Collecting Reviews to Collect More Deals

Generate quality leads by collecting testimonials from your happy sellers!

In the age of social media, online reviews and testimonials are internet gold. Gone are the days of relying on word-of-mouth marketing around your local community. Your online reviews are the first impression for most people who visit your social media pages. The reviews are some of the most important assets your company has in establishing good first impressions of your market.

Even more so in the real estate investing industry, sellers need to make sure that they can trust the people they’re selling their home to. Real estate investors can get a bad rap by people thinking they are taking advantage of sellers who are older or easy to scam. In this industry, it is extremely important to combat that assumption by collecting testimonials from as many happy homeowners as possible that you have helped.

Your reviews online can help immediately break down that trust barrier between your company and your audience and make yourself seem approachable from the very first impression.

You can’t expect reviews unless you ask for them.

The easiest way to boost your number of online reviews is to simply make it common practice to ask. Ask for reviews from happy sellers, venders, attorneys, real estate agents, insurance agents, employees, friends and family, other investors, Mastermind members, literally anywhere you can.

An easy way to initiate this into your everyday practice is to have your transaction coordinator send out a quick email request asking for reviews after closing. This email could look a little something like:

‘Congratulations on selling your home! It was such a pleasure working with you, [add something personal or unique about the selling process]. We would love it if you could leave us a review whenever you get a chance. It really helps us out :)’.

Pro tip: Leave embedded links to submit reviews on social media, Google, BBB, wherever you would like to send them, directly in the email. Don’t be afraid to send a follow up email within the next couple of days; sometimes it can take a seller a little bit to see the requests, or they might need to be reminded to leave a review.

Collect video testimonials if possible.

Written testimonials are great for SEO, brand presence, and communicating trustworthiness to your audience, but testimonial videos, well that’s the gold of internet gold.

Video testimonials take written testimonials one step further. This is where your audience of prospective sellers can literally see themselves in the people that you’ve been able to help. That kind of value resonates with your audience while also confronting the skeptics.

Again, we want to dispel the myth that real estate investors are only out to take advantage of people in tough situations. We want to teach people that selling your homes to real estate investors is truly just the easiest and fastest way to sell your home.

By having normal sellers in your community telling your followers exactly that, your value proposition is communicated to your audience by members of your audience. This boosts your legitimacy without sounding like the average sales pitch your followers are used to seeing on your pages.

One super easy way to start collecting video testimonials into your practices is to start asking for testimonials at the closing table. Remember, this video is for social media, so we want it to be casual and relatable. Just take it on your phone and don’t put too much pressure on the actual production.

If you are unsure of what to ask for your testimonial videos, Social Media REI has provided three questions that are great to ask in video testimonials:

1. Tell me a little bit about what was going on in your life when reaching out to us?

Starting with this question opens up the conversation for the homeowner to mention a couple major pain points that they had before reaching out to your company and let you know how they heard of you.

2. What does selling your house mean to you now?

Once the pain points are established, ask how your company has helped the seller overcome their struggles and get to the next step. This lets the homeowner reflect on how you were valuable to them, while your goal is to have the seller remain the hero. They are the ones that got there, you just helped.

3. Would you recommend us to your friends and family?

This is where you get your actual referrals. If the homeowners are happy enough to give a testimonial, chances of them recommending you on camera and to their friends and family is high. Make sure to thank them for their responses and double check with them that it is alright to share the testimonial.

If the sellers are not comfortable with themselves being filmed, try and get a photo of them and you together at the closing table or a written testimonial on your social media pages, Google, etc. Remember, the goal is to collect as many testimonials as possible, no matter the type.

When we want to try a new place for dinner, myself and many others rely heavily on the online reviews of restaurants when making my decision. We check the reviews for hair salons, doctors offices, you name it! When it comes to selling our homes, I know I would want to sell my home to a company that I could trust and that I had a reason to trust. In collecting as many reviews as you can for your social media pages, you are giving people more and more of a reason to immediately trust you.