Company rolls out 'verification' service for real estate agents
VerifiedAgent.com corroborates agents' experience, ethical record with third parties
By Inman News, Friday, November 11, 2011.
Consumers now have a place to find real estate agents that have been independently certified to be honest, experienced and professional, according to Verified Professionals LLC. The company rolled out a new service today, VerifiedAgent.com, that it says will create an "objective baseline of professionalism" for real estate agents.
In order to be designated as a "Verified Professional Agent," a real estate professional must work full time in real estate, have a clean record of ethical behavior, have closed at least 24 cumulative sales in the past three years, have at least 10 past clients who would fully recommend the agent to friends and family, and have at least three competing agents from other brands who have completed a transaction with the agent and attest to that agent's professionalism.
"Studies and polls consistently show that the real estate industry has a 'trust and reputation' problem. As a result, we think there is significant pent-up demand for competent, honest agents. Our solution solves that problem, because that's precisely what the verification process does: it identifies the agents with these qualities," said Michael McClure, the company's CEO, in a statement. McClure is a regular contributor at InmanNext, an agent-focused site produced by Inman News.
In order to be verified and listed on VerifiedAgent.com, agents pay a $399 fee for the first year and a $299 fee for reverification in subsequent years, McClure said. Consumers can visit the site and search for qualified agents by ZIP code, location or agent name, at no cost.
In a process Verified Professionals said differentiates it from agent-review sites, the company corroborates agents' applications with pertinent third parties. These parties include each individual agent's broker, applicable state licensing authorities, and directly with each past client and fellow agent suggested by the agent being verified, McClure told Inman News. Each third party will have to electronically sign a document attesting the veracity of the information given to the company, and, for each agent, select parties will be randomly audited and asked to submit additional documentation, McClure added.
He estimated that about 20 percent of real estate professionals would qualify as "Verified Agents."
The verification process both reassures consumers that they are choosing a qualified agent and gives agents a marketing advantage, said Greg Grospitch, the company's COO, in a statement.
"Because we verify the critical client service characteristics that we know people want, and because we do it in an objective, third-party manner, the public now has something solid and tangible on which to stand when choosing their next agent," he said.
"Furthermore, quality agents now have something they can use as the centerpiece of their marketing and branding which clearly states, 'I'm an experienced professional, and I can be trusted. I'm one of real estate's elite.'"
| Contact Inman News: | |||
 Email |  Letter to the Editor | ||
All rights reserved. This content may not be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, in part or in whole, without written permission of Inman News. Use of this content without permission is a violation of federal copyright law.
You must login or register to post a comment.
Submitted by Thomas J. Lucier on November 11, 2011 - 3:57pm.
All I can say is hold onto your wallet with both hands. How exactly is this so-called "agent verification service" going to be able to make any credible guarantee to a real estate consumer, that the agents they have "verified" aren't really sheep in Wolves' clothing? How are they going to verify that the verified agent background information they provide to consumers, is in fact valid? And how are consumers going to know that the satisfied "customer references" and past sales data are on the up and up? But most importantly, why would any successful, honest, competent, trustworthy, knowledgeable Professional Realtor pay some new, unproven "Internet start-up," with no track record, $399 of their hard-earned dollars. I sure as hell wouldn't!
As a nationally recognized real estate industry watchdog and consumer advocate, I pride myself on the fact that I'm considered a "Professional Realtor's Best Friend and a Bad Realtor's Worst Enemy." My beef isn’t with the honest, competent and knowledgeable Professional Realtors, who makeup the top twenty-percent of the membership of the National Association of Realtors. Rather it's with the bottom eighty-percent of the rank and file members of the NAR, who, for the most part,are grossly incompetent, ethically challenged, and downright dishonest. They're known in the business as Bad Realtors and pretty much shunned by most honest, competent and knowledgeable Professional Realtors.
Cheers,
Thomas J. Lucier
Submitted by Thomas J. Lucier on November 11, 2011 - 4:11pm.
Erratum: "wolves in sheep's clothing"
Submitted by Steven Shattow on November 11, 2011 - 5:00pm.
Kudos to VerifiedAgent.com for coming up with another way to capture dollars from Real Estate Agents (and Realtors!) Verification will simply mean that someone was willing to pay the $300 a year to be on a list (after all, who would sign up who doesn't qualify?) Unless they can guarantee me leads from their directory, it seems like a product looking for a market. Yahoo charges me $300 a year to be in their directory, which I figure gives me a much higher rate of return on my investment.
Submitted by Jim Reppond on November 11, 2011 - 5:17pm.
I've long thought that the NAR's class requirement to meet the "Code of Ethics" standard was at best, a bad joke – But don’t worry, you can take the class online to pass the ethics requirement (cough, cough). - YOU CAN'T teach someone to have good character or be ethical! And we all learn and embrace our core values and beliefs at different levels and times in our lives, and with different levels of sincerity and follow-through. Our past record and our client's experience of us is probably a much better measure than any certification, pledge, or promise we make. But as noble as the intent is to set a standard and gauge agent’s integrity, I’m afraid it may be doomed to failure. There will always be those who try to game the system to hide behind their true intent. But I’d like to be optimistic. Let’s see if this system and process does a good job of weeding those people out or not.
Submitted by Michael McClure on November 12, 2011 - 8:35am.
At Verified Professionals, LLC, we appreciate your feedback and input. Responding to the comments made this far, allow us to say the following:
(1) We go to the maximum lengths possible to ensure the veracity of an Agent's Verifying parties. As noted, we contact people independently and directly, and Verification information is subject to random audit in which we request and require Verification candidates to provide more detailed documentation to ensure the veracity of the party in question.
(2) The value of the Verification is not in the mere inclusion of a Verified Professional Agent™ in a searchable directory. We agree that, if that were our primary value proposition, we would be bringing nothing new to a market clearly overcrowded with agent review sites. To be clear: we are NOT an agent review site. What we are is the establisher of an objective "baseline of professionalism" for the real estate industry, and an auditor of whether agents do or do not exceed that baseline.
(3) What the public wants from real estate professionals is clear based on recent relevant research and the various polls that have been conduced by Gallup and Harris Interactive: honest, trustworthy and reputable agents. Can agents be honest, trustworthy and reputable without being a VPA™? Of course they can. We just think that, with so much distrust of the industry, having the Verification provides agents an easier way to objective demonstrate these qualities in a proactive, positive manner.
(4) Continuing, our value proposition includes quite a bit more, which an interested party can review on our website, so there is no need to reiterate those points again here.
(5) Regarding the economics of our value proposition, we know from 21 years of personal experience working in real estate that the difference between winning and losing in an industry that is hyper-competitive (and likely to become even more hyper-competitive in the future) is often razor thin. Having a competitive advantage - even a SLIGHT competitive advantage - can often translate to significant impact on an agent's financial bottom line. We believe the VPA™ Verification provide such a competitive advantage.
(5) We completely respect and consider dissenting views. No product or service is for everyone, and VerifiedAgent certainly will not be the exception. We believe that many will see the value of being able to objectively demonstrate the possession of the critical client service characteristics to their past and future clients, and we believe there is real power in that from a competitive differentiation and personal branding perspective.
Again, thank you for taking the time to weigh in on VerfiedAgent...
Michael McClure
CEO
Verified Professionals, LLC
Submitted by Thomas J. Lucier on November 12, 2011 - 11:51am.
That reads like something right out of the NAR's Ministry of Propaganda. All fluff and no fact.
Submitted by Austin Ball on November 14, 2011 - 9:27am.
I don't think a service like this can simply be dismissed out of hand. Unless you know how much traffic they receive, you can't fairly say that their service isn't worthwhile; I don't know how much realtors make, but I'd bet that getting even one more sale a year from their site would offset the investment.
Personal branding has a legitimate value; you just need to know how to measure it.
What I personally would like to see from them is what their monthly traffic looks like, where it comes from, etc. so I can judge how much it would be worth to be listed on a site such as theirs. I also think it would make sense for negative reviews to be able to affect a realtor's presence on the site. That way realtors can't just barely meet the metrics and cruise from then on :P
Chill on the negativity; if you don't like it, don't buy it. Best of luck w/ your venture, Michael.
Submitted by Michael Didier on November 18, 2011 - 9:15am.
I would meet the criteria to be in the system as I am full time, close over 24 deal in 3 years etc. However until the traffic hits an amount like Realtor.com or zillow not a chance any Realtor would pay that kind of money to sign up.
It is a big country and what works in LA does not work in S/E Wisconsin.
Mike Didier
RE/MAX United
POrt Washington, WI