Ultimate Guide to Real Estate Agent Reviews in 2023
How important are reviews?
81% of consumers report using Google reviews before using a business. Even if you are getting your customers from referrals or other sources, it is reasonable to expect that your prospects are investigating you online.
If your reviews aren’t helpful, or worse, nonexistent, you can kiss customers goodbye.
Where Should You Review Your Agent?
Are you a home buyer or seller? Where is the best place to leave reviews of your agent?
Ask your agent!
Agents may have different preferences based on how they are trying to build their business.
If you don’t have an answer from them, I recommend the following priority:
- Zillow
- Realtor.com
- Yelp
Or play it safe and review them in multiple locations. They will appreciate that tremendously, I guarantee it!
Positive online reviews are a tremendous help to any local business (and negative online reviews are a tremendous help to local buyers and sellers).
Try to write more than a single sentence if possible. A short paragraph discussing their helpfulness, negotiation skills,
Also, grade on a curve. The average Google star count for a local business is 4.42 stars. A 4-star rating might seem positive while still leaving room for improvement. But, typically, that would probably bring your agent’s average down.
And of course, more valuable than a review is a referral. If you had a great experience buying or selling your home, referring friends and family is the # 1-way agents earn business.
Where Should Agents Solicit Reviews?
The sites below are in order of priority I would recommend when soliciting reviews.
I consider Google the most important place to solicit a real estate review.
Google considers reviews when ranking your website in the search results, especially local SEO like ranking in Google maps.
If you are in doubt about where to ask clients to review you – go with Google.
And if you haven’t already, you absolutely 100% need to have your Google Business Profile set up. Formerly called Google My Business, a Google Business Profile is free and critical to making sure your business can be found on Google!
Zillow
Zillow is the most visited real estate website in the world.
Having a powerful presence there is great for putting your best foot forward with potential customers.
I highly recommend targeting Zillow first if you plan on getting a substantial amount of your business from Zillow leads.
Some recommend soliciting reviews on Trulia as well. But Zillow Group owns Trulia. It seems like reviewing an agent in both is just double work.
If social media is your primary lead generation strategy, Facebook may be the place you want to focus your review efforts.
It’s easy to submit reviews, everyone has a business Facebook page, and Google actually pulls from these reviews as well to show next to their own when folks search you on the web.
Realtor.com
Realtor.com is a distant second to Zillow in the amount of online traffic they own.
But if you are focusing on business from Realtor.com and Opcity leads, then Realtor.com is a contender for your review storage of choice.
Yelp
When I got my license in 2013, Yelp was in the news all the time. Hating Yelp was cool long before hating Zillow was cool. Yelp would advertise other agents on your page!
But Yelp is a frustrating platform. Anytime a client reviews me, Yelp seems to discard it as spam. If you are advertising on Yelp, it is a great place to get reviews. But don’t ask for Yelp reviews, since they make it clear all reviews are to be “organic”.
Others
There are a few real estate agent review sites that specialize in the industry. These sites generally work by trying to earn ratings and then selling advertising to agents.
Also, if you use another advertising or referral platform, you may want to (or even be required to) solicit reviews. Examples include:
The Better Business Bureau is another place to look, though your typical agent won’t be evaluated there. Rather, brokerages and larger teams may have a BBB profile worth reviewing.
Good Review Script Template with Examples
I put together a list of testimonial examples if you need inspiration for what to write, to include video reviews!
The best review tells a story. So dig back to your high school English to tell a compelling narrative, including:
- Attention Grabber. Our Realtor Tony Romo deserves 10 stars!
- Conflict. We were looking for an affordable home in the hot Austin real estate market. We couldn’t find anything for months and our first agent was not very responsive and kept showing us stuff we were not interested in over budget.
- Rising Action. We interviewed three other agents and hired Tony for his local knowledge and attention to detail. We appreciate frequent communication and Tony delivered. He let us know what to expect during the home buying process and was very responsive. He listened to our needs and budget, and recommended a lender to compare. It took a while with affordable homes going quickly, but Tony was on top of it the whole time.
- Climax. We made several offers on a few homes and finally had an offer accepted on our third try. He was great to work with and answered every question. We closed in four weeks. It’s our dream home.
- Exposition. We’ve been in our home a week and absolutely love it. I cannot say thank you enough times!
Handling Bad Reviews
Getting a bad review is not the end of the world. In fact, consumers don’t trust anything that looks too perfect. That’s why on Amazon you read the 2, 3, and 4-star reviews, not the 1-star haters and 5-star ratings box checkers.
If you get a review, you should always respond, good or bad! But especially on a bad review, responding shows that you are engaged, that you care, and that you are taking someone’s concerns seriously.
Forbes recommends the following when responding to a negative review:
- Acknowledge
- Apologize
- Be specific
- Move the conversation offline
- Be short and sweet
In real estate, you may get a client upset about something you feel is unreasonable. Don’t blast them in your response or mount an ironclad legal defense of your actions in public. Speak briefly to their specific concern, acknowledge how they feel, and confirm that you will strive to do better in the future.
Of course, if the review is illegitimate, it’s fair to try to get it removed altogether.
Here is how to contest a review you think is not valid:
How to Ask for Reviews
Don’t wait until after closing to ask for a review!
Many recommend asking for reviews and testimonials before closing. Your clients are still fully engaged and excited about the process and are not yet distracted with the next chapter of moving in.
There are several ways you can ask. The review software below might help.
I find I am usually sending the “what to expect at closing” checklist a few days before closing. Be sure you have your utilities scheduled. Bring your IDs. Where to wire the funds. Confirming the bottom-line numbers.
This list reads like a checklist for the home buyers or sellers and might be the perfect place to add in a gentle request that they review you.
I also created a list of script templates for getting reviews or business from past clients, going beyond the “best compliment is a referral”.
Real Estate Reputation Management
If you want to take your reviews up a notch, especially for large teams, brokerages, or property managers, you may want to consider reputation management tools.
These have neat integrations and features to help you solicit and share reviews from your customers.
BrightLocal
$29+/mo. BrightLocal has a variety of marketing tools targeting local SEO for small business professionals. Their flagship product includes citation building, Google My Business audits, and reputation management.
FiveStars
FiveStars is one of the leading reputation management software solutions for small businesses. It includes touchscreen reviews, email verification, promotions management, and retargeting campaigns.
Get More Reviews
GMR makes it easy to create your own customer review requests, sent via either email or text. Get More Reviews works with Google, Facebook, Zillow, HomeAdvisor, and the BBB. It includes automated social media posting as well as reporting.
Power Testimonial
Power Testimonial allows you to conduct surveys. For customers who were happy with your service, Power Testimonial routes them to one of the review sites of your choice. For those customers who may have had a less inspiring experience, it does not encourage that action but you’ve still successfully gotten feedback on your business.
RealSatisfied
RealSatisfied is designed specifically with real estate in mind. RealSatisfied focuses on the customer experience and allows you to survey your clients for feedback. They have a free Agent LITE version good for the first 3 testimonials as well as unlimited survey invitations.
Testimonial Tree
TestimonialTree has made the rounds at several of the trade conventions and has a real estate specific solution for reputation management. Their system includes a branded post closing email soliciting reviews and routing them to sites like Zillow, Realtor.com, and Leading Real Estate Companies of the World.
Conclusion
The top-producing real estate agents and teams do most of their lead generation from past clients and referrals. Having solid reviews and testimonials from your clients is a big step in getting them to share you and your brand.
It’s unlikely that most home buyers and sellers choose a Realtor based on reviews versus a referral itself, but that may not be the case for agents who are lead-generating on Zillow and Realtor.com. And a solid stockpile of quality reviews can help your SEO, your brand, and your online credibility.
Updated May 8, 2023; Originally published May 7, 2019.
Hi Brian,
I fully appreciate how much effort you put into this article. It’s very thorough. Great to see you advise agents on how to handle bad reviews and that you featured so many specialized resources. Would you consider including Rate-My-Agent.com in your list of specialized review sites? It’s free and one of the easiest to you.
I would consider reviewing a company called Oggvo.com.
They were not on my radar! I will look into them, thanks!
Hi Brian. Yes, thank you! Just from reading this I learned a few things and realized there’s some other steps I should have in place, that would make it a little bit easier for clients to review me. FB Biz and google my biz (I don’t have either one!)
Q: Are there companies out there that try to solicit and make you believe that you have to sign up with them to run google my biz? I need to understand google my biz and how it works better.
Thanks again for the good info 🙂
Yes, there are such companies. I haven’t had a sales call in a while (or maybe my phone is successfully screening them?) but I used to get sales calls talking about Google all the time. I would ignore these. Even when legit, they are charging you for things you can easily do yourself for free, OR trying to get you to spend on advertising. You can read about setting up GMB yourself here: https://hooquest.com/getting-started-with-google-my-business-account-for-realtors/
thanks for sharing this article with us
thx