Zillow has announced the launch of Agent Finder, a new way for homebuyers and sellers to search for, and find, a real estate agent based on their local expertise and reputation. When a home shopper uses Zillow to search for an agent in a specific city or neighborhood, the most active agents, based on past sales, current listings and reviews over the past 12 months, will top the search results. Shoppers can then personalize their searches based on the criteria that matters to them, including price point, property type, service needed (buying agent or selling agent), specialties such as relocation or short sale, and languages spoken.
"Millions of home shoppers visit Zillow every month, and many of them have not yet found a real estate agent to help them buy or sell their home," said Amy Bohutinsky, Zillow chief marketing officer. "Being able to evaluate an agent based on his or her local reputation, experience in a given area, as well as individual expertise, is incredibly useful for buyers and sellers. Having access to this information will help buyers and sellers find the right person to guide them through what is arguably one of the biggest financial and emotional decisions in their lifetimes."
Zillow first published agent reviews by former clients in 2010. To date, nearly a million reviews of real estate agents can be found on Zillow. Agent Finder is another step toward consumer empowerment, giving people easy access to information to help them make smarter real estate decisions.
Agent Finder enables agents to highlight their areas of expertise and local knowledge on their free Zillow profile. Agents can update their Zillow profile with skills, past sales, active listings and client reviews to help ensure they are connecting with the millions of home buyers and sellers who visit Zillow every month.
"Every day, agents tell us how important online reviews are to their marketing efforts, and how increasing their online presence has resulted in more business," said Jay Thompson, Zillow's director of industry outreach. "We're thrilled to give agents another way to highlight their areas of expertise and local knowledge to connect with home shoppers on Zillow."
