It was reported to us by a client that agents were losing their Trulia profile reviews. Upon further investigation I found this to be true statement but with some qualifiers.
So here are some pros and cons of the big Zillow/Trulia merger.
Pros
- Once the merger is complete there will be one profile for agents to update. With the advent of the Premier Agent Program, there will be one place for your VA to manage your profile and your advertising across both the Zillow and Trulia platforms.
- Zillow and Trulia will have integrated advertising. This means your “paid” investment will have you appearing in both platforms for the same zipcodes. Kind of double your money.
- Mobile advertising is also being included across both platforms and co-marketing with a lender has been extended. The mobile advertising is geo-targeted and puts you in front of buyers and sellers in your area.
Cons
- Trulia reviews have gone missing. Zillow has been manually moderating all of the reviews on the Trulia platform in preparation for the merge. During this time, some agent’s Trulia reviews will just not be coming back.
- Upon checking out their combined Zillow/Trulia FAQs, they have a short review section which states that Zillow reviews are carefully screened and that Trulia review policies were not as strict, therefore in transferring reviews the ones that don’t meet the Zillow criteria will be lost.
- In an article I found it stated that “Zillow removed all Trulia reviews which focused on an agent’s character”. Zillow is looking for reviews that talk more to the quality of service received.
- Trulia has also stated it will not restore any deleted reviews.
So your major takeaway? If you haven’t already done it, get your VA to copy your Trulia reviews and get them placed on your personal website. This way those past client reviews can be saved from the depths of the abyss.
Once a combined Zillow platform is presented later this quarter begin asking past clients for reviews but qualify that their review should be a “quality of service” review and not a character study.
REVS will keep an eye on this whole merger since all of our clients are using either Zillow, Trulia or both platforms and we will get out updates once the combined platform is released. Let us do the worrying so you don’t have too!