Zillow announced Wednesday that it’s rolling out a new feature that will allow consumers to rate and review the companies that built their new construction homes.
The new feature is called Builder Ratings and Reviews, and it will ultimately display the consumer ratings on builders’ profiles, listings and community pages on Zillow’s website. In a statement on the feature, Zillow described the reviews and ratings as “rich, buyer-generated content” that “addresses a common desire among new construction home shoppers interested in learning more about the company building their home.”
Lucy Wohltman
“Builder Ratings and Reviews provides our customers with the confidence to pursue the home of their dreams, and gives our partners the tools they need to manage their reputation,” Lucy Wohltman, Zillow’s vice president of new construction, added in the statement.
Zillow will collect reviews by surveying consumers when they move into a new home. The survey will touch on consumers’ “overall experience, the quality of their home, builder responsiveness, the confidence they have in a builder and whether or not they would recommend that builder to other home buyers,” according to Zillow’s statement.
Homebuilders that already use Promoted Communities — a service that boosts exposure for new construction companies’ properties — can opt into the Builder Ratings and Reviews program for free.
In addition to helping consumers get information about builders, Zillow also believes the new program will help builders “enhance their reputation, and influence customer decisions during a critical time in the home shopping journey,” the statement adds.
The new program comes after Zillow discovered that “76 percent of new construction buyers say that reputation is very or extremely important,” according to the company’s statement.
It also comes after the company has gradually built out a more robust set of features for new homebuilders. For example, in 2018 Zillow rolled out a suite of discounted services such as 3D renderings and interactive floor plans for builders. And late last year the company debuted a one-click tour feature.
Like the new review program, those previously announced tools were available to members of the Promoted Communities service.
In her statement, Wohltman also framed Builder Ratings and Reviews as part of Zillow’s ongoing efforts to give consumers more information generally.
“Zillow was founded on the core value of ‘turning on the lights,’ arming consumers with the information they need to make what will likely be the biggest purchase decision of their life,” she said.