Google Business Profile for real estate agents: a guide
Can an individual agent have their own Google Business Profile? What Google's guidelines say, how to set one up, and the mistakes to avoid.
Vendors read reviews before they call. Most agents don’t have a review problem so much as an asking problem: the sale settles, everyone moves on, and the moment passes.
This guide covers where reviews live, when and how to ask, how to reply, and the lines the ACCC and Google draw.
Where agents’ reviews live
Three places matter most for most agents. Each has its own rules about who can leave a review.
| Platform | Who can review you | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Google Business Profile | Anyone with a Google Account, including one made with a non-Gmail address | Reviews must reflect a genuine experience |
| RateMyAgent | Anyone who bought or sold through an agent in the previous 12 months | Identity is verified by mobile number and email, and reviews are checked before they’re published |
| realestate.com.au | A buyer or seller of a property sold in the past 12 months, while you still work at the agency you sold it through | Reviewers enter an SMS code, and moderators may ask for proof of the sale |
Google Business Profile
Google reviews appear in Maps and in the panel when someone searches your name. Whether you can have your own profile, separate from your agency’s, depends on Google’s guidelines. Our Google Business Profile guide covers who’s eligible and how to set one up.
Reviews left on your agency’s profile belong to the agency, even when they mention you by name.
RateMyAgent
RateMyAgent says reviewers must have been the vendor or buyer, verifies their identity by mobile number and email, and only accepts reviews for properties sold within the last 12 months. Its support team checks each review against its policies before it’s published.
Your RateMyAgent profile moves with you when you change agencies, as our changing agencies guide explains.
realestate.com.au
realestate.com.au’s help centre explains how to request and respond to a review. A buyer or seller can only leave one if the sold listing shows on your agent profile, the property sold in the past 12 months and you still work at the agency you sold it through.
It doesn’t publish reviews copied from other platforms.
When to ask
Set it up at the listing appointment. RateMyAgent’s advice on getting more reviews is to mention reviews at your first meeting, explain at the signing table that a request will come by email, and ask no later than 48 hours after the sale closes.
Ask while it’s fresh. Soon after the result, clients still remember the details, and specific reviews (“kept us updated after every open home”) are more useful to the next vendor than generic ones.
Ask buyers as well as vendors. Both RateMyAgent and realestate.com.au accept reviews from buyers.
Ask everyone. Not just the clients you think will be glowing. There’s more on why below.
How to ask
Make it personal and make it easy. One message, one link, no hoops.
- Google: Google’s tips to get more reviews suggest asking customers to visit a Google link or scan a QR code.
- realestate.com.au: send your agent profile link, where the client selects “Leave review”, or use “Request a review” on the sold listing in the Ignite app.
- RateMyAgent: choose the listing, add the vendor’s or buyer’s details and send the request.
Keep the wording neutral. You’re asking for an honest account, not a score:
Thanks again for trusting me with the sale of your home. If you have a few minutes, I’d really value a review of how the campaign went for you, good or bad. It helps the next family decide who to call. Here’s the link: [your link]
Don’t ask for five stars, don’t suggest what to write, and don’t offer to write it for them.
What the ACCC says
The ACCC’s guidance on online reviews says reviews should be independent and reflect the genuine opinion of the person who experienced the service. It’s against the law for a business to create fake or misleading reviews, or to arrange for others to create them.
According to the ACCC, reviews can mislead if they’re:
- written by family, employees or people paid by the business, without disclosing that connection
- written by someone who hasn’t used the service
- edited or changed by someone else after being written
A business may also mislead people if it suppresses or edits negative reviews, or removes genuine negative ones.
The ACCC gives a case study of a platform that let businesses draft their own reviews, which were sent to customers and published automatically if the customer didn’t respond within three days. The Federal Court ordered it to pay $600,000 in penalties. The lesson for agents is simple: the words have to be the client’s.
Incentives
The ACCC says offering incentives for positive reviews risks breaching the law, and that any incentive must apply whether the review is positive or negative, and be clearly disclosed.
Google goes further. Its Business Profile help says offering incentives, like free or discounted goods or services, in exchange for reviews is strictly prohibited. Its Maps content policy also covers incentives for changing or removing a negative review.
For agents, that rules out a gift card for a review, a discount on a future fee, or a thank-you hamper that’s conditional on posting. If you give clients a settlement gift, keep it completely separate from any review request.
Only asking the happy clients
Asking only the clients you expect to be positive is sometimes called review gating. Google’s Maps policy says businesses must not discourage or prohibit negative reviews, or selectively solicit positive reviews.
The ACCC has dealt with a version of this. In 2016 it announced that a solar retailer had stopped offering a free service to customers who posted a review, after an investigation. The offer had only gone to customers who’d said they had a positive experience, and it wasn’t disclosed in the reviews.
So send the same request to every vendor and buyer, and let the results be what they are.
Colleagues and friends
Google’s Maps policy treats current or former employment as a possible conflict of interest. Reviews from colleagues, your principal or friends who haven’t bought or sold with you don’t belong on your profiles.
Replying to reviews
Reply to every review. It shows the next vendor how you treat people, including when things didn’t go perfectly.
On Google, you need a verified profile to reply. Replies are public, Google checks them against its policies before they appear, and the reviewer is notified. You can edit or delete your reply later.
On realestate.com.au, you reply in Ignite, under Ratings and reviews. A review can only be challenged on the basis that it wasn’t written by the actual buyer or seller, and you’ll need to provide the Particulars of Sale page from the contract.
On RateMyAgent, you’ll get an email when a review is posted.
A few habits help:
- Be specific. “Thank you, it was a pleasure working with you both on the Elm Street sale” beats a copied “Thanks for the review”.
- Don’t add details the client didn’t share. Their price, their reasons for selling and their next move are theirs to mention, not yours.
- Stay calm with criticism. Acknowledge the experience, explain briefly if there’s context, and offer to talk offline.
- Don’t remove genuine negatives. The ACCC says businesses need an adequate basis to conclude a review is fake before asking for it to be removed. If you believe one is fake, contact the platform, or reply to correct the record.
Using reviews in your marketing
- Quote reviews word for word. Consumer Affairs Victoria’s advertising guidance says agents must not use testimonials that are exaggerated, misleading or false.
- Get consent where it’s required. Tasmania’s Property Agents Board gives using a client’s feedback as a testimonial without their consent as an example of a breach. See our Tasmanian rules guide.
- Show the count with the rating. The ACCC says a star rating should be displayed with the number of reviews it’s based on, for example “3 stars – 24 reviews”.
- Keep them current. Old reviews that name a previous agency can confuse people about who you work for now.
On our Pro plan, your Google reviews appear on your own website, word for word, exactly as they were written.
Reviews are one part of being found locally. Our local SEO playbook puts them alongside your Business Profile, suburb pages and sold results.
Sources
- ACCC, online reviews for products and services, and its 2016 media release on True Value Solar’s review incentives.
- Google, Maps user-generated content policy, tips to get more reviews and reply to reviews.
- realestate.com.au Help Centre, how to request and respond to a review and understanding Agent Ratings & Reviews.
- RateMyAgent, how the new reviews work and how to get more reviews.
- Consumer Affairs Victoria, advertising and representations.
Based on each platform’s help pages and the ACCC’s guidance at the time of writing. This is general information, not legal advice, and platform rules change, so check the linked pages before you act.
