Before the seller calls: portals and your own name
In its results for the year to 31 December 2025, Rightmove reported a share of time above 80% per Comscore, and 89% in December 2025, measured across a Comscore list of UK portals that includes Zoopla and OnTheMarket. A vendor (the seller) will find your listings on the portals whatever your marketing does, so the marketing has to work one step earlier, at getting asked to value. Search and structured data work is aimed at making a valuation search in your patch land on your branch pages, and AI visibility work at giving answer engines pages they can quote.
In the US the agent is the default route: in NAR's 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, covering transactions from July 2024 to June 2025, a record 91% of sellers used a real estate agent. NAR is the National Association of Realtors. In the US, a portal can also charge agents for the buyers and sellers it passes on. Zillow's own Preferred pricing page, read on 5 October 2026, says the success fee for all seller originated connection transactions is 40%, and that you pay Zillow a percentage of the full commission you expect to receive for your side. On a seller connection, then, the agent keeps 60% of that side's commission, and that retained share is the figure to set against what your own search and past-client email cost per listing taken. Zillow can change its pricing, and buyer-originated fees vary by market.
The shortlist: three valuations, one instruction
Zoopla's commissioned YouGov survey of 1,000 UK homeowners who had sold in the previous five years (2025) found that 49% invited three agents to value their property before deciding, and 20% picked their agent for a good local presence and other properties for sale in the area. Zoopla sells to agents; read it as a portal's research. It shows the job: be one of the three invited, then turn the visit into the instruction. The share of valuations that become instructions then tells you whether the valuation itself is losing you work.
The ASA limits how an agent can claim to be the best of the three. Its general approach is that “leading” and “number one” claims relate to sales or market share, and counting “sold” or “for sale” boards is an inadequate method of substantiation. It also advises advertisers to steer clear of making comparative sales claims about discrete postcodes based on data obtained from the Land Registry, and of superiority claims based only on portal website data. In June 2026 it ruled against one Scottish franchisee's leaflet and Facebook post, which compared the agent with three named competitors; on a "same day feedback" claim it found the claim was presented as a guaranteed and superior feature that had not been substantiated. That is one ruling about one advertiser, and the lesson for a comparison table is evidence behind every line of it.
The US shortlist has a naming trap. NAR's Membership Marks Manual sets several limits on the REALTOR marks. One is that they must not be used generically to denote a vocation or a business, and that members are licensed to use the MARKS only in the proper context of identifying a member of NAR. Where a sentence fails that test, the term should be replaced with “real estate broker,” “real estate agent,” or similar, which is why this page says real estate agent throughout.
Your live listings are the pitch to the next seller
A seller choosing on local presence is reading the listings you already have live, so each one has to be complete as well as attractive. In the UK, the National Trading Standards Estate and Letting Agency Team says agents are already obliged not to omit any material information on property listings. Its guidance runs from council tax band or rate, price or rent, and tenure for sales to flood risk where a property is affected. From 6 April 2025 the CMA has direct enforcement powers, including over material information. For lettings (rentals in the US) in England, landlords cannot accept offers above the advertised rent from 1 May 2026, the ban covers landlords and agents, and the ASA says written property ads will have to include a specific rent.
In the US, the Fair Housing Act makes it unlawful to publish any notice, statement or advertisement for the sale or rental of a dwelling that indicates any preference, limitation or discrimination on protected grounds. HUD's regulation also reaches selecting media or locations for advertising that deny particular groups information about housing on those same protected grounds. HUD withdrew its 2024 digital platforms guidance in 2025, but actions that do not comply with the Fair Housing Act continue to be subject to enforcement. Who sees a listing ad on Facebook or Google is therefore a fair housing question as well as a marketing one, and the paid search and paid social we run is aimed at your patch with that in mind. States add their own rules, and two examples show the kind: in Texas, the requirements include the broker's name at least half the size of the largest contact information for any agent or team name. In California, a licensee must, among other duties, disclose an eight digit licence ID number and the responsible broker's name on first-contact materials.
The valuation, the listing appointment and the buyer consultation
The valuation is where the instruction is won or lost, and in the UK the seller may check one thing first. GOV.UK says you are legally required to belong to a government-approved redress scheme for estate agency work in the UK on residential property, and for lettings and property management work in England and Wales. Because every agent doing that work must belong, the badge shows compliance, not quality; for lettings, Propertymark says agents in England, Wales and Scotland must be signed up to a client money protection scheme by law. One to watch: on 18 June 2026 the government announced that sellers and estate agents will have to provide key information upfront in sales packs at the point of listing, a stated intention with legislation to follow.
The US seller meeting now has a compensation conversation built in. NAR's MLS policy requires participants to disclose to prospective sellers and buyers that broker compensation is not set by law and is fully negotiable. It also says the MLS must not accept a listing containing an offer of compensation to other participants. On the buyer side, unless inconsistent with state or federal law, MLS Participants working with a buyer must enter into a written agreement with the buyer prior to touring a home. These are NAR policy, not federal statute. So US ads and follow-up should book a buyer consultation rather than promise a same-day tour, and a consultation page that explains the agreement in plain words does part of the meeting's work. For NAR members, Standard of Practice 12-1 also bars representing brokerage services as free unless they receive no financial compensation from any source. Count listing appointments held and listings taken, and buyer consultations booked and agreements signed.
After completion: past clients, landlords and referrals
In Zoopla's survey, 30% of sellers used an agent they had worked with before, and another 14% chose an agent recommended by family and friends. Those two routes are where an agency's own past work brings the next invitation, and they deserve the most deliberate follow-up. Email follow-up runs separately for past vendors, past buyers and landlords. In lettings, the numbers that follow are renewals, void days (days a property sits empty) and landlords adding a second property; in the US, a past buyer can be a future listing appointment.
The review request goes out at completion (closing, in the US), when the result is fresh. The FTC's 2024 rule prohibits buying fake reviews, procuring them from company insiders or sharing fake testimonials where the business knew or should have known they were fake, and it reaches further than that. A recommendation can arrive a year after the sale that earned it; every new valuation request is asked how it heard of you and logged against the past client who sent it. Since it was founded in London in 2017, The Social Target has worked with 600+ clients. We take on estate agencies and real estate brokerages in the UK and the US, work across both countries' time zones, and quote in GBP or USD.
↳ Frequently asked
01Can I call myself the number one estate agent in my town?
As a general rule, the ASA treats "number one" and "leading" as claims about sales or market share, and says counting sold or for-sale boards is not enough. It also advises against postcode sales comparisons built on Land Registry data, and against superiority claims based only on portal website data. So have sales or market-share evidence that clears all of those points before the claim runs, and check the ASA's property guidance first.
02Can I call myself a realtor on my website and ads?
Only if you are an NAR member, and then only to identify yourself as a member, never as a generic word for the job. NAR's Membership Marks Manual sets other limits too, among them form: capitals with the ® symbol are preferred, and an all-lowercase "realtor" is prohibited outside domain names and email addresses. Where a sentence fails its member test, it says to use "real estate agent" instead. Ask your local association if you are unsure.
03Do I have to put the rent on my lettings adverts now?
In England, for written adverts, yes in the ASA's reading: it says written property ads will have to include a specific rent. GOV.UK tells landlords that advertising a property means publishing an asking price, though not on 'to let' signs, and that landlords and agents cannot ask for or accept offers above the advertised rent from 1 May 2026. The ASA says the Act applies in England only.
04Can I advertise the buyer's agent commission on my listing?
NAR's MLS policy says the MLS must not accept a listing that contains an offer of compensation to other participants. It is a rule about what the MLS accepts and supports, though it also has the MLS bar disclosing the total negotiated commission in any way, so ask your managing broker before any commission figure goes into an ad. NAR's policy also requires the buyer agreement to say, among other terms, that fees and commissions are not set by law and are fully negotiable.
05What do I tell a buyer about the written agreement before the first tour?
Under NAR's MLS policy, unless state or federal law says otherwise, the written agreement comes before the tour. It must include several terms, among them the amount or rate you will be paid, stated so it is objectively ascertainable, and a conspicuous statement that broker fees and commissions are not set by law and are fully negotiable. A short buyer consultation before any tour is the natural place to walk through it in plain words, so marketing should promise that conversation rather than an instant viewing.
06Which numbers show my marketing is bringing in instructions and listings?
Count the early steps as well as the sales: valuation requests booked, valuations held and the share that become instructions in the UK; listing appointments, listings taken, buyer consultations and signed agreements in the US. Ask every new client how they found you and log it. Completed sales also depend on the market. Treat them as the result and the early counts as the test of the marketing.
07Is a Zillow seller lead worth giving up 40% of my commission?
It depends on what a listing costs you by other routes. Zillow's Preferred pricing page, read in October 2026, puts the success fee on seller-originated connections at 40% of the commission you expect for your side. Work out what your own search, portal listings and past-client email cost per listing taken, and compare that with the 40% share. Zillow can change the fee on notice.