{"id":600,"date":"2014-03-27T13:32:20","date_gmt":"2014-03-27T17:32:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trepryor.com\/blog\/?p=600"},"modified":"2023-09-09T16:41:10","modified_gmt":"2023-09-09T16:41:10","slug":"do-louisville-realtor-reviews-tell-the-whole-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trepryor.com\/blog\/do-louisville-realtor-reviews-tell-the-whole-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Do Louisville Realtor Reviews Tell the Whole Story?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Back in 2010, I wrote, <a href=\"https:\/\/trepryor.com\/blog\/how-to-find-the-best-realtor-in-louisville\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/trepryor.com\/blog\/how-to-find-the-best-realtor-in-louisville\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">How to Find the Best Realtor\u00ae in Louisville<\/a>, which is another way of asking, &#8220;Who&#8217;s the right Louisville Realtor for me?&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" src=\"https:\/\/trepryor.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/louisville_realtor_reviews-1.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of a woman scowling at your laptop computer\" class=\"wp-image-21722\" srcset=\"https:\/\/trepryor.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/louisville_realtor_reviews-1.jpg 600w, https:\/\/trepryor.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/louisville_realtor_reviews-1-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Reading Louisville Realtor reviews will only tell you part of the story. Be aware of the sleight of hand that websites use to draw you in.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Like most things, there&#8217;s no &#8220;correct&#8221; answer. It depends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Do you want an agent who&#8217;s super-successful and only has a few minutes available for you or a new, hungry agent?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Do you like tons of listings or just a select few?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Would you prefer an agent who is quite friendly and wants to be your BFF or one that&#8217;s all business and focuses on getting the job done?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>If you haven&#8217;t found your Louisville Realtor for life then most real estate clients head to the Internet to find an agent. So, what exactly do they find?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Internet Searching for Realtors Isn&#8217;t As Straight-Forward As You Might Think<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The answer, as expected, is &#8220;It depends.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What you type into the Internet search engine matters a great deal. As does the recent change Google made that defaults to results <em>weighted<\/em> by your browsing history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What does that mean?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It means if you&#8217;ve visited a website, let&#8217;s say <a href=\"http:\/\/trepryor.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">TrePryor.com<\/a>, a couple of times then when searching for a keyword phrase that occurs on this site, those pages will be moved higher in the results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Did you know that? Google calls them <strong>personalized results<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On Google&#8217;s site, click the &#8220;Search Tools&#8221; button which will reveal some additional choices. See that one labeled &#8220;All results&#8221;? That&#8217;s the new Google algorithm that factors in a boatload of variables.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/trepryor.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/google_results.png\" alt=\"Screenshot of Google results with All results default setting\"><br><em>If you want a pure Verbatim set of results you now have to choose that under Search Tools \u00bb Verbatim, otherwise your own browsing habits influence your findings.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Isn&#8217;t that crazy? (Bet you didn&#8217;t think you&#8217;d be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cardinaldigitalmarketing.com\/blog\/a-step-by-step-guide-on-the-6-best-seo-analysis-tools-and-how-to-use-them\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">learning SEO today<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Louisville Realtor Reviews<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>So back to Realtor searching. If you happen to type, &#8220;<strong>Louisville realtor reviews<\/strong>&#8221; in the search engine (and assuming you live closer to Kentucky than you do Louisville, Colorado) then you&#8217;ll likely get results from the following major websites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Zillow and Trulia<\/h3>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"316\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/trepryor.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/zillow-1.png\" alt=\"Zillow screenshot\" class=\"wp-image-20526\" srcset=\"https:\/\/trepryor.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/zillow-1.png 316w, https:\/\/trepryor.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/zillow-1-237x300.png 237w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 316px) 100vw, 316px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Like most web companies, Zillow and Trulia take money to place a Louisville Realtor higher in the results. Online reviews are nice but are they legit?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Unless you&#8217;ve been living under a rock, you&#8217;re probably familiar with Trulia and Zillow, the behemoth web companies that are <strong>technology companies<\/strong>. This is important, they are not real estate experts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Turns out, both of these sites are <em>high<\/em> on customer appeal and <em>short<\/em> on accurate information. It&#8217;s a shame that so many consumers are being hoodwinked. For more, read &#8216;Shopping Local&#8217; applies to Louisville real estate websites too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In our example, Zillow leads the pack with 1,381 results under <strong>Louisville KY Real Estate Agent Reviews<\/strong>. That&#8217;s a lot to sort through, huh? How do you choose the best Realtor for you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most people start at the beginning but notice the &#8220;Featured&#8221; button next to the top three? Those agents have chosen to <em>pay<\/em> Zillow money to have their names come first. Are they the best agents? Not necessarily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Be alert to this because that&#8217;s how much of the Internet works. Pay us money and we&#8217;ll make you look good\u2014a time-honored tradition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to the pay-for-placement, Zillow then displays agents based on the number of reviews. Sounds fair. Most sites work like this, to a certain extent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In order for agents to have a large number of reviews, they must ask their clients to create an account on the website and then provide their ratings\/feedback. Not always a fun request but hard-working agents do deserve some praise, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Just understand that there are ways to job the system. Results are not verifiable nor guaranteed and can be completely fabricated. But what else can an honest, Internet searcher do?<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"316\" height=\"370\" src=\"https:\/\/trepryor.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/angies_list-1.png\" alt=\"Angies List screenshot\" class=\"wp-image-20528\" srcset=\"https:\/\/trepryor.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/angies_list-1.png 316w, https:\/\/trepryor.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/angies_list-1-256x300.png 256w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 316px) 100vw, 316px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Like most web companies, Zillow and Trulia take money to place a Louisville Realtor higher in the results. Online reviews are nice but are they legit? Search engines also fail to return accurate results.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Angie&#8217;s List and Yelp!<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Sure <a href=\"http:\/\/www.angieslist.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Angie&#8217;s List<\/a> will be <em>worthwhile<\/em> in my hunt for the best Louisville Realtor, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well again, there are plot twists. Agents <strong>do not<\/strong> have to pay Angie to get listed but this time consumers do! Money makes the world go &#8217;round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once listed good luck getting noticed. I set up my account years ago and to this day have never seen my listing there, even if I search for &#8220;Tre Pryor&#8221;. Ghosts in the machine?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How about Yelp!? You know, the fun site with all the great restaurant reviews. Do they do Realtors too? Sure do, but&#8230; out of the 42 results for &#8220;realtor agents,&#8221; none have more than one review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is because Yelp!, in their attempt to weed out the bogus reviews (see Zillow, Trulia above) have a system in place that only displays reviews based on criteria that they won&#8217;t share with the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One day a review is up, live to the world, and then next it&#8217;s hidden. How useful is that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Other Websites for Louisville Realtor Reviews<\/h3>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"316\" height=\"282\" src=\"https:\/\/trepryor.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/homethinking-1.png\" alt=\"HomeThinking screenshot\" class=\"wp-image-20529\" srcset=\"https:\/\/trepryor.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/homethinking-1.png 316w, https:\/\/trepryor.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/homethinking-1-300x268.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 316px) 100vw, 316px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">You would think a site run by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) would have quality information, and it does, but that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s primary purpose is to make money for NAR.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Is there a single useful site on any of the Interwebs that can help a Louisvillian find a great Realtor?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"http:\/\/www.merchantcircle.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Merchant Circle<\/a>: 4208 results for &#8220;real estate agents in Louisville, KY&#8221; and <strong>not a single review<\/strong>. Sheesh! Half of the results aren&#8217;t even agents.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.homethinking.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Homethinking<\/a>: Claims &#8220;Realtors are ranked by their past sales and customer reviews&#8221; and for the most part that&#8217;s true. But agents that pay to get listed <em>first<\/em>. Reviews can be submitted by agents so&#8230; how reliable is that?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"http:\/\/www.yellowpages.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Yellowpages<\/a> and other indexes: Paid search placement and not extremely useful.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Recommended Course of Action<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>So where does this leave us? When looking for <strong>Louisville Realtor reviews<\/strong> found online, the results fall into three categories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Worthwhile Realtor Reviews: These are hard to find but when you do, they provide useful guidance.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Worthless Realtor Reviews: These are everywhere and scale from complete fabrications to misleading fodder.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Scams: It wouldn&#8217;t be the Internet if it didn&#8217;t allow nameless cyber-charlatans the opportunity to take advantage of consumers. <br><strong>Bonus<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=PArbZdLf8AI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">5 SEO Scams Everyone Falls For &amp; How To Avoid Them<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>Truthfully, the <strong>best advice<\/strong> is to speak face-to-face with your trusted friends and family about their experience with a Louisville Realtor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;re completely new to an area, conduct a few phone interviews with prospective agents. Get to know them a bit and when the time comes to make a choice, go with your gut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Who knows, maybe you&#8217;ll select an agent you think is <em>worthy<\/em> of your writing a <strong>Louisville Realtor review<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Back in 2010, I wrote, How to Find the Best Realtor\u00ae in Louisville, which is another way of asking, &#8220;Who&#8217;s the right Louisville Realtor for me?&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"0","ocean_second_sidebar":"0","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"0","ocean_custom_header_template":"0","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"0","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"off","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[676,680],"tags":[108],"class_list":["post-600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marketing","category-residential","tag-louisville-realtor-reviews","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trepryor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trepryor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trepryor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trepryor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trepryor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/trepryor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21724,"href":"https:\/\/trepryor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600\/revisions\/21724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trepryor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trepryor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trepryor.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}