How do reviews and verification badges work?

Reviews, the three verification badges and profile analytics are part of the free plan, on purpose: a directory where only paying agents could be rated would rank agents by what they pay rather than by how their clients rate them. The Verified agent badge is a different thing and it is paid; it is the last section of this answer.

Reviews

When you move a lead to Deal closed, the CRM schedules a review request to that client after a delay you can set. You can pause a request for a particular client, but not stop reviews altogether. A review can only be written through such a request, so every rating comes from someone you actually closed a deal with. You can reply to a review, and Housing Market Group moderates them.

The three free badges

In Profile & reviews, upload evidence for any of three badges — your licence, your agency, and your phone number. Our team checks the document and approves or rejects it. A badge you already hold stays while a renewal is being checked. These three cost nothing, on any plan, and they do not depend on the Verified agent application below.

Profile analytics

The same screen shows how often your profile is viewed, the enquiries it produces, and what is holding it back.

The Verified agent badge

Verified agent is a fuller check of who you are, and it is paid for on its own, on top of whatever plan you hold — it is not part of Pro and it is not part of Business, and an agent on the free plan can apply for it just as well. Applying through the CRM costs 19 USD per year. The fee pays for the review and not for its outcome, so an application that is not approved is not refunded.

Verification lasts a year. The fee is charged again each year, and that payment is what opens the yearly re-check, which goes to the review team with the documents they already hold — there is nothing to upload again. If it is not renewed, the badge lapses on its date. See "How do I become a verified agent?" for how to apply.

None of that touches the three free badges above. They are checked by the same team but they do not wait on the fee, so you can prove your licence, your agency and your telephone number today.

Your rating, reviews and badges appear on your agent page on the portal, and clients write their review on the portal page their review request links to.