Ask most agents why they don't have thirty Google reviews and they won't say "my clients were unhappy." They'll say some version of: it felt pushy to ask. Meanwhile the agent who does have thirty reviews is winning the listing presentation you're both pitching — because the seller googled both of you last night.
Reframe: you're not asking for a favour
A review request from a realtor is not please say something nice about me. It's the last step of service: "If the work served you, saying so publicly helps the next family choose well — and helps a small business grow." Clients who felt looked after generally want to say it. The ask gives them a moment and a link.
The timing is the whole trick
- Possession day, not closing day. Keys in hand, boxes open, goodwill at its absolute peak.
- Or the first "we love it here" text. Any unprompted compliment is a green light — respond with warmth and the link.
- The anniversary, later. One year in the home is a natural, non-transactional moment to surface again (and the hook for your sphere program).
The mechanics (CASL-safe)
- Personal message, your name in the sender, direct link to your Google review flow. One click, forty seconds, done.
- One reminder if there's no reply, a few days later. Then stop — permanently. The reminder converts better than the original, and the second reminder converts into resentment.
- Never incentivize. Google prohibits it, and one bought review contaminates the wall it sits on.
- Route complaints to you first: a private-feedback path (a simple "anything we could've done better?" link) catches the unhappy before they're public.
Then make them work
A review that lives only on Google is a lottery ticket. Embedded on your website — beside listings, on neighbourhood pages, in schema markup so stars show in search — it becomes a salesperson. That publishing step is where most agents stop and where the compounding actually starts.
None of this is hard. All of it is easy to skip for six years. It's the perfect automation: same ask, every client, perfect timing, zero awkwardness — which is exactly why we built it into Realtix rather than leaving it to memory.