Your Past Sales Are Crucial to Your Current Reputation

When consumers visit a property search portal, they're looking at homes but also absorbing information about agents. Whether they're buying or selling, consumers pay attention to agents that have had successful transactions. They're interested in finding the person that, in their mind, is going to provide the best possible outcome.

The primary way consumers can investigate an agent's "track record" of successfully closed transactions is through sold data. They can access this information in two main ways--by searching recently sold properties and by viewing individual agent profiles. Let's take a closer look at how each of the top three portals handles sold data.

How Portals Display Sold Data

All three major portals allow consumers to search recently sold listings. Zillow and Trulia both display the buyer side and listing side agents under the "History" section of their property pages. Realtor.com offers this information beneath the "Listing Provider" heading. For agents who have "claimed" their previous sales or whose brokerages who supply sold data to the portals, the agent's name is linked to their profile where consumers can find the agent's contact info, read client recommendations, and more.

When sold data is not provided by either the agent, their broker or MLS, no name at all appears (see the image below). This is a missed opportunity to connect with seller leads. Owners who are considering listing their home are most likely to search Recently Sold data in order to get a feel for current market pricing.

Where the portals differ most in is the depth of the previous sales that are allowed on their profiles. Realtor.com only offers sold data for the previous 24 months; Zillow and Trulia have no such restrictions.

If your broker or MLS doesn't provide sold information to portals, you can add your prior transactions manually to Zillow and Trulia (Realtor.com doesn't allow this). Here's how:

• Zillow
• Trulia

The benefit to providing sold data is that you're building a verified, public track record of success. This bolsters your online reputation, and helps you connect with buyers, sellers, and even past clients who may have forgotten which agent they worked with previously.