Everyone's a Critic
Web Sites Gather Home Ratings From All Comers

By Kirstin Downey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 14, 2006

The real estate ad calls the condo a "charming 1-bedroom in the heart of Dupont." The online review, however, says it "Smells Like Cats." A D.C. rowhouse is being advertised as "newly renovated" and "spacious," but a critic labels it "possibly the most overpriced unit I have seen in Washington."

On the Internet, where people can vote on whether others are "hot or not," they can now offer their opinions on houses for sale, too. And just as with Web sites that score people on the basis of physical appeal, the new feature shows that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Not surprisingly, all that feedback is creating an uproar in some Washington area real estate offices.

This innovation comes from two real estate search engines, ZipRealty and Reply.com, which began offering house-rating features in August. ZipRealty, a real estate brokerage firm, calls it a "client rating," while Reply.com, an online marketplace, calls it a "consumer review." Both publish home-sale information available through multiple listing services, and then provide additional links for more information.

Users can add their observations by clicking on a box, and people are doing so. A single-family house in Joppa, Md., is touted by the agent for its cathedral ceilings and oversize windows, but a reviewer notes it is located next to a water tower. Its agent calls an Alexandria home "pristine," but an anonymous critic said he thought it could cost $40,000 to repair the foundation wall where it is pushing into the living room.

Although the comment areas at ZipRealty and Reply.com have been open for only a few months, thousands of Internet surfers have already weighed in with reviews of for-sale houses.

"I think it's very useful," said David Jackson, 26, a systems analyst in Montgomery County, who recently posted a comment on the ZipRealty site about the heavy traffic near one house for sale. "It allows potential buyers to compare notes with each other," he said, and also "helps to level the playing field," so that buyers can share information that the people in the industry may already know.

Consumer reviews are common on Web sites selling commodities, such as eBay, where people can critique the vendors who sold them goods, and Amazon.com, which invites consumers to review books they have read. Some housing-related sites also have comment features. Renters vent about their landlords and building amenities on Apartmentratings.com. Zillow.com permits owners to comment on their own properties, to mention the new deck, granite countertops or other items that can increase the property's estimated value on the Web site.

But some real estate agents say they worry about how malicious, anonymous comments on sites such as ZipRealty and Reply.com could hurt sellers and sales.

"I don't like people slinging mud at other people's listings," said Barbara Gwaltney, an agent with Re/Max Xecutex in Oakton. "I've been in the business 30 years, and I have never seen anything like this."

Maynard Gottlieb of Mr. Lister Realty in Baltimore County said he is worried about the potential for mischief-making. Agents could use it to steal clients from each other or to trash a house competing with their own listing.

"I find it a little troubling," Gottlieb said. "Somebody could have a grudge against somebody. I don't think it's a good idea at all."

Others are flinching but taking it in stride. Ruth Dickie, manager of Long & Foster's Bethesda Gateway office, said that an agent in her office felt slimed by a comment that the condominium she was marketing felt "pretty cramped," among other things, but that Long & Foster executives believe it isn't possible to restrict Internet communications.

"This is out in the world, and we can't control it," Dickie said.

Those whose houses are being praised are happy, at least so far. One Reston house listed for $589,000, for example, received a 5-out-of-5 rating. "I'm glad it's a good one, since I own it," said Mark Shull of Crum Realty of Winchester.

The consumer-rating concept is being introduced during an explosion of new sources of real estate information on the Internet. A recent study by Pittsburgh Homes Daily, a real estate Web site, found 500 separate real estate blogs operating in the country. Most real estate brokerages, discount and full service, operate their own sites, as do companies that cater to those selling without agents.

Most listings haven't attracted comments. Still, officials at ZipRealty and Reply.com said the popularity of the consumer-review features is growing quickly. In one two-week period, 500 house reviews were posted at ZipRealty, and they received more than 30,000 page views, said Patrick Lashinsky, executive vice president of product strategy there.

"Consumer reaction has been fantastic," Lashinsky said.

Payam Zamani, chairman and chief executive officer at Reply.com, said that response has been "overwhelmingly positive," and that the Web site is catering to people who see home shopping as a form of entertainment.

"We know people like to go to open houses even when they are not buying, and they like to talk about real estate," Zamani said.

To some extent, the criticisms of the review features simply echo the concerns that have been voiced in the past about the Internet -- that allowing people to comment anonymously also encourages them to be vicious and irresponsible, just for the thrill of it.

Zamani disagrees. "It needs to be anonymous for people to be honest," he said, adding that he believes that when peoples' names are attached to information, their comments are more likely to be "all positive."

But Gwaltney said the comments posted about a townhouse she represents were wrong. In it, the reviewer complained the property was overpriced and that the sellers "could have been more polite." That baffled Gwaltney, who said the owners moved out some time ago and left the unit vacant. Gwaltney said she learned about the anonymous review, posted by a writer whose screen name is MandeepS, when someone called to say they had seen the comment online.

She and her colleagues at the Oakton real estate office called it up, and read what it said with some shock. They had never had an ad contradicted in that way, and Gwaltney said she couldn't figure out how to go about fixing information on the Internet.

"It seems very unethical to me, and to our colleagues," she said. "We are all appalled."

ZipRealty's Lashinsky said the company is taking steps to eliminate malicious postings, and has hired a separate firm to review all the proposed critiques. It eliminates entries deemed inappropriate, either because they use offensive language, engage in personal attacks or are discriminatory.

Internet firms with real estate content know they need to be careful: Craigslist, a popular Web site where consumers can post free ads, including homes for sale or rent, was sued this year by civil rights groups who allege it has permitted discriminatory ads to be posted. Federal housing law prohibits discrimination based on race, religion, sex, familial status or national origin, but the civil rights groups cited numerous ads where specific groups were excluded by people who wrote their own ads and posted them online. The suits are still pending.

Lashinsky said most people understand that online critiques are, by their nature, subjective.

"People understand these are people's perceptions," Lashinsky said.

Gottlieb said he learned about the review of a house he is marketing in Woodbine after being contacted by a reporter about it. The critique gushed about the house, calling it "just beautiful," with a "great floorplan," and "great paint." The headline for the item read: "What a great house." It graded the house a 5 of 5 for curb appeal, a 5 of 5 for interior appeal and a 5 of 5 for neighborhood.

Gottlieb said he was inclined to suspect that many such reviews are written by the property owners themselves. He questioned whether such reviews were likely to be "very objective."

And in fact, Zamani said, he believes that many of the reviews on Reply.com are written by the owners.

Some do seem to lack the ring of authenticity. Describing a $499,000 home in Joppa, a writer who called himself JSynder gave his review this title: "The best home in the neighborhood." In the text box, he wrote: "My wife and I were so excited to see this home because the pictures were so lovely. The house was everything I expected and more, and I hope that this house will be the house my family and I grow old in!"

On the other hand, giving consumers a place to talk back to real estate agents could provide an antidote to the flowery hype and exaggeration frequently found in real estate advertisements.

An online listing for a house in Manassas, for example, said the $559,000 home had four bedrooms. A poster named JLee said the house had "only 3 BR." Contacted for comment, the real estate agent who has listed the home, Jim Downs, of Coldwell Banker in Manassas, agreed. "Well, it's not four legal bedrooms," he said.