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Sites Ranking Agents Dicey

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By SHANNON BEHNKEN

sbehnken@tampatrib.com

Published: November 29, 2008

TAMPA - If buying a home is the biggest purchase a family makes, choosing the right real estate agent must be pretty important, too.

Most homebuyers pick an agent based on referrals from friends or family. But there's a new method emerging: Web sites that rank agents.

But can these rankings be trusted? The Web site approaches vary and so do the results.

Some sites allow clients to do the ranking and post feedback - good or bad. Some rank agents on information that can be documented, such as how many homes they have sold, how much experience they have and how many positive testimonials clients post.

Agents solicit comments from clients for some sites. Other sites rely only on feedback from randomly surveyed customers.

For example, ZipRealty.com, an online real estate brokerage, hires a vendor to interview and rank its agents.

Sites such as AgentRank.com, HomeGain.com and IncredibleAgents.com are databases of agent profiles. The sites' success depends on agents, since they're the ones who volunteer to participate.

As a result, information is sometimes sparse. For example, a search for Tampa agents on AgentRank.com shows just 12. Also, the site doesn't accept unsolicited reviews, although company officials say they plan to do so soon.

HomeGain.com ranks agents with up to five stars based on consumer feedback. To get the five stars, though, agents need only five good testimonials, and they choose what feedback to post.

Matt Malmgren, senior manager of client services for HomeGain.com, said the site performs audits of agent profiles. Last year an agent was booted because of allegations of fraud. Before that, he had a star rating of four to five.

"It can be misleading," Malmgren said.

But it's no more misleading than speaking to agents directly, he said.

"If you meet an agent on the street, they're only going to give you testimonials they want to give you," he said.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. Reporter Shannon Behnken can be reached at (813) 259-7804.

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