CREA membership recently rejected a Rate Your Realtor proposal – a concept that would be unworkable and unfeasible if applied to the broker channel argue some brokers while others are ready to embrace it.
CREA membership recently rejected a Rate Your Realtor proposal – a concept that would be unworkable and unfeasible if applied to the broker channel argue some brokers while others are ready to embrace it.
“Who would be running it? How would it be operated?” asks Ron Butler of Verico Butler Mortgage. “If it is like Angie’s List, then it would be paid for – and you would be ranked as high as what you would pay.”
Following the recent vote at CREA’s annual general meeting, CREA Chair Cliff Iverson was quoted as saying, “There were a number of supporters who saw the benefits of using the service,” but cited a hesitation among realtors to display negative comments from consumers.
Other concerns over such a rating service would be the potential for people or agents to alter or sabotage the ratings, and that new agents wouldn’t get very high ratings.
“I have no issues with a ‘rate your broker’ site,” says Janet MacDonald of The Mortgage Professionals, “I send out client satisfaction surveys to every client and welcome both positive and negative feedback.”
It is the comments, both negative and positive, that fuel MacDonald to become a better broker.
“If you are committed to customer service and treat your clients well, then something like this would benefit those that should and want to be in the industry,” she told MortgageBrokerNews.
CREA’s Iverson was disappointed the membership turned down the Futures Implementation Team Rate Your Realtor proposal, citing several benefits of the service for both consumers and realtors – including the ability to check on realtors consumers are considering using in a transaction, which Iverson felt would promote professionalism for realtors.
Butler sees mortgages as an entirely different product, one that is sometimes judged on emotion by the client.
“When people don’t get qualified, they get mad,” he says. “Sometimes no matter how hard you work, you can’t always deliver; maybe that’s why there is no ‘Rate Your Bank’. That is a universal problem on the internet – people posting comments without accountability.”
Butler adds that CREA could develop such a system, as all realtors are members of CREA; but with mortgage brokers, the various organizations and associations would make it impossible to include everyone and present a fair and level playing field.
“If you have CAAMP running it, then only CAAMP members would be on the list. Do we have IMBA run it?” asks Butler. “We simply don’t have that kind of unification.”
