14 Real Estate Testimonial Examples to Inspire Your Referral Marketing

According to the National Association of Realtors’ 2023 Member Profile, the typical Realtor earned 24% of their business through referrals in 2022—nearly one out of every four sales. When people are hunting for the best real estate agent to work with, they’re looking for examples that show you are trusted by others. Real estate testimonials from your past clients work just like referrals. 

We scoured the internet to snag some of the best real estate testimonial examples out there. We put them all together in one place and added some tips to help you up your real estate testimonial game.

So what makes a good real estate testimonial? Keep TABS on your testimonials by asking your past clients to be thorough, authentic, and specific. For more details on how to do this, skip down to our best practices for YouTube, short-form video, and written testimonials.

Let’s dive into our list of the best examples of video real estate testimonials on the internet, plus some tips to fire up your video marketing.

Video Real Estate Testimonials

The eyeballs are all watching videos, and you need to be where those eyeballs are. Most of us consume videos every day on different platforms covering different topics. So your marketing efforts will go much further with video. For example, TikTok users are on the app for an average of 1.5 hours every single day. 

That’s great news for you because creating videos can be even easier than getting someone to write out a review on Google. Videos are the most effortless way to generate real estate testimonial examples that make you look like a rock star. 

Coffee & Contracts offers a vast library of social media templates, including video, that you can use in posting your testimonials through social media.

YouTube Real Estate Testimonial Examples

YouTube is the OG of video marketing. And you can still drive business with your real estate testimonials there. Many of the real estate testimonial examples on YouTube are polished, long-form, story-style videos that really take the extra time to flesh out the unique selling proposition of the agent. Done well, these videos will attract your ideal clients to you in droves.

1. April Dean

I love the way April Dean, with BHGRE Haven Properties, put together a montage of several happy clients in one promo video. She explains how she likes to work with her clients, what she offers, and the why behind what she does. 

Then she lets her clients share their experiences on video, explaining how April helped them find what they were looking for, marketed their home well, and guided them through the process—as well as what a lovely person she is to work with. This video is a great real estate testimonial example that’s perfectly crafted for a website.

2. Mandy Saldana

Mandy Saldana of LEAGUE Real Estate took a much different approach in her testimonial video. She focused her less-than-90-second video on one couple she worked with. It’s a sweet video of two newlyweds explaining how Mandy “really took the time to understand what we were looking for in a home.”

3. Zach McDonald

Zach McDonald, of the McDonald Real Estate Group, took a similar approach in this real estate testimonial example with his clients. The video is just under three minutes long, and his clients explain the way Zach helped them find their dream home during a tough market. The video has more than 5,300 views, so you know it’s made a difference in Zach’s business.

4. Monica Perez

The thing I love about this testimonial for Monica Perez of The Monica Perez Team is it tells the whole story of Em and Charlie with quick video snapshots of them looking through homes to find just the right one. It’s a video diary of their home search. And it all fits neatly within a minute-and-a-half. Em and Charlie do a fantastic job of selling Monica’s services for her.

Best Practices for YouTube Testimonial Videos

Using YouTube videos for your real estate testimonials is a great way to get in front of your potential future clients. After all, YouTube is the world’s largest search engine after Google. But in order to get the most out of your efforts, you need to adhere to a few best practices.

• Make sure your potential clients can find you. Include your location in your title (or at least the description) and tag your location in your video. People tend to type “real estate agent in {city name}” when they search.
• Keep it short. Today, shorter videos get more views and are more likely to be watched to the end if they’re under three minutes.
• Get your clients’ honest responses. Let your clients know ahead of time that you’ll be doing a video and you would like their review of your services. Give them a couple of questions to think about leading up to the day you plan to shoot the video.
• Edit your video to keep the timing and visual interest high. Cut out any downtime or pauses. Keep the story moving. Multiple cuts will add dynamism to your video. Use background music to set the tone.
• Always include a call to action in the description. Include your contact information, your location, hashtags, and a direct phone number viewers can use to reach out to you for their real estate needs. Make sure they have a way to contact you!
• If you really want to up your game, give your future clients a downloadable lead magnet that will help you capture their contact information. Create your download in Canva and post the link in the video description for potential clients to use. You can use a tool like Linktree to host the link to your lead magnet.
• Remember that done is better than perfect. When all else fails, just grab your phone and get a candid response from your clients on closing day and post it on social. You can always add key elements like location and a call to action later when you get it up on YouTube.

Short-form Vertical Video Testimonial Examples

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably noticed the rise of vertical videos, aka “short-form videos.” TikTok has 150 million monthly active users in the U.S. and it’s growing in popularity as an online search engine. Ignoring the app and writing it off as a Gen Z pastime is detrimental to your business. 

The great thing about vertical video is it’s practically effortless to do. It’s easy to create a super-short video and post it in the app, which undoubtedly contributes to its skyrocketing popularity. Admittedly, I love to scroll through TikTok videos and can easily lose an hour watching them. 

Close behind TikTok are Instagram Reels, which are similar enough that you can repurpose videos across both platforms. There are a ton of real estate agents using these vertical video platforms to boost their business. And some are nailing the vertical video testimonials—let’s check out some examples.

5. Zeb Freeman

This is one of the sweetest buyer stories ever. When you see the pure joy on this beautiful client’s face as she’s holding up the key to her new home, you just can’t help but feel that joy with her. Zeb Freeman of PalmerHouse tells the story with short video shots of his client touring the “40 to 50 homes” it took before she found the right one. It’s a joyful story of accomplishment shot in only two minutes.

6. Rose Gachette

Going back to “done is better than perfect,” this video is a great example of the idea that you don’t have to have a highly polished, edited video to get your testimonial out there and let it start working for you. Rose Gachette of La Rosa Realty had her buyer do a quick video at the closing table, which is the easiest way to get your testimonials. 

She starts the video by explaining who she is and introduces her buyer. Her client then talks about what it was like working with Rose. And, of course, it’s awesome. Raw, unscripted reviews of your service come across as genuine and unsolicited, making it that much more trustworthy in the eyes of your future clients

7. Everette Forrest

I love how this couple talked about how their agent became like a friend. “You really can’t compare him to anybody else.” Everette Forrest from eXp Realty in Atlanta was a referral from this client’s friend, which gives Everette the maximum benefit of two referrals in one.

8. Nancy Hargrove

Don’t you just love it when you get those super-high-energy clients who create referral videos for you? I’m sure Nancy Hargrove of Coldwell Banker is grateful for this short testimonial video from her clients. They’ve worked with other agents, but love Nancy and are already looking forward to future projects with her. Win-win!

9. Terry Carter

Of course, if you’re not comfortable with making TikTok videos yet, you can always break in through Instagram Reels. Terry Carter of The Terry Carter Team is doing an excellent job of getting his testimonials on the ‘Gram.

10. Mark Kozik & Curtis Russell

If you have any doubts about the effectiveness of vertical videos on social media platforms, look no further than this example from Mark Kozik and Curtis Russell of Great Homes ATL. It currently has 3,835 views. That’s a lot of visibility for a real estate business. These guys use the description smartly, including their tagline and a big call to action along with hashtags to get found easily. 

Other elements we love include the fun editing, pinned testimonial, and closing day videos at the top of their profile. If you’re looking for a template on how to do social media right, these guys have 101,000 followers—we’d say they’ve cracked the code!

11. Teikesha Hubert

Teikesha Hubert of Hubert & Co. Real Estate knows how to keep her clients’ emotions in check. As her clients share, she “helped me to calm down and just trust the process.” Those are magic words for anyone feeling anxious about their first-time homebuying experience. And Teikesha used plenty of hashtags in her video description to help her reach more than 700 views so far.

12. Mariam Mechael

Mariam Mechael of Realty Executives Dillon knows how to maximize a sale. This video is so well done it looks pro. She’s used all the tools to show off her client’s new home, their testimonial on her amazing service, and how she exceeded their expectations. If you check out her description, she’s also done something above and beyond—given people who find her video a mini-test to see if they’re ready to jump on the homebuying roller coaster ride.

She’s using this real estate testimonial video to prequalify anyone who might contact her for real estate advice. And those questions are designed to put people in the right mindset to say “yes!”

Also, Mariam is using a link in her bio to drive potential buyers and sellers to her website and other social proof examples separate from Instagram. So smart.

Best Practices for Vertical Testimonial Videos 

Using vertical videos for your real estate testimonials is the way of today, not the future. Getting started on vertical videos is much easier than you might think. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• You can easily and quickly create videos on the fly directly inside the platform, whether you’re publishing on TikTok or Instagram Reels. You can then share the video to the other platform so you don’t have to duplicate your efforts.
• Keep it short. Vertical videos are meant to be consumed quickly and easily. Best practices dictate you keep them under three minutes.
• Video editing can quickly eat up a lot of your time. Make it easy on yourself: Use some outside video tools like CapCut, InShot, or Canva to create your videos and then upload them to social media platforms.
• Always shoot vertical videos in portrait orientation. Landscape mode doesn’t do as well on TikTok or Reels.
• Add a call to action in the description. Include your contact information, your location, hashtags, and direct call number to reach out to you for real estate needs.
• Again, done is better than perfect. I can’t stress this enough. Don’t think—just do. Your first few videos will probably be terrible. But you will get better with every video you upload. And even your worst video will likely get you results if you follow best practices.

Written Real Estate Testimonial Examples

So what do you do when you have a client who isn’t comfortable doing a video testimonial? You can still work it into your social media. Ask your clients for a written testimonial through an email or a Google form. Then turn it into a sleek video like Scott Goshorn from the Luxury Estates Team did.

13. Scott Goshorn

Scott created this gorgeous short video—with a logo embedded in the corner—that shows off the text from one of his testimonials. Using the captioning feature to display the words one at a time forces viewers to read the words as they appear. Scott’s already gotten 833 likes on this short video testimonial. Not bad at all!

If you’re looking for more examples to help you whip these real estate testimonials up, then you’ll love the gorgeous templates you’ll get from Coffee & Contracts. They’re already perfectly designed yet fully customizable inside Canva, so you can easily put your stamp on them and post them across all your platforms with just a few clicks.

14. Sean Housel

Sean Housel from Summit Sotheby’s International Realty shows how easy it is to share written testimonials on TikTok. With some lovely music and a little animation, I’m sure this post didn’t take much effort for Sean, but he has a couple of these on his TikTok wall, each with 200-plus views. Pretty straightforward.

Best Practices for Written Real Estate Testimonials (TABS)

Be Thorough

If your client leaves you a one-sentence review, that’s going to be pretty tough to turn into a full-fledged post or video. You can’t just use, “Greta was a great Realtor.” Well—you can, but it won’t really bring the views and new business you want. When you ask for a testimonial, prompt your clients to get them thinking. Try questions like, “What did I do well?” and “Why would you want to work with me again?”

Be Authentic

People work with those they know, like, and trust. To build that into testimonials, give your viewers and clients those details that really help paint a picture of who you are. To get them thinking, try a fun question like, “What surprised you about me?” Or, prompt your clients to think about your authentic self by asking questions like, “What was your favorite part of working together?” After all, there’s a reason your clients chose you—let that shine through in your testimonials.

Be Specific

If you’re showcasing a testimonial, there’s a reason. Don’t be vague about it. Prompt your clients to mention their specific experience or situation. Make sure you emphasize the why. Perhaps they were an anxious first-time buyer, but you helped them by being responsive and knowledgeable. Or maybe the bank ordered a last-minute termite inspection days before the closing and you got an expert in there at 6 a.m. on a Tuesday.   

Your Take on Real Estate Testimonials

We truly hope these real estate testimonial examples and best practices will spur your creativity and help you up your referral business. So, what are you waiting for? Get out there and start shooting those testimonial videos!