part of your website seems to have vanished or been banished.
Did you know that it is good luck if three spiders visit you in one session? — bad luck if there are four.
I am going to leave an anonymous comment here and say about this post, that I enjoyed the thought and insight from the blogger.
Ok. now if I pay something to StPaulRealEstateBlog does my comment move to the top?
Nice try Edynrealestate, if that is your real name, but this blogger can not be bought. I think I can be sold though, I’ll have to check on that and get back to you.