How should a real estate agent choose a marketing company?

What kinds of companies market real estate agents?

Five, and they are not interchangeable: local-SEO software you run yourself, lead sellers and portals, website and CRM platforms, done-for-you services built for agents, and general marketing agencies on a retainer. Most disappointment with “a marketing company” comes from buying one kind while needing another.

• Local-SEO software (BrightLocal, Birdeye and similar): dashboards, rank tracking, review tools. The work is still yours.
• Lead sellers and portals (Zillow, Realtor.com and lead-generation companies): you buy contacts. Nothing you pay for stays yours when you stop.
• Website and CRM platforms (Luxury Presence, Real Geeks, Placester, AgentFire): a site and a database, sometimes with ads bolted on; the Google profile is rarely the product.
• Done-for-you services for agents (Top Real Estate Systems and a few others): the profile, reviews, listings, website or ads run for you, reported monthly.
• General agencies and freelancers: anything, for anyone, on a quote. Real estate experience varies from deep to none.

What does each kind of real estate marketing company cost?

From about $41 a month for software you run yourself to four figures a month for an agency retainer, with done-for-you services for agents in between. The table uses prices read from each company's own pricing page on 11 October 2026; where a company does not publish a price, the table says so rather than guessing.

The published-price column is itself a signal. A company that puts its prices on its website expects to be compared; a company that hides them expects to sell on the call.

What should an agent own no matter which company they hire?

Four things, in the agent's own name, with the company added as a manager: the Google Business Profile, the domain, the Google Ads and Local Services Ads accounts, and the client database. Any company that insists on holding one of them in its own account is building a reason you cannot leave.

This is the part of the contract to read twice. Google's guidelines allow a business to add managers to its profile without giving up ownership, and both Google Ads and Local Services Ads let a manager account run campaigns in a client's account without touching the client's payment method. A company that cannot work that way is choosing not to. Top Real Estate Systems works only as a manager on client profiles and ad accounts; the agent sets the ad budget and pays Google directly.

What eight questions should an agent ask a marketing company before signing?

Ask every candidate the same eight questions and write the answers down; the pattern across them tells you more than any single answer.

1. Who will own my Google Business Profile, my domain and my ad accounts? The right answer: you, with us added as a manager.
2. Will you ever change my profile name? The right answer: no, unless your legal name changes. Cities and keywords in the name violate Google's guidelines.
3. How do you get reviews? The right answer: a link and a script you send to real clients after closing. No writing, buying or filtering.
4. Who writes the posts, how many, and are they about my towns and my keywords? Ask to see three from a current client.
5. How do you measure map rank? One search from one spot proves little; ask for a grid scan across your market, monthly.
6. What exactly happens in month one, and what do I see at the end of it? You should hear: profile rebuild, keyword research, baseline scan, a one-page report.
7. What is the contract, and what do I keep if I leave? Month to month is normal for profile management; a 12-month term is reasonable only when a website is built up front and stays yours after it.
8. What do you not do? An honest company has a quick answer. Top Real Estate Systems, for example, does not sell leads, run social media, or guarantee rankings.

What are the red flags when choosing a real estate marketing company?

A guaranteed ranking, map position or number of leads; a profile, domain or ad account that would sit in the company's name; prices that only exist on a sales call; reviews that are written, bought or filtered; and a contract longer than the thing being built. Any one of these is reason enough to keep looking.

Google itself removes the first one from debate: its SEO Starter Guide says “there are no secrets here that'll automatically rank your site first in Google,” and its local ranking help says “there's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google.” On reviews, Google's policy prohibits incentives and selective solicitation, and the FTC's consumer review rule makes fake and purchased reviews a federal matter; the rules are in Google review rules for real estate agents.

Software, done-for-you or agency: which is right for which agent?

Software fits an agent with more time than budget who will actually do the weekly work. A done-for-you service fits an agent who wants it handled, reported and off their plate for a few hundred dollars a month. An agency retainer fits a team or brokerage with several agents, several markets and a budget that justifies a dedicated account team.

The honest test is the calendar. An agent who has not posted to their profile in two months will not start because they bought a dashboard; that agent needs it done for them. An agent with a thriving profile and a healthy review habit may need only software and a website. A team doing a hundred transactions a year across three markets needs more than any single-agent service, Top Real Estate Systems included.

How does Top Real Estate Systems fit, and when is it not the right choice?

Top Real Estate Systems is a done-for-you service for individual agents and small teams: the Google Business Profile, reviews, listings, AI visibility tracking, a website and Google ads, run for the agent and reported on one page a month, with published prices from $199 a month and every account kept in the agent's name. It is the right choice for an agent who wants the work handled and will approve rather than do.

It is not the right choice for an agent who wants to buy leads, who wants social media run for them, who needs a brokerage-wide program across dozens of agents, or who wants a guarantee. Those agents are better served by a portal program, a social agency, a full-service agency, or nobody, respectively. The six plans and the one-time services are on the pricing page; how the company compares with specific alternatives is on the compare page.

Where do the facts on this page come from?

Competitor prices were read from each company's own pricing page on 11 October 2026 and will change; links below. Statements about Google's rules are quoted from Google's own guidelines and help pages. Top Real Estate Systems is a company in this category and its prices are shown on the same terms as the others.

• BrightLocal pricing (read 11 October 2026)
• Luxury Presence plans (read 11 October 2026)
• Real Geeks pricing (read 11 October 2026)
• Birdeye pricing (read 11 October 2026)
• Google Search Central — SEO Starter Guide
• Google Business Profile Help — How to improve your local ranking on Google
• Google Business Profile Help — Guidelines for representing your business on Google