Do real estate agents still need their own website if they're on Zillow?

By Daniel Tunit, licensed real estate agent and founder of Curb Appeal Media Co. · October 2026

Short answer: yes. A Zillow, Realtor.com or brokerage profile is useful, but it's a listing on someone else's platform. Your own website is the one place online where you control the message, keep the leads, and build a brand that follows you if you ever change brokerages.

1. You're one of many agents on Zillow

Portals are built to connect buyers with whichever agent is paying for that zip code. When someone finds you on a portal, they're often shown other agents too. On your own site, you're the only agent on the page.

2. The portal owns the relationship

When a lead comes through a portal, the portal sets the rules: how the lead is routed, what it costs, and sometimes a referral fee at closing. Leads that come through your own website come straight to you, with no one in the middle.

3. Your brand should survive a brokerage change

Agents move brokerages. Your brokerage profile page goes away when you do, and your portal profile resets its reviews and history in ways you don't control. A site on your own domain, like yourname.com, keeps its search rankings and reputation wherever you hang your license. (Most states' advertising rules still require your current brokerage to be shown clearly, so we update that when you move.)

4. Sellers check you out before they call

A seller deciding who to list with will look you up. A site with your sold homes, a real bio, reviews and pages about their town tells them you're established. A portal profile looks the same as everyone else's.

5. Town pages bring in searches portals can't own

People search for things like "best realtor in Scottsdale" or "selling a house in Naperville." A page about each town you work, with what you know about schools, commutes and recent sales, gives Google a reason to show you, not just a portal's search results.

6. A home value form catches sellers early

Seller leads are the most valuable leads in the business. A "What's my home worth?" form on your own site starts that conversation months before someone is ready to list, and the request comes to you, not to a portal.

Use both, but build on the one you own

Keep your portal profiles complete and collect reviews there, then link them back to your website. Think of the portals as rented billboards and your website as the office they point to.