Zillow 5 Star Agent, Premier Agent, & All-Star

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Zillow loves to give out awards and I think I have them all! Zillow gives out rewards for helping out visitors to their site who ask questions (they used to, this feature has since disappeared) and also for contributing to their site – recording a lot of sales (they used to, this is also gone). Zillow gives out awards to agents who feature their listings on Zillow (Premier Zillow Agent), an important thing to do considering Zillow is currently the number one visited real estate website (again, they used to do it this way, but things have changed, keep reading). We are still able to get way more views on our client’s listings on Zillow than most of our competitors because we follow all of Zillow’s guidelines, and in particular pay to add a professional 3D tour to every single home we list. Outside of Zillow, we are still able to pay to directly feature our client’s homes on major websites like Realtor.com (the number two visited real estate website in the U.S.). See top producing listing package here, where our clients pay less commission than average and get better marketing.

Zillow 5 Star Agent

Zillow gives out awards to those of us who get really good reviews from our clients (the five star Zillow award). The nice thing about Zillow reviews is that they verify them before posting on their website. You can see all of my reviews here, or see them direct on Zillow.

This was a fantastic award that Zillow gave out to real estate agents who had collected at least five verified client reviews on their website, and I believe had a certain number of sales within the last twelve months. This Zillow 5 Star Agent award is now gone. Below is what is used to look like. I believe I was a Zillow 5 Star agent every year that the award existed.

zillow 5 star agent award

Zillow Premiere Agent – The Horrible, No Good Award

This simply means that the agent is paying Zillow for advertising on some level. It doesn’t speak to the performance of the real estate agent in anyway. One thing to note here, that is especially frustrating to me having worked in the industry for a long time (licensed since 2003), is that Zillow pretends to help real estate agents with their listing errors on Zillow (which are 100% Zillow’s fault), but doesn’t. Meaning, they put our 800 numbers for agents to get help with listing problems (again that Zillow is causing on their own website), but you can’t get any help – UNLESS – you are a Premiere Agent with Zillow (paying them). Then, you get a different phone number and Zillow will help you with their own problems on their website. This is the primary reason (not the only one) I’m a Zillow Premiere Agent, because otherwise, my client’s would suffer when Zillow causes a problem with my client’s listing, and then refuses to fix it for them. Zillow, still being the number one visited real estate website (by a long mile, see our recent research reports here),

Stop Using Zillow’s Agent Finder

It used to be a fantastic tool on their website. It ranked agents by actual sales, who had the most sales helping sellers in an area, or buyers. Now it ranks agents by the number of unverified reviews they’re able to get. The more spam reviews they collect, the higher they rank on the site, leading to bloated and unrealistic results, and a competition a honest professional doesn’t want to engage in. Read more about the broken Zillow Agent finder here, along with some alternatives you can use to find your next real estate agent to work with.

The Zillow Mandate

Real estate agent’s don’t have much choice other than to bow to Zillow’s rules, if they care about putting their own client’s first that is. We have to ensure our homes show up at the top of Zillow’s results, and over the years we’ve done whatever is necessary in order to make this happen. Regardless of whether or not we like Zillow, we must optimize their platform on behalf of their clients, as they remain the number one visited real estate website in the U.S. If you’d like to see everything we do to ensure our client’s homes sell faster and for more, check it out here.

Stephen FitzMaurice, Realtor
Zillow Premiere Agent
Zillow 5 Star Agent

Over 2,000 Home Sales.
Licensed since 2003.

See all of my 12+ designations here.

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What My Clients Are Saying

When my wife and I decided to sell our home we started to search for agents who work for less than the 6% standard commission. Slightly skeptical, I decided to call Stephen for a consultation. Stephen came very prepared with comp sales, marketing techniques, and several other items pertaining to the sale I never would have considered. We sold in six days.

Denny