Cash for Houses: 10 Secrets to Uncovering Fake Reviews Online
Reading online reviews and testimonials is how you decide a company is legit, right? But how do you know the reviews are real? How can you pick fake reviews about these companies that pay cash for houses?
NB: This article is written specifically about cash buyers however if you’re on the hunt for a great contractor then it can be most useful there too.
Some people, such as millennials, have a much easier time as they have not lived in a world without the internet. I recently read an interesting article about how millennials understand the internet more and in real estate, this is resulting in a larger degree of influence. Maybe we can learn something from them?
This is how you can spot fake testimonials and uncover we buy houses reviews that are made up
Read time: 2 minutes 21 seconds. Denver, Colorado. Real Estate: Guide to sell your house successfully.
Not all guides on real estate start with a conversation the author had with her mother, but her we go…
I talked to my mom and dad last night and asked them, “If you were selling your house for cash how would you know the buyer was legit?”
To be honest, for a couple old folks (I love you both so dearly though J I was surprised at how thorough and effective there methods seemed to me.
The overall theme was when deciding on any type of business in real estate you should take everything with a grain of salt. That was particularly the case when it came to online reviews, and whether you could trust them.
The questions were asked:
- Do you trust online reviews? AND “
- How do you know if there fake?
And that’s what this guide will answer.
So, this is what you must do to identify fake reviews when looking for companies that pay cash for houses.
What you must do to identify fake reviews when looking for companies that pay cash for houses
One recent survey found that nearly eight in 10 consumers say they think they’ve read a fake review in the past year. And 84% of consumers say they can’t always spot a fake review.
Shall we dive in?
Here are 10 ways to spot fake reviews online in the real estate industry
Fake reviews overuse personal pronouns
"Me myself and I sold my house for cash". An example of a made up review for sure
Look for overuse of “I” and “me” and a lot of verbs. According to research from Cornell University, online reviews that frequently use “I” and “me” are more likely to be fake than those that don’t — possibly because when people are lying they try to make themselves sound credible by using personal pronouns. Additionally, “deceivers use more verbs and truth-tellers use more nouns,” the research found.
For example: ”I sold my house for cash to Watson Buys and I thought they were great because they helped me”
Fake reviews set the scene in to much detail
Are the writing about how the sold the house or what they sold?
Beware of scene-setting. The Cornell study also found that setting the scene could be a warning sign. “Truthful hotel reviews, for example, are more likely to use concrete words relating to the hotel, like ‘bathroom,’ ‘check-in’ or ‘price.’ Deceivers write more about things that set the scene, like ‘vacation,’ ‘business trip’ or ‘my husband,’” the research revealed.
Using real estate now as an example we might see a sentence that reads:
I needed to sell my house really fast and for cash because I needed to stop foreclosure because I was behind on my mortgage payments.”
The above sentence is jam packed with seen setting specific to needing to sell a house in a hurry. On the other side of the coin it might be ok to have a review that reds:
“I wanted to sell my house for cash” This describes their need not the scene. Confused? Don’t worry – I’m an expert and I’m still developing my skills in the industry.
The profile of the person reviewing the company might be fake
Let’s bring my parents back into the conversation again. They typically do not leave reviews online. Speaking for Watson Buys, we specialize in paying cash for people who are downsizing. These are regularly older people.
Do you see where I am going? (apologies again M and D but old people tend to leave fewer reviews online).
As my parents don’t leave reviews they have what might be a weak review profile. Take each review with a grain of salt.
Now there are some obvious signs a reviewer is fake. Some things to watch out for include:
- Watch out for generic names and/or photo-less profiles.
- They have only left one review
- They haven’t filled out the entire review profile
- You can see the review came from an overseas account
One of the big ways that fake online reviews get generated is from “a faceless offshore company pushing bulk reviews on a site under different accounts,” says Jean Paldan, founder of UK-based marketing firm Rare Form New Media. To spot those, “look for names like John or Jane Smith, or obviously fake names or just numbers and letters. They will 99% of the time not have a profile picture,” Paldan says.
I recently spoke to a real estate agent from Denver, Colorado who had this to say, “I’m not sure how prevalent fake reviews are in the real estate business. That said like any industry there are always some unscrupulous players you must look out for. I find not only are their reviews fake, but their websites are pretty generic too. When looking for a real estate investor to buy your house spend some time on their website. What does your gut tell you? Do some of them look a little too much the same?” Cheers, Angie! I hope we can talk again soon.
We Buy Houses Companies that Are Legit Will Have Reviews Coming Online Consistently – Not All On One Day!
Examine the timing of reviews. “See if there is a spike in the total number of reviews during a very short time frame. This can indicate a targeted campaign to add new artificial reviews,” says Dave Gleeson, a real estate investor in Indianapolis, Indiana. There are exceptions though: “I have known some of my associates to reach out to previous clients every few months. This results in a bunch of new reviews being posted all at once. Some of my investor buddies try to encourage people that sold to them to put references in there to dates so the reader can see it’s more likely a real review and not fake.”
Phrase Repetition and Keyword Stuffing.
This is an example of what a fake review, from a made-up seller, might look like on a real estate we buy houses business page:
“I sold my house fast for cash and they bought it really quickly and paid me a great cash price. We buy houses fast and we buy houses for cash and we pay cash for houses”
Look for phrase repetition. “Look through several reviews and see if any words or phrases are repeated in different reviews. Reviews that use the same phrase(s) may have been instructed to do so by the party faking the reviews, says Dave.
“Asking a customer to include a certain process of the transaction is a grey area for real reviews. I have asked people that sold to me to do it on the odd occasion” said Dave. Google says that it is ok to send the link to the review form and in the email, I have sometimes asked the seller to include the 5 W’s and an H. This has lead to some reviews that look a bit spammy for sure. But they are legit.”
Good point Dave
For further verification of a dubious review, you might ask to speak to the seller. If the company gets you in touch with the person who sold them a house you can be a little more confident the review is no a scam. Of course the cash for homes business will have to get in touch with the previous owner to make sure it’s ok to share their number.
Fake reviews often contain Spelling Errors. Look for Grammar Errors Too!
Check the spelling and grammar, says Michael Lai, a founder of review site SiteJabber. Many fake reviews are outsourced to content farms, he says, which may mean they “are either written in poor English or not in a way a real consumer would express their opinion.”
Can you work out which of the following sentences are fake? These are real examples II took from a couple of companies that buy houses for cash in Colorado.
“I sold house for money and it was really good result”
“These guys were great, they were considerate throughout the process. Highly recommend them”
Can you spot the difference?
Dig deeper into the reviewer profile.
Another common type of fake review is from a “professional reviewer” — someone who was given the product for free and given extra money, to give a five star review, Paldan says. These are “harder to spot” but you often can if you put in some legwork, she says: “Click on the reviewer profile, and look at all of their reviews. If they have a big trend of giving all five star reviews without any negativity … odds are that they were bought and paid for.” Another hint: If they’ve done a lot of five-star reviews for products owned by the same company.
Look at the middle-of-the-road reviews.
“It’s often helpful to sort reviews that fall in the middle of the pack (e.g 3/5 stars). These reviews are often the most honest and insightful about both the positive and negative aspects of the venue and can be used to cross-reference other reviews to look for trends in both positive and negative feedback,” says Marc Nashaat, an SEO and digital PR consultant.
Look for verified sales of real houses
Look for verified purchases.
“Many review platforms will verify if the purchase happened on that site or not. If it did not, it will be an ‘unverified purchase,’ which is more likely to be to be faked review,” says Hales.
Are all the reviews of the homes in one season?
When it comes to selling houses the time of year you sell makes a difference with some seasons being better than others. If all of the reviews are in the winter, for example, this may raise some eyebrows.
When in doubt, reach out.
“Reach out directly to the reviewer with questions about their review. Most fake reviewers will not respond, but real reviewers often look forward to opportunities to be more helpful,” says Lai.
