Thanks to a comment in my last post, I was directed to AgentLine, a new site (as of March 2006) that hopes to provide ratings for real estate agents nationwide.
So far, I like what I see. The site is nicely designed with a simple, clean interface that allows me to quickly and intuitively do what I want, which is find the rankings for a particular agent.
The biggest problems I foresee for this site are twofold, the first being maintenance. I scanned through the agents in Portland for just our company and found several listings that were already out of date. A database this large is going to require a huge amount of daily upkeep, our brokerage alone sees new agents leaving and joining us every week. Keeping AgentLine's database current and relevant is going to be a huge challenge that's not unsurmountable given enough resources to do so.
Which leads me to the second problem. Revenue model. I don't see a clear revenue stream from this site. Is it advertising? Is it "Premium Service" model? It's not totally clear to me how this site expects to stay in business.
That said, I wish them well. I like their product and I think a site like Agentline is long overdue and could help bring some much needed accountability to the real estate industry.
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