Zillow Releases New Real Estate Agent Finder

Home shopping online is easy – shouldn’t finding the best real estate agent be, too? Unfortunately, it’s hard to think of anything more overwhelming than searching Google for “real estate agent” plus any given geographic area (eg. “Portland”, “Oregon”, “Beaverton”) and sorting through the results. In the flood of faces, blogs, websites, reviews and listings, there’s no great way to start making comparisons.

Zillow has just made this process a whole lot easier with its Agent Finder service, also available as a mobile app. It’s the first search engine for real estate agents, and the best thing about it is that reviews are front and center. Start by simply entering the city you would like your real estate agent to be based in, then add search parameters like the agents’ specialties, whether they primarily act as a sellers’ or a buyers’ agent, and even the languages they speak!

Zillow Agent Finder results can be sorted by the agent’s number of listings, how many recent sales, the most active agent and the agent with the most local reviews. A quote from an actual review appears on the results page, and clicking on the agent’s name gives you more detailed information, laid out in a standardized format that makes it easy to compare and contrast agents.

There’s only one catch – Zillow’s “featured” agents will always appear at the top of the search results. “Featured” just means that the agent has paid to have their listing appear above all the others, so it’s another form of advertising. Not a bad way for Zillow to fund all the free services it offers to real estate buyers and sellers, but something that users should be aware of!

Having access to online reviews about Portland real estate agents not only helps consumers make an informed choice when it comes to representation in buying or selling a home, but I think it also makes agents more accountable. Most searchers will go with one of the top ten choices that come up in the Agent Finder if that’s where they are going to choose their real estate agent. Other than paying Zillow to be featured, selling more properties or getting more reviews is the only way for an agent to rank higher in the search results. That’s a powerful incentive for all of us to work harder to serve our clients.

By the way, you’ll easily find me on Zillow by searching for agents in Portland, Oregon. With over 50 highly positive reviews and 100 homes sold in the last year alone, there are plenty of reasons to choose myself (Stephen FitzMaurice) as your Portland real estate agent, whether you’re buying or selling.