SEATTLE, Jan. 13, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Real estate website Zillow.com®  today launched the ability for home buyers and sellers to search for and find local real estate agents based on ratings and reviews from former clients.  Thousands of consumers have rated and reviewed their agents since Zillow launched the ability to review agents in December. Now, Zillow has made these reviews discoverable, enabling consumers to search for local agents in the Zillow Directory, and compare ratings and reviews to find an agent that's best for them.

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Over 13 million people(1) visit Zillow each month, and many have not yet found a real estate agent to help them buy or sell their home.  Knowing others' experiences with a particular agent is valuable information for potential home buyers and sellers to have before selecting a real estate agent.

"Zillow was created to help people make smarter real estate decisions, and choosing an agent is one of the most important decisions a buyer or seller can make," said Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff. "Agent Reviews are another huge step towards transparency for buyers and sellers. For good agents, it's a terrific way to stand out from the crowd – the next best thing to a referral. "

When visitors use the Zillow Directory to search for a real estate agent in their area, results are sorted by local agents with the highest overall ratings and greatest number of reviews.  Overall ratings are based on a consumer's likelihood to recommend, running on scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being "very likely" and 1 "very unlikely".  Consumers can compare agents' overall ratings, as well as ratings across several categories of service including: process expertise, local knowledge, responsiveness and negotiation skills.  Along with ratings, qualitative reviews further help consumers understand a former client's experience with that agent.

Consumers can access ratings and reviews everywhere they interact with agents on Zillow.com – such as for-sale listings, or when agents answer questions in Zillow Advice, since reviews are connected to an agent's Zillow profile.

Current and former clients can also rate and review their agents who have profiles on Zillow by searching for the agent in the Zillow Directory.

About Zillow.com®

Zillow.com is an online real estate marketplace where homeowners, buyers, sellers, renters, real estate agents and mortgage professionals find and share vital information about homes and mortgages. Launched in early 2006 with Zestimate® home values  and data on millions of U.S. homes, Zillow has since added homes for sale and homes for rent, a directory of real estate and lending professionals, Zillow Advice, Zillow Mobile apps and Zillow Mortgage Marketplace. One of the most-visited U.S. real estate websites, with more than 13 million unique visitors per month, Zillow's goal is to help people become smarter about homes and real estate in every stage of their lives -- home buying, selling, renting, remodeling and financing. 

Zillow.com, Zillow and Zestimate are registered trademarks of Zillow, Inc.

(1) Unique users to Zillow are measured by Omniture, December 2010.

SOURCE Zillow.com