Zillow Reviews for Agents: How to Get Them, Reply and Handle Bad Ones

Zillow reviews for agents appear on your Zillow agent profile, where buyers and sellers see your overall rating, written reviews and sales history before they contact you. The best way to build them is to request a review from every past client through Zillow’s review request tools soon after closing, reply to each review briefly and professionally, and report only reviews that break Zillow’s guidelines. You can’t delete a genuine review, so a steady flow of new ones is your main protection against an unfair one.

This guide explains how Zillow reviews work, how to ask for them, what to write in replies and how to handle the difficult ones.

How Zillow reviews for agents work

Every licensed agent who has claimed a Zillow profile can collect reviews there. A few features matter most:

• Reviews sit next to your sales history. Visitors see your transactions, your rating and your reviews on the same page, so recent activity and recent reviews reinforce each other.
• Ratings go beyond a single star score. Reviewers typically rate specific skills, such as local knowledge, process expertise, responsiveness and negotiation, alongside the overall rating. Those details tell a prospect what kind of agent you are.
• You can reply publicly. A professional reply appears with the review and is read by prospects as closely as the review itself.
• You can request reviews. Zillow’s agent tools let you send review requests to past clients. The exact steps change as Zillow updates its tools, so check Zillow’s agent help pages for the current process.
• Reviews that break Zillow’s rules can be reported. Genuine negative reviews generally stay up.

Zillow is one of several places clients check. Google, Realtor.com, your brokerage’s site and sometimes Yelp all show reviews too, and our real estate reputation management page covers how they fit together. Our guide to real estate agent reviews covers asking and replying across all of them.

Why Zillow reviews matter for your business

A seller interviewing agents often looks each candidate up on Zillow before the listing appointment. A buyer who found a home on Zillow may compare the listing agent with the agents shown alongside it. In both cases, your profile is doing the first round of screening for you.

Recency matters as much as volume. A profile with dozens of reviews, the newest from several years ago, raises the question of whether you’re still active. A smaller number of recent reviews that mention specific neighborhoods and situations often reads as more credible.

How to get more Zillow reviews, step by step

1. Claim and complete your profile. Add a current photo, your service areas, specialties, languages and a short bio. Make sure past sales are connected to your profile so they display correctly.
2. Build a request into your closing checklist. Ask every client, buyers and sellers, within a week or two of closing, while the experience is fresh. Don’t only ask the clients who seemed happiest.
3. Send the request through Zillow’s tools. This connects the review to your profile and makes it easy for the client.
4. Follow up once, personally. A short text a few days later helps, since many clients mean to write a review and simply forget.
5. Go back to past clients. If you’ve closed deals but never asked for reviews, a polite note to clients from the last year or two is reasonable.
6. Don’t offer anything in return. Gift cards or closing-gift upgrades tied to a review are incentives. The FTC’s 2024 rule on consumer reviews prohibits conditioning incentives on positive reviews, and platforms generally treat paid reviews as a violation.

A request message can be as simple as this:

Hi Jordan, congratulations again on the new house. If you have a few minutes, I’d really appreciate an honest review of working with me on Zillow. It helps future buyers know what to expect. Here’s the link. Thanks so much.

The same routine works for Google. Our guide on how to get more Google reviews covers that side, and many agents send the Zillow and Google requests in separate messages a few days apart so clients aren’t asked for two things at once.

How to reply to Zillow reviews

Positive reviews

Keep replies short and personal. Mention something specific without sharing private details about the deal, such as price, financing or the client’s circumstances.

Thank you, Priya. Helping you find a place close to the park with room for a home office was a real pleasure. Enjoy the new neighborhood.

Negative reviews

Remember that your reply is really written for the next prospect. It should show that you listen, stay calm under pressure and respect confidentiality.

Thank you for the feedback. I’m sorry the closing didn’t go the way you hoped. Delays with the lender were frustrating for everyone, and I understand you wanted more frequent updates. I’ve changed how I communicate during financing so clients hear from me at every stage. I’d welcome the chance to talk with you directly.

Avoid disclosing offer amounts, inspection results, the other party’s behavior or anything the client told you in confidence. Avoid anything that could touch on a protected class under fair housing law, even in passing. And don’t argue about the facts in public. Our review response examples guide has more wording you can adapt.

What to do about an unfair Zillow review

Unfair reviews happen. A buyer who lost a bidding war, a seller unhappy with the market, or the other side of the transaction may post something harsh.

1. Check who wrote it. If the reviewer was never your client, for instance a party on the other side of the deal or someone you’ve never worked with, note that. Zillow’s review guidelines address who can review an agent, so this can be a valid reason to report it.
2. Check the content against Zillow’s guidelines. Reviews containing personal information, discriminatory language, threats or content unrelated to the agent’s service may break the rules.
3. Report it with specifics. Explain which guideline the review breaks and why, briefly and factually.
4. Reply regardless. Even if you report it, a calm reply protects you while Zillow reviews the report.
5. Ask other clients for reviews. New, genuine reviews put one outlier in context.

If a review states things that are false as fact rather than opinion, and it’s causing real harm, talk to a lawyer before taking any action. Our guide on defamation vs opinion explains the difference in general terms. Threatening a client with legal action over an honest review usually backfires and draws more attention to it.

A worked example

Here is an illustrative scenario, not a real agent. A buyer’s agent in a busy suburb has a strong Zillow profile but only a handful of reviews, most from years ago. She has closed many deals since, but never built reviews into her routine.

A new one-star review arrives from a seller she represented the buyer against. The seller complains that the agent “lowballed” them. The agent reports it to Zillow, explaining that the reviewer was on the other side of the transaction, and posts a short, calm reply that she can’t discuss the negotiation but respects the seller’s view.

She then adds a review request to her closing checklist and sends a personal note to the clients from her last year of deals. Over the following months, new reviews arrive that mention her patience with first-time buyers and her knowledge of the local schools. Whether or not Zillow removes the outlier, it now sits below a run of recent, specific feedback. Results depend on the agent and the market, and none of this is assured, but it’s the pattern that holds up.

Common mistakes with Zillow reviews

• Asking only the easy clients. Selective requests skew your rating and cross into review gating, which platforms and regulators take seriously.
• Writing reviews for yourself or having friends do it. Reviews that don’t reflect a real transaction break Zillow’s rules and can undermine trust in the whole profile.
• Revealing deal details in replies. Price, financing or inspection issues belong to your client.
• Ignoring your profile between deals. An outdated photo or old brokerage looks careless to prospects.
• Relying on Zillow alone. Many prospects check Google too. Spread requests across the platforms your clients use.

Frequently asked questions

Can an agent delete a Zillow review?

No. Agents can’t delete reviews from their Zillow profile. You can report a review that breaks Zillow’s review guidelines, and Zillow decides whether to remove it. Genuine negative reviews usually stay up.

Who can leave a Zillow review for an agent?

Reviews are meant to come from people who actually worked with the agent, such as buyers and sellers they represented. Check Zillow’s current review guidelines for the details, as they are updated from time to time.

How do I ask a client for a Zillow review?

Use the review request tools in your Zillow agent account and send the request soon after closing, then follow up once with a short personal message. Ask every client, not just the happiest ones, and don’t offer any reward.

Should I reply to every Zillow review?

It’s good practice. A short thank-you for positive reviews and a calm, confidential reply to negative ones shows prospects how you work. Never share details of a client’s transaction.

Are Zillow reviews more important than Google reviews for agents?

Both matter. Zillow reviews are seen by people browsing homes and comparing agents on Zillow, while Google reviews show when someone searches your name or brokerage. Most agents benefit from building both.