Rules of the Road

Imagine looking up reviews for a local restaurant that will be hosting a large and important event for you. You wouldn’t want to see reviews from people who had never eaten at the restaurant, nor would you want to read reviews from the chef or another staff member who works there. Those opinions are biased and aren’t helpful for what you’re looking for.

The same idea applies to how we look at customer reviews on Zillow. Other real estate professionals are not allowed to leave you a review unless you worked with them on their own personal transactions. Family and friends are also not permitted to leave you a review unless they too have worked with you on a transaction.

We only allow clients who have worked with you personally to leave you a review. They are not required to have closed a loan with you, but they will have had to communicate with you in some way. Reviewers must also have a Zillow Group profile and provide details about the experience they had with you, including what service you provided to them.

We may also return a review to your client for revision if their review appears to be incomplete or if it doesn’t contain enough information to be considered helpful. There’s a minimum of 250 characters required for each review and the more descriptive they are in depicting their experience, the better.

It’s a best practice to ask open-ended questions when reaching out to ask for a review. Questions such as, “How did I exceed your expectations?” or “Why would you recommend me to a friend or family member?” are great ways to get your customers to write a great review for you.