Getting Found on Rate My Agent and Local Agent Comparison Sites

05 September 2026·5 min read

Quick answer: Rate My Agent and similar agent comparison sites are increasingly where vendors do their "who should I list with" homework before an appraisal call ever happens, so a thin or outdated profile there quietly costs you shortlist spots you never even hear about. The fix is a consistent, active request process for reviews at every settlement, plus a profile that's kept as current as your own website. It won't replace strong local reputation, but it makes that reputation visible where vendors are actually comparing agents. ✨

Here's an uncomfortable truth: a good chunk of the agents you lose an appraisal to, you never even find out about, because the vendor never called at all — they compared agents on Rate My Agent, shortlisted two, and only rang those two. If your profile is sparse, or a competitor simply has more recent, specific reviews than you, you can be quietly filtered out before the conversation starts. Most agents pour their energy into Google reviews and under-invest in the comparison sites where vendors are doing genuinely comparative research. 💖

What most agents get wrong

The biggest mistake is treating review requests as a one-off "ask when it feels right" habit instead of a built-in step at every settlement, so review count and recency fall behind more disciplined competitors over time. The second mistake is generic requests that produce generic reviews — "great agent, would recommend" says almost nothing to a vendor deciding between three agents who all look similarly nice. The third, most costly mistake is going quiet on a negative review instead of responding professionally, which vendors researching agents absolutely do read and weigh — sometimes more heavily than the positive reviews around it.

The settlement-day review request script & process

Timing: ask within 48 hours of settlement, while the experience is fresh and relief/excitement is high — not weeks later.

The ask (adapt to your voice):

"Congratulations again on settlement! If you have two minutes, a review on Rate My Agent genuinely helps other [suburb] vendors find someone they can trust — would you be open to sharing a few lines about your experience with us?"

Prompting for specifics (send this as a follow-up, not the first ask):

What made you choose us over other agents you considered?
What was the campaign or negotiation process actually like?
Would you recommend us to a friend or family member selling nearby, and why?

Tracking: a simple spreadsheet or CRM tag logging settlement date, review request sent date, and whether it converted — so gaps are visible, not assumed.

Negative review response template: acknowledge specifics without getting defensive, note what's been done or changed if applicable, and invite the person to continue the conversation offline — never argue publicly.

Independent agency, regional NSW: Built settlement-day review requests into their transaction checklist for every single sale, rather than leaving it to individual agents' memory. Review count roughly doubled within a year with no change to sales volume, purely from closing the gap between settlements and actual requests.

Agent who received a harsh, partly unfair review: Responded calmly within a day, acknowledged the vendor's frustration about a delayed settlement (caused by the buyer's finance, not the agent), and clarified the timeline factually without getting personal. Months later, prospective vendors mentioned the professional response was what made them comfortable calling, despite the negative review still sitting on the profile.

Newer agent building a profile from scratch: Rather than waiting to accumulate reviews passively, asked their first ten vendor and buyer clients directly and personally, explaining honestly that reviews matter early in a career. That deliberate push got the profile to a credible double-digit review count well before it would have happened organically.

How to actually build this into your business

Bake the review ask into your settlement process, not an agent's individual memory or motivation on any given day.
Ask twice — once for the simple review, once (a few days later) with prompting questions that produce specific, useful detail.
Respond to every review, positive and negative, professionally and promptly — silence on a negative review reads worse than the review itself.
Keep your comparison-site profile current alongside your portal profiles and website, using consistent photos and bio details.
Track your numbers — review count, recency, and average rating relative to two or three genuine local competitors — so you know if you're actually falling behind.

💡 Never offer an incentive for a review. Beyond the platform and consumer law risk, incentivised reviews read as less credible to savvy vendors, and they tend to produce generic, unhelpful text rather than the specific detail that actually influences a shortlist decision.

Mistakes to avoid

Leaving review requests to individual agent memory instead of building them into the settlement process
Asking for a review without any follow-up prompt for specific detail
Ignoring or deleting negative reviews instead of responding professionally
Letting your comparison-site profile go stale while focusing entirely on Google reviews
Offering incentives or discounts in exchange for a review

Frequently asked questions

Can a negative review actually be removed?

Genuinely fake or policy-breaching reviews can sometimes be reported and removed, but a real client's honest negative experience generally can't be, and shouldn't be — a thoughtful public response does far more for your reputation than trying to fight it.

How many reviews is "enough" to be competitive?

It depends on your local market and how established competitors are, but double-digit recent reviews with a clear response history generally reads as far more credible than two or three old ones.

Should every agent have their own profile, or one shared agency profile?

Individual profiles generally perform better for vendor trust, since vendors are choosing a person, not just a brand — but that requires review-request discipline across every agent, not just the principal.

Does a strong comparison-site profile guarantee more listings?

No — it removes a barrier to being shortlisted, but the appraisal conversation, your fee and your track record still have to close the deal. Think of the profile as getting you in the room, not doing the negotiating for you.

Keep reading 🤍

Written by

Kate, founder of Chronically Online

I help Gold Coast and Brisbane businesses grow with branding, websites and marketing that actually works.

Work with me ✦