How Does Realtor.com Work?

Realtor.com, operated by Move, Inc. and closely associated with the National Association of Realtors, is one of the largest real-estate marketplaces in the US. What separates its agent profiles from a typical review platform is the MLS tie: because listing data flows directly from MLS feeds, an agent's recent-sales activity can be verified against the same record rather than relying only on self-reported numbers or reviews alone.

For a buyer or seller comparing agents, that means a Realtor.com profile is really answering two questions at once — is this agent actually closing deals right now, and what did past clients say about working with them. Both signals sit side by side on the same profile.

What a Realtor.com agent profile is built from

Recent-sales activity tied to MLS records sits at the center of a Realtor.com agent profile — closings that can be verified against the same feed that populates the listings themselves, rather than relying purely on self-reported claims. Client reviews and recommendations sit alongside that activity, describing what it was actually like to work with the agent.

A prospect reading the profile is typically looking at both together: an agent with strong reviews but no visible recent closings tells an incomplete story, and so does an agent with recent closings but no reviews. The strongest profiles keep both moving in step.

How reviews get submitted, and how the MLS tie works

Agents can request reviews from real past clients following a closed transaction, and those reviews attach to the agent's public profile. Separately, and distinctly from the review system, recent-sales activity is pulled from MLS records tied to the agent, which is why keeping MLS entries accurate and complete as deals close matters just as much as requesting reviews — a delay or gap in MLS data shows up as a stale-looking profile even for an agent who's actively closing deals.

This two-track structure is the biggest functional difference from a platform like Zillow, where the review and rating display carries more of the weight on its own. On Realtor.com, demonstrated, verifiable recent activity is doing real work alongside whatever reviews an agent has collected.

Requesting reviews compliantly

Agents are expected to invite genuine past clients to leave reviews — the same underlying rules apply here that apply on every legitimate review platform.

• Invite every recent closed-transaction client to leave a review, buyers and sellers alike, not just the clients you expect to be glowing.
• Ask within a few days of closing, while the transaction is fresh — response rates drop off quickly after that.
• Never offer a rebate, gift, or fee discount in exchange for a review.
• Keep MLS records for each closing accurate and complete, since that data flows directly into the recent-sales activity shown on the public profile.

How Realtor.com verifies activity and moderates reviews

Because recent-sales activity is tied to MLS records rather than self-reported, that layer of the profile carries a built-in accuracy check most review platforms don't have — an agent can't simply claim closings that don't exist in the MLS. Reviews, meanwhile, are evaluated against Realtor.com's content guidelines, and content that violates those guidelines is removable, while a genuine review from a real client stays up regardless of how it reflects on the agent.

The practical effect for an agent is that reputation management on Realtor.com is really two parallel habits — keeping MLS data clean as deals close, and requesting reviews consistently — rather than a single review-collection effort.

Zillow puts more weight on the review and rating display on its own, with less dependence on MLS mechanics, which changes what "building a profile" actually means from one platform to the other even though both are ultimately reputation systems for the same agent.

See our Zillow vs. Realtor.com comparison for how the two platforms differ in practice and how to prioritize between them.