Realtors · problem and fix
How to ask past clients for a Google review on Mac, as a realtor
To ask past clients for a Google review, send one short message with your Google review link after the deal has settled. Do not send it the day after closing. The one controlled study on timing found early requests backfired. This page covers what asking costs you, why the habit stalls, and fixes you can use without buying anything.
The short answer
- Send Google's own review link, not a link you found in a search.
- Wait before you ask. The one timing study found a day-after reminder did worse than none.
- Never tie a gift or fee to a review. Google and the FTC both bar it.
- Keep one Google Sheet with closings, planned ask dates, and replies.
What asking clients for reviews costs you
Income you cannot trace
Reviews rarely show up in your pay as a clear line item. The payoff is hard to trace, so the habit is easy to drop. Most agents are self-employed, so no employer reminds them to follow up. BLS data says earnings can be irregular, with weeks or months between sales.
Time you do not have
Every ask takes minutes you would spend on showings, follow-ups, or paperwork. BLS notes that agent schedules often include evenings and weekends. A request that feels small still competes with the work that pays this week.
Reviews lost to bad timing
The one timing study found a day-after reminder brought a 6.32% review rate within a week, against 12% with no reminder. A badly timed ask may cost reviews that a later ask would have earned. The study is a travel site test, so treat the gap as a warning, not a law.
Legal exposure
The FTC's Consumer Review Rule allows civil penalties up to $53,088 per violation, per its December 2025 release. A gift tied to a positive review can break the rule even if you meant well. Google's policy bans the same kind of reward.
Client goodwill
The ASU researchers attribute early-ask backlash to psychological reactance. A client who feels pushed may resist the request. Keep the ask short, personal, and easy to ignore.
Why it happens
Nobody else owns the ask
BLS reports that 54% of sales agents were self-employed in 2025. A self-employed agent has no marketing team, no HR reminder, and no standing task list. The review request falls to whoever remembers it, and that is often no one after a busy closing.
The natural timing is the wrong timing
The day after closing feels like the warm moment to ask. The ASU experiment found that early reminders reduced reviews. The study attributes the backlash to psychological reactance, where people resist a request that arrives too soon.
Work arrives in waves
BLS says earnings can be irregular, and agents sometimes go weeks or months without a sale. A routine built around busy weeks disappears during slow ones. The asks that matter most are often the ones that fall in the quiet stretch.
The rules feel scary, so nothing gets sent
The FTC's rule covers incentives and suppression, and Google bars rewards for reviews. Many agents hear that and stop asking altogether. The rule does not ban asking. It limits what you offer and how you respond to reviews.
The link is hard to find
Google's review link lives inside Google Business Profile, and the menu labels change over time. Many agents do not know where to look. They send a search result or a copied link that does not reach their listing, and the client gives up.
Clients hit a sign-in wall
Google says customers must be signed into a Google Account to post a review. A client without one may stop at the sign-in page. Google's help page notes that a non-Gmail email can be used to create an account, which many clients do not know.
How to fix it
These work with or without any app.
Send Google's own review link
Get the link from your Google Business Profile, not from a search result. Copy it, open it in a private window to test it, and save it in a Notes note. Then paste the same link into every request so you never send a stale one.
Wait longer, then test your own delay
The 13-day reminder group posted significantly more reviews than control in the ASU study. The 9-day group showed no difference. Han recommends measuring your own baseline and running an internal test. Pick one delay, log it, and compare the next batch.
Keep the message to one link
Write two or three sentences, one link, and a thank-you. Read it out loud before you send. If a sentence sounds like an ad, cut it. Short messages are easier to answer and harder to resent.
Make a fixed list and a fixed day
Keep one Google Sheet with every closing, the planned ask date, and a status column. Set an Apple Reminders item on the day you close. Check the list once a week, so the habit does not depend on memory.
Keep gifts apart from reviews
Do not tie any gift, fee, or perk to a review, positive or negative. Google and the FTC both address this. If your brokerage allows client gifts, give them on their own terms with no link to a review.
Plan a calm reply for bad reviews
A bad review is not a reason to argue. Reply once, thank the client for the feedback, and offer a direct conversation. Keep the reply short. Do not mention the client's deal details in public.
Why asking for reviews stalls for agents
Most agents never build a clean, repeatable ask. You close a deal, the keys change hands, and the phone goes quiet. Nobody on a team reminds you to follow up. Most agents are self-employed, so the routine has to live in your own calendar. That gap explains more than the wording of your message does.
54%
of US sales agents were self-employed in 2025, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics
BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook: Real Estate Brokers and Sales Agents91%
of home sellers used a real estate agent, according to NAR's 2025 Profile
NAR 2025 Profile of Home Buyers, Sellers Reveals Market Extremes6.32%
posted a review within a week after a day-after reminder, versus 12% with no reminder (travel site test)
W. P. Carey News: Seeking reviews from online buyers? Ask later$53,088
maximum FTC civil penalty per violation under the Consumer Review Rule, stated in December 2025
FTC warns 10 companies about possible violations of consumer review rule (Dec 2025)The Bureau of Labor Statistics counted 530,600 broker and sales agent jobs in the US for 2025. It also reports that earnings can be irregular. Some agents go weeks or months without a sale. A slow stretch is a bad time to start a habit you will skip anyway.
The National Association of Realtors reported in 2025 that 91% of sellers and 88% of buyers used an agent. That is a crowded field, and every past client is a possible reviewer. NAR's release does not say how buyers pick an agent, or whether reviews play a part. Read that number as a measure of agent use, not review influence.
When to send the request
The best timing evidence comes from a field experiment that Arizona State University's W. P. Carey School of Business reported in 2023. The team ran it on a Korean travel site, not a real estate business. Customers who got a reminder the day after their trip posted a review at 6.32% within a week. The no-reminder group reached 12%. The early ask did worse.
Later asks did better in the same study. The group that got a reminder 13 days after the event posted significantly more reviews than control. The 9-day group showed no difference. An online fashion retailer test also found that delayed requests produced more reviews. The researcher recommends that each business measure its own baseline and run its own test.
| Timing of reminder | Reported result | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Day after the event | 6.32% posted within a week | Worse than no reminder |
| No reminder (control) | 12% posted within a week | The baseline to beat |
| 9-day delay | No difference from control | A delay alone did not help |
| 13-day delay | Significantly more than control | The delay that worked in this study |
Here is how that looks in practice. You close on a house on a Friday. The client sends a thank-you text the next day. Do not send the review link that Saturday. Put an Apple Reminders item for about 13 days out and write the message then. Log the planned date so you can compare results later.
Find your Google review link without guessing
Google's help pages encourage businesses to remind customers to leave reviews. The link is the part people get wrong. Do not paste a link from a search result or a copied page. Use the review link tied to your own Google Business Profile listing.
Google publishes a community guide on getting a review link or QR code. The part I could read did not include full steps. Confirm the current steps in Google's Help Center before you rely on them. Menu names change, so the labels below may not match your screen exactly.
- Open Google Business Profile in Chrome or Safari on your Mac. Sign in with the Google account that manages your listing.
- Find your business and open its Reviews section.
- Look for a link or button about getting more reviews. The label may differ, so look for the words review and link.
- Copy the link. Open it in a private window to check what a client sees.
- Save the link in a Notes note, so you can paste it fast.
Write the message: one short ask with one link
A good request is short, personal, and has one link. Long emails read like a marketing blast. Here is a template you can edit before you send it.
Hi [first name], thank you for trusting me with your move. If you have a minute, a Google review helps other people find me. Here is the link: [link]. Thanks again for working with me.
Notice what the message leaves out. It does not ask for a top rating. It does not mention a gift. It does not say you will be disappointed if they skip it. Those lines are where rules get broken and clients get annoyed.
If a client replies warmly, thank them and mention the review in one line. Then move on. A second message that repeats the link is fine after a short wait. Pushing harder turns a polite ask into a nag.
Mistakes that cost reviews or create legal risk
- Sending the ask the day after closing, while the client is still moving in.
- Offering a gift card or cash for a review. Google's policy bans rewards for posting, changing, or removing reviews.
- Paying only when the review is positive. The FTC rule bars compensation tied to a reviewer's sentiment.
- Filtering the list to clients you expect to rate you well. A selective list skews results and can look like cherry-picking.
- Copying a link that does not lead to your listing. Test it in a private window first.
- Arguing with a bad review in public. Reply once, calmly, and keep it short.
The rules are aimed at businesses, and your brokerage is part of that picture. If your brokerage has a policy on client gifts, referrals, or reviews, follow it first. This page is general information, not legal advice. Your broker or state licensing board can answer questions about your own market.
Track each ask so none fall through
Use one Google Sheet. Give each row a closed client, a close date, a planned ask date, a status, and a note. The status column can be a simple dropdown with values like asked, replied, and no reply. That is the whole tracker. You do not need a CRM to start. If your inbox is where asks go, see Gmail for realtors on Mac, and for the sheet side, see Google Sheets for realtors on Mac.
Set the planned ask date on the day you close, not the day you remember. Ask Lazur to add a reminder by voice. Each Monday, scan the sheet for asks that are due. Log the result even when nothing happened, because blank rows hide what your timing is doing.
Keep the habit when deals slow down
Deal flow drops for many agents. BLS notes that some agents go weeks or months without a sale. That is when the review routine is easiest to drop. A slow month is also when you have time to run it properly, so schedule asks for those weeks.
When the client does not reply
Silence is normal. Send one follow-up at most, and keep it shorter than the first message. Repeat the link once. After that, let it go. Repeated reminders are where a polite ask starts to feel like pressure.
Log the no-reply in your sheet, and do not guess why. Some clients never open the link on a phone. Others have a Google Account they do not use. Google requires a signed-in account to post, so sign-in can stop people. Offer the link and leave it there.
When to skip the ask
Some clients should not get a request this month. Skip the ask while the deal is still open, while a dispute is active, or after a client asks you to stop. Hold the message until the issue is settled. Your brokerage may have its own rules on disputes, so follow them first.
Regulated work adds another layer. If you work with a team, a brokerage, or a lender, check their rules on client data before you paste a client name into any tool. Follow your employer's rules on client data at all times.
Faster with Lazur
Where Lazur helps with asking clients for reviews
Hold ⌥ ⌘ and say what you want. Lazur sees your Gmail window. Lazur reads what's on screen and writes the draft at your cursor for you to check.
- 1
Hold ⌥⌘ and talk
- 2
Lazur reads what's on screen and writes the draft at your cursor for you to check.
- 3
You stay in Gmail. Nothing to copy into a chat window.
More things to say in Gmail
- “Where is the review link in my Google Business Profile?”
- “Walk me through getting my Google review link, one click at a time.”
- “Draft a short, friendly review request for a past client. One link, no gift.”
- “Hold fn and dictate the message into Gmail.”
- “Remind me 13 days after closing to send a review request.”
- “Research how Google describes review requests in its help pages.”
Free for 3 days, then $18/month. Download for Mac
You say“Draft a two-sentence Google review request. Friendly, no gift, one link.”
Lazur · drafts itLazur drafts two sentences with a link placeholder. You fill in the link and read it before you send.
Draft at your cursor
Hi, thank you for trusting me with your move. If you have a minute, a Google review helps other people find me: [link].
What realtors say to Lazur for this
Each one is a single hold of ⌥ ⌘.
“Where is the review link in my Google Business Profile?”
Lazur draws a circle and a label around the element on your screen, so you can see what to find.
Points at it
“Walk me through getting my Google review link, one click at a time.”
Lazur guides you one click at a time and waits for each click. It does not click for you.
Walks you through it
“Draft a short, friendly review request for a past client. One link, no gift.”
Lazur drafts the text. You read it, edit it, and send it yourself.
Drafts it
“Hold fn and dictate the message into Gmail.”
Hold fn to dictate clean, formatted text at the cursor in any app. You still press send.
Types what you say
“Remind me 13 days after closing to send a review request.”
Lazur sets an Apple Reminders item by voice, so the planned ask date is on your Mac.
Handles the small stuff
“Research how Google describes review requests in its help pages.”
Lazur runs research in its own Chrome tabs and returns a summary and report. Check the sources yourself.
Researches in the background
A plan you can start this week
- Day 1
Build your closed list
Open Google Sheets and list every client from your recent closings. Add columns for close date, planned ask date, and status. Leave the status blank for now.
- Day 2
Get your review link
Sign in to Google Business Profile with the account that owns your listing. Find the review link, then test it in a private window. Save it where you can paste it fast.
- Day 3
Write one template
Draft a short, personal message with one link and no gift. Read it out loud. If it sounds like marketing, cut a sentence.
- Day 4
Set reminders for ask dates
For each closing, add an Apple Reminders item for the day you plan to ask. Treat the 13-day timing from the study as a test, not a rule.
- Day 5
Check your brokerage rules
Read your brokerage's policy on client gifts, referrals, and reviews. Note any rule that changes the template before you send anything.
- Day 6
Send the first batch
Send asks to the clients whose planned date has arrived. Log each send in the sheet the same day, including the date and the message you used.
- Day 7
Review the log
Look at who replied and who did not. Write one line about what to change next week. Keep the routine small enough to repeat.
Questions people ask
Is it legal to ask past clients for a Google review?
Yes, asking is allowed. Google's help page encourages businesses to remind customers to leave reviews. The limits apply to incentives and suppression. Rewards tied to what a client says, or threats meant to keep someone from posting, break the FTC's rule. Check your brokerage's policy too.
Can I offer a gift card for a review?
No. Google's policy classes rewards for posting, changing, or removing reviews as prohibited. The FTC's Consumer Review Rule also bars compensation tied to a reviewer's sentiment. Keep any gift separate from the review request, and check your brokerage's rules first.
How long should I wait before asking?
The one timing study used a 13-day delay as the version that beat control. It was a travel site test, and a day-after reminder did worse. Test your own delay and track it. No single number fits every client.
Where do I find the review link?
Use the review link from your Google Business Profile. Google publishes a community guide on the link and QR code, but the full steps were not readable when checked. Menu names change, so confirm the current steps in the Help Center.
Why does a client need a Google account to post?
Google says customers must be signed into a Google Account to post a review. A non-Gmail email address can be used to create one. Tell clients that before they click, so a sign-in page does not surprise them.
Does Lazur send the review request for me?
No. Lazur drafts and types text, answers questions out loud, and guides you through steps. It does not click buttons or send messages in other apps for you. You read the message and send it yourself.
Is Lazur connected to Google Business Profile?
No. Lazur is not a plugin or add-in for any app, and it does not operate other apps for you, Google Business Profile included. It can point at things on your screen and guide you one click at a time.
Should I ask a client who had a rough deal?
Settle any open complaint first. Ask only after the deal has finished and the client has not asked you to stop. Keep the message the same as the one you send everyone else, with no pressure added.
Can my state's rules change this?
Possibly, and this page cannot tell you your state's rules. Ask your broker or state licensing board. Follow your employer's rules on client data at all times.
Sources
- Real Estate Brokers and Sales Agents - Occupational Outlook Handbook · U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics · checked 2026-11-07
- NAR 2025 Profile of Home Buyers, Sellers Reveals Market Extremes · National Association of Realtors · checked 2026-11-07
- Seeking reviews from online buyers? Ask later · W. P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University · checked 2026-11-07
- Google Business Profile Help: review policy (answer 3474122) · Google Support · checked 2026-11-07
- How to Get a Google Business Profile Review Link or QR Code · Google Business Profile Community · checked 2026-11-07
- FTC: Final rule banning fake reviews and testimonials (August 2024) · U.S. Federal Trade Commission · checked 2026-11-07
- FTC warns 10 companies about possible violations of consumer review rule (Dec 22, 2025) · U.S. Federal Trade Commission · checked 2026-11-07
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