Categories: Featured NewsReal Estate Agents

A RealtyBiz Top Agent Roundup for Louisville

For some weeks now, Realty Biz News has been doing roundups of the top industry professionals from around the U.S. Our methods continue to evolve as we look this week at Louisville, Kentucky, and some of the best real estate people in the region.

As we’ve gone forward, it’s become increasingly difficult to establish universal criteria for rating our agents. Part of the problem is the lack of truly quantifiable data, and platform-centric issues also play a role. This week we’re focused on mid-size markets again. Let’s hope Louisville agents are more digitally imbued than their colleagues in other mid-size towns.

Jay T. Pitts kills it for people searching Louisville agents with the most five-star reviews (over 500). The same holds true for Zillow, where Pitts lords it over every other local real estate broker. Click through to his agency’s website and read the bottom line “Who you work with matters.” Pitts just smacks the other Louisville professionals on Facebook (4,000 plus fans), an SEO score of 75/100 on Sitechecker, almost 8,000 followers on Instagram, and the best Youtube channel I’ve seen by any agent in the U.S. so far.

Of course, some of this is subjective, but Pitts beat other local agents so badly that you’d have to be using the newspaper to sell your home to miss him. Like a few others in these profiles, the guy just gets it marketing-wise. Just to see if I was dreaming, I double-checked for news about Pitts. Boom! Business Journals right under the Google News tab.

You have to like Bob Sokoler for his personable and professional personality – from his Twitter feed

The Sokoler Team is a RE/MAX agency with loads of experience and 323 five-star Google reviews. Over 460 perfect reviews on Zillow and even 65 five-star ones on Facebook put this agency firmly in second place behind Pitts. The agency website was even better than Pitts’, coming in at 79/100. Where Sokoler lost ground was on Facebook, where the last posting was months ago. Bob Sokoler’s 4,000+ LinkedIn followers and 500+ connections even surpass yours truly, and I was an original adopter of the platform.

Unfortunately, the only Bob Sokoler I could find in the news was a cruise ship passenger trapped on a ship because of COVID measures last year. I’m not sure if the Louisville real estate agent is the same vacationer. A final plus for this professional is his team’s constantly updated Twitter feed, which, unlike so many others, offers fun and keen insights. I’d hire this agent if Jay Pitts went on a cruise vacation.

The Jimmy Welch Team also smacked us in the face from the start with 206/5-star reviews on Google. However, a click-through to the website revealed a mediocre SEO score and “Meh” aesthetics, a broken link to the team’s Facebook, and an Okay Instagram account. I managed to find Jimmy Welch’s Facebook page, where the last post was back in April. What can I say? Oh boy.

Jimmy Welch also has 322 five-star votes on Zillow. And his outfit has been the top-performing real estate team at Keller Williams Louisville for the past three years. Wait, say it isn’t so. How can the top agent in a big town like Louisville outpace his competition with no Facebook, a crappy website, a fluff of an Instagram presence, and no traditional media coverage any reasonable home searcher could ever find? For those of you reading these roundups, you know the answer. Louisville is just that far behind pigeons digitally. Welch does not even have to try hard to sell 200+ homes already this year. A final note, I’ll wager Welch, at far right in the Instagram share, played basketball somewhere in Kentucky. 🙂

Next up, Tre Pryor (from Instagram above). And how about this, a real estate agent with over 11,000 Twitter followers? Okay, Pryor hasn’t Tweeted since May, but he’s linked his Twitter bird on his site to the social media madhouse. Only 22 Zillow reviews and an average of only 4.8 out of 5.0 lost top position for him.

The Louisville agent does have 82 five-star reviews on Google, which is why he made this list in the first place. The agent also gets points for appearing in local news Wave 3, where he’s quoted as saying many local agents will soon be out of business. Looking from a digital marketing standpoint, I could not agree more.

The Takeaway

We began these lists using HomeLight, RateMyAgent, Expertise.com, and other review/lead generation platforms. Then we moved to Google and Zillow almost exclusively. After evaluating several smaller cities, we were forced to revert to more subjective strategies combined with proven review metrics and SEO. As it turns out, it’s going to be a little more difficult for Realty Biz News, or any entity, to innovate APIs and other data for a truly objective evaluation. We’ll keep at it.

Phil Butler

Phil Butler is a former engineer, contractor, and telecommunications professional who is editor of several influential online media outlets. Phil began his digital ramblings via several of the world’s most noted tech blogs, at the advent of blogging as a form of journalistic license. A graduate of The College of Charleston, Phil also served in the United States Navy, and has worked for any number of Fortune 500 companies. Together with his wife and partner Mihaela Lica Butler, Phil also helped forge Pamil Visions PR into one of the most successful online PR companies in the world. His greatest accomplishments however involves being the best husband, father, and friend he can be.