RE Industry Should Back Identity 2.0
Ines Hegedus-Garcia at AgentGenius asked an important question today, Is your on-line reputation being smeared? Micheal Wurzer on FBS Blog pondered recently How Consumers Choose An Agent. They’re both important questions that are really tackling the same issue from different sides.
Establishing an online identity and monitoring online reputation is absolutely critical in the digital age we now live in. Consumers are online looking for you and they want that information.
I’ve been writing about this particular concept really since I started this blog and I continue to evangelize the concept wherever and whenever I do public speaking.
For some background on the issue, familiarize yourself with some of these past posts:
- How Do You Measure Your Reputation?
- Rise in Internet Use Reinforces the Need for a Cohesive Identity Strategy
- The Rise of the User Review
- The Search for Perfect Agent
- Local Search Will Affect Your Business
It’s a topic I hope we’ll be covering at this year’s Real Estate Connect SF. Let’s call it, dealing with Identity 2.0.
The good news is that 2008 seems also to be year that some real strides are being made to respond to the issue. Just a few of the initiatives under way:
AgentRank launched today from the minds behind RealtyBaron. AgentRank proposes to assign agents a ranking from 1 to 10 much like Google’s PageRank for web sites. They’ve built an API to make it even easier for other sites to embed these rankings.
IncredibleAgents, another user review site for real estate agents, just updated its site with a clean new design to make it even easier to search for an agent. IA assigns a numerical value to agents as well.
NoMoreDoorKnocking.com, the secretive new venture by the folks at VendAsta, is based around providing just that bridge between identity and reputation through your social graph. They’ve just released a CommonCraft-style video that explains some of what they’re working on.
But as much as I cheer these entrepreneurs coming in and providing solutions to the issue of Identity 2.0 - I can’t help but wonder, shouldn’t this be something the industry takes the lead on?
Isn’t one of the biggest questions a consumer has, “Where can I find a good real estate agent?” (Good being the operative word here…) I’m not sure why the industry is surrendering its role in answering this question.
I’m convinced this is something that NAR or the local Associations should get behind.
Give us a way to rate, rank and review your membership.
Especially if it were done in a totally transparent and honest manner, so the rating was not up for abuse or gaming.
This could be a great way to restore trust in a profession that’s taken a beating over the last few years. I think it could be a important healing step for this industry to acknowledge the bad and simultaneously promote the good.
Now this is probably just wishful thinking…
But let’s face it - there absolutely needs to be a way to separate good agents (of which there are many) from the not so good.
And until there is, the good continue to get lumped in with the bad. Until then, there’ll still be questions about the value of 6% commission. Until then, you’ll continue to see sites like OutrageousAgents.com flourish. Until then, you’ll still hear terms like ‘Realtards’ bandied about. Until then, Realtors will continue to be one of the lowest regarded professions (see Harris Poll).
I’d just like it all to happen sooner rather than later.
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12 Comment(s)
4 Trackback(s)
- From Morning Market Reads : | Mar 19, 2008
- From blog » Blog Archive » RE Industry Should Back Identity 2.0 | Mar 19, 2008
- From Realtor Ratings and Reputation 2.0 « Brendan’s Blog | Mar 19, 2008
- From Real Estate Roundup - Week 12 | eCommission Blog | Mar 21, 2008
Andrew | Mar 18, 2008 | Reply
I checked out the API for AgentRank. Looks easy to embed rankings into our site, but can users also create new rankings via the API?
cgmckeever | Mar 18, 2008 | Reply
still think the concept of non-verifed ranking needs to be flushed out. We used QSC at pru. Of course, this didn’t take into account the clients that left you before a deal occurred, so it may also be slanted
Andrew | Mar 18, 2008 | Reply
The only way to get this concept to work would be for a third party company to partner with various agencies. The third party company would mail out an agent feedback request form that rates the consumers experience with the agent. When the consumer sends back the feedback form to the third party company they could rank via algorithm and score the agent. Perhaps everytime an “agency disclosure” is signed this would tell the third party company to send out a feedback request. This would not be an easy task to take on because of all the intricacies involved.
marc | Mar 18, 2008 | Reply
Andrew,
The API is read-only at the moment. However, I do have plans to add a “writable” API to allow rankings to be created/updated. “Writable” presents a different set of programming challenges so maybe later this year.
BTW, thanks for the inclusion, Joel
ines | Mar 18, 2008 | Reply
The good news is that I received my google alert for this - so the monitoring is working.
As for the turn the conversation has taken I find it extremely interesting. I don’t think there will ever be an objective way to rate a real estate agent’s performance.
The customer that likes my competitor Joe’s style, will not like mine because it is about relationships and those are impossible to rate. I can tell you that there are customers that love giving feedback and others that don’t - there will always be a way to manipulate a system to give the wrong or less than accurate information.
For now, people like me keep proving our worth and competence in the industry.
Heath Coker | Mar 18, 2008 | Reply
I agree with Ines. Proving worth by competence is best. Consumers surf through pics and sites and then talk to who they think appears best.
Personal conversation/interaction is still the best ranker. Even the best have customers who might report a problem and vise versa.
Right now, if a website is friendly, organized, and updated, you will probably find a agent who is also.
Tony Arko | Mar 18, 2008 | Reply
Joel, If you want to know why the industry won’t rate their agents drop me a line and I’ll tell you what they say about this. I have proposed it at several different levels and have run into the same wall everytime.
Tim O'Keefe | Mar 19, 2008 | Reply
It seems to me that these things are really just idealistic that in the end will not carry much validity.
In the days of multiple fake emails and multiple fake alias names, gaming these systems I am guessing would be childs play.
Sooo how long will it be before the technically savy game these?
In the end the old school presentation is what will sway the buyer or seller to sign on the dotted line. To get to the signing table the agent needs to manage online and offline reputation, by simply creating more pages than these types of sites. Besides unless one is looking for these BBB type sites they are probably not going to show up in most standard search results. So you will have to know to look for it.
BBB copycats have come and gone since the mid 90’s online. How many people call the BBB?
Rusty Lindquist | Mar 20, 2008 | Reply
I read your blog every day, but think this is the first time I’ve actually commented (shame on me). I agree that it’s hard to rank services because we each (as consumers) have such varying demands and expectations, but I expect there’s a way to do it appropriately.
On a side note, there’s an additional video on Identity20.com (http://www.identity20.com/media/OSCON2005/) that talks about what people outside the industry are doing.
Rusty
Brad | Mar 21, 2008 | Reply
Lets take the lead from an impetus of changin our country: college studnets. ratemyprofessors.com has changed the way students in higher education pick which classes they will take.
Real Estate Guru | Mar 21, 2008 | Reply
Yeah there is a site called movoto.com and they basically ranks the agents for you. They use the top 3-5% of agents working locally in your area and then they refer you to them. The one I was referred to was highly competent and helped me buy my home right away. Its really practical to know that your agent has been selected for being the best!
Check out http://www.movoto.com I highly recommend it
Agent Scoreboard | Mar 24, 2008 | Reply
Speaking as someone that has been trying to sell the concept to both Brands and Assocations alike… Agent ratings are the “third rail” of the industry right now. Everyone thinks its a great idea, but very few of the industry’s leaders are strong enough to push it through. The ones that have and we are currently working with, have all had to make severe concessions, such as the ability for an agent to “opt-out”, defeats the purpose but got the support of the agent representatives.
Online rankings will get there… I think it will be hard to find anyone that will use them seriously or invest heavily until this mortgage mess is cleared up.