Zillow Agent Finder Alternatives
So, you’ve decided it’s time to sell or buy a home. How do you find a reputable and experienced agent to help you? You could go with the agent attached to a property you like or the one showing it at an open house, but how much do you know about that person and their experience?
In our 2022 Real Estate Agent Forecast, we reported that after the 1.4 million record high in 2021, the number of real estate agents is expected to grow to 1.55 million in 2022. Oregon has a total of 17,000, and over 8,000 of those are in the Portland metro area.
With all these options it can be hard to know where to start. Buying a home or selling a home will be one of the biggest financial decisions of your life, we can’t stress enough how important it is to find an experienced real estate agent.
We’ve recommended the Top 5 Sites to Help you Choose a Real Estate Agent in 2021. In this article, we want to focus on a few things you should know Zillow Agent Finder and why finding an alternative might be a good idea.
How Zillow Used to Rank Real Estate Agents
Zillow Agent Finder used to rank agents based on their amount of sales. This allowed interested consumers to sort through real estate agents and make informed decisions based on proof of number of homes they helped buyers purchase or sellers sell in a local area.
They also used to restrict the number of people that could be on a single profile. Top agents had their own profile and would rise to the top based on actual sales experience.
How Zillow Agent Finder Now Ranks / Sorts Real Estate Agents
Zillow now allows a single profile to contain hundreds of agents (Realty company profiles) and sorts who shows up first based on the total number of accumulated reviews all of the agents have received combined. So the top profile in Zillow Agent Finder, in most locations, is now a Realty company with hundreds of agents (all of which could be brand new to the industry).
The Problem with Zillow Agent Finder
The result of this is that it skews the information/data for the user/consumer who needs a single agent to represent them in a home sale or purchase.
The consumer now has to sort through large company or team profiles to find any single agent with a successful sales record.
Rather than being able to sort by most homes sold and find an experienced agent, Zillow Agent Finder will show you which companies, agents, or teams have collected the most reviews. And there is NO WAY to sort out companies from the list. Collecting reviews should be done in an honest and transparent fashion, but I can tell you that I’ve found plenty of real estate agent profiles with more reviews than actual sales.
The unfortunate outcome of the new platform is that it has led to some companies and agents to collect reviews that may not be genuine just to rank higher.
The bottom line is this: Zillow Agent Finder should now be called Realty Reviews Collection Ranker.
Zillow Agent Finder Alternatives
Realtor.com Find Realtor Feature – We love this Realtor.com Agent Finder because you can easily sort all of the Realtors in an area by the most sales. Unfortunately the way it is set up by default is it will show you whichever Realtor completed the last sale in the area – even if it was their first ever sale. So you have to select a different filter after visiting this feature, because the default one is basically worthless.
Realtors are licensed with the State. So if you’re looking for an agent to help you buy or sell a home, be sure to check the status of their license with the state you’re in and read about any filed consumer complaints. Here is the link for Oregon and for Washington.
Do your own research. Lots of top producing agents have their own websites. Search for a Realtor in your area and shop around. Check out their sales and client reviews.
Looking for an Experienced Real Estate Agent in Oregon or Washington?
Our team of top 1% buyers agents and 1% sellers agents have been helping home sellers and buyers since 2003 in Oregon and Washington with over 2,000 local sales. Between our vast experience and knowledge of the ever changing real estate market, you can trust us to help you on your home buying journey. Give us a call today!
