Zillow Inc. has announced that consumer-submitted content has reached a new milestone as more than one million reviews of real estate professionals have been published on the site. The ability to post reviews on agents, mortgage and other real estate professionals on Zillow launched in December 2010, but the content submission rate has significantly accelerated in the past 12 months. The number of reviews has nearly doubled since January 2014 and exceeded one million reviews at the end of January 2015.
"Reviews have become incredibly important to consumers," said Amy Bohutinsky, Zillow chief marketing officer. "We know home buyers are often starting their home search online—and reviews are playing a crucial part in the selection process as they search for the real estate professionals to help them, whether they are looking for an agent, mortgage expert or other real estate professional. Zillow offers an easy place for consumers to search through a pool of extremely qualified candidates using feedback from other consumers."
"My reviews on Zillow serve as an interview with prospective clients without being there in person," said Samer Kuraishi, senior vice president of A-K Real Estate in Washington, D.C. and a Zillow Premier Agent with 360 reviews. "There's no better testimonial than your peers or customers providing feedback about your service. Reviews also help showcase your personality and strengths and help demonstrate that you want to be part of this meaningful transaction. Reviews have become an important part of our marketing."
Zillow created a moderation process to ensure the reviews on Zillow are high quality and credible. In order to post a review, every reviewer must have a Zillow account and must specify what service the agent provided. Finally, all reviews are screened through proprietary Zillow fraud filters and read by a dedicated Zillow team.
