SAN JOSE, Calif., Nov. 13, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- One of the
most confusing and angst-ridden aspects of buying or selling a home
– how to select the right real estate professional –
has become significantly more simple and straightforward. News
Corp [NASDAQ: NWS, NWSA] [ASX: NWS, NWSLV] subsidiary Move, Inc.,
operator of realtor.com®, today announced agreements to add content
from Quality Service Certification, Inc. (QSC), RealSatisfied and
Testimonial Tree to agent profiles on realtor.com®, becoming the
first online real estate website to offer a consolidated view of
reliable information for consumers researching potential agents
online.
Content from these three trusted real estate professional
evaluation services will integrate with realtor.com®'s new agent
profile and ratings and reviews system to deliver information about
agents based on a consistent set of criteria for evaluating a real
estate professional, and information must adhere to stringent
policies about how the information is displayed.
"Buyers and sellers of homes rely on an agent with one of the
biggest investments in their lives, and they spend inordinate
amounts of time doing their due diligence to select someone they
can feel confident about," said Tapan
Bhat, chief product officer at Move. "It's important for
them to have a resource they can trust – one that offers
consistent quantifiable metrics around an agent's performance and
that provides a clear and reliable portrayal of the qualitative
aspects as well."
Realtor.com® is the first online real estate destination to base
its ratings and reviews on guidelines for professional evaluation
established last year by the National Association of REALTORS®
(NAR), which represents more than a million Realtors® in the U.S.
Unlike competitors, realtor.com® rules require that agent
ratings and reviews come only from clients who have closed a
transaction with a particular Realtor®. And, while agents can
choose whether or not to participate in the program, the decision
is all-in or all-out, rather than allowing agents to cherry-pick
only the best reviews to show to potential clients.
The realtor.com® system consists of ratings and reviews that
align with NAR's guidelines and require consumers to certify that
they have closed an actual transaction with the agent. The system
also incorporates recommendations which can be provided by friends,
family and colleagues. The combined system provides a standard for
transaction-based information while allowing all agents to showcase
their professionalism.
RealSatisfied has worked closely with realtor.com® and industry
leaders over the past two years, collaborating to develop a
solution that addresses the industry's concerns about how their
performance is displayed online, while delivering the trustworthy
content that consumers need when researching an agent.
"Brokers and agents have consistently communicated that they
want and need a solution that allows them to easily syndicate the
ratings and recommendations they collect as part of their customer
satisfaction programs," said Jeff
Turner, president of RealSatisfied. "From the very
beginning, realtor.com® has supported this notion and their
decision to continue to support this as part of their new platform
is a testament to their forward-thinking approach to agent
performance evaluation data. We are proud to be a part of this
solution."
Leveraging the abundance of reliable data collected by trusted
affiliates while carefully managing the integrity of the new
solution was no small challenge. The integration of third-party,
transaction-based ratings and reviews content into the realtor.com®
system is made possible by matching the external data to the
criteria established by realtor.com® for display where
possible.
The affiliation is a natural fit for QSC, which has nearly 20
years invested in the business of agent performance, and provides
ratings and reviews as part of an operational enhancement program
for brokers designed to make agents better through training and
feedback. With more than 1.5 million surveys in the field to date,
today more than 95 percent of buyers and sellers are 'satisfied or
very satisfied' with agents participating in QSC's program,
including 84 percent that are very satisfied, compared to a
national average of approximately 58 percent.
"QSC was the first to offer consumers reliable information to
make better, more informed decisions by collecting feedback only
from real customers and after every closed transaction," said
Kevin Romito, president and COO of
QSC. "Through this agreement, realtor.com® will provide millions of
consumers access to a level of accuracy and transparency not
available anywhere else, and for participating brokers and agents,
this will be a powerful differentiator and competitive
advantage."
Realtor.com®'s recent agreement with Testimonial Tree will
enable testimonials collected by real estate professionals to be
integrated within recommendations at realtor.com®, and adds a
social element to agents' profiles. "By leveraging the power of
connections through friends and family on their channels of choice,
agents are able to publish testimonials to their realtor.com®
profiles as well as to their social networks," said Jason Dolle, founder and CEO of Testimonial
Tree. "Our proprietary testimonial capture, management and sharing
tools are helping to enable swift integration of unique user
generated content into the realtor.com® platform."
As credible and reliable content makes its way onto the
realtor.com® profile platform over the coming months from these
partners and through realtor.com®'s built-in evaluation system, the
company expects to see a boost in traffic, engagement and high
quality leads for agents. "The resulting virtuous circle of
visibility, combined with the reliability of the content we are
gathering, fulfills our vision for this solution: to meet the needs
of the consumer for a trustworthy resource while addressing the
complexities of the industry which we are uniquely positioned to
understand," said Bhat. "We are delivering a solution that works –
not just today, but for the years ahead."
About Move, Inc. and realtor.com
Move, Inc. operates the realtor.com® website and mobile
experiences, which provide buyers, sellers and renters of homes
with the information, tools and professional expertise they need to
discover and create their perfect home. News Corp [NASDAQ: NWS,
NWSA; ASX: NWS, NWSLV] acquired Move in November 2014, and realtor.com® quickly
established itself as the fastest growing online real estate
service provider in the first half of 2015 as measured by comScore.
Move's network of websites provides consumers a wealth of
innovative tools, including Doorsteps®, Moving.com™,
SeniorHousingNetSM and others. Move supports real
estate professionals by providing many services to grow their
businesses in an increasing digital, on-demand world, including
ListHub™, the nation's leading listing syndicator and centralized
intelligence platform for the real estate industry; TigerLead®; Top
Producer® Systems FiveStreetSM and Reesio, as well as
many free services.
Forward-Looking Statements
This document contains certain "forward-looking statements"
within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
of 1995. These statements are based on management's views and
assumptions regarding future events and business performance as of
the time the statements are made. Actual results may differ
materially from these expectations due to changes in global
economic, business, competitive market and regulatory and other
factors. More detailed information about these and other factors
that could affect future results is contained in News Corp's
filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The
"forward-looking statements" included in this document are made
only as of the date of this document and we do not have any
obligation to publicly update any "forward-looking statements" to
reflect subsequent events or circumstances, except as required by
law.
Media Contact: Christie
Farrell, christie.farrell@move.com, 408-558-7115
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SOURCE realtor.com