The Top Agents, an editorial series by Ashford South.
RESULT:
$60k
COMMISSION
IN 60 DAYS
Suzanne Carney is a client of Ashford South. Results shown are hers and are not a guarantee of similar outcomes.
Suzanne Carney closed a home 60 days after we started, earning a $60,000 commission.
Nothing about how she sells changed in those 60 days. She was already good. She was already working. The only thing that changed is that people could find her. Here’s what was actually broken.
Here’s what agents in any market can take from how she got there.
Google Jail
Being Herself
The Problem Wasn’t Her Marketing
Suzanne was doing the work. Showing up, running her business, competing in one of the hardest markets in the country.
What she didn’t have was a verified Google Business Profile made to rank above the competition.
That single gap does more damage than most agents realize. An unverified profile doesn’t rank in the map pack. It doesn’t show in local results. As far as Google is concerned, the business is a claim nobody has confirmed. She was invisible in the one place every buyer starts.
"And then I got a solution. And then I got another solution, because very quickly a client found me online."
Suzanne Carney, Realtor
Most agents have never heard the term until it happens to them. Then it’s all they think about.
Google jail is what agents call it when a profile gets suspended, rejected, or stuck in a verification loop that never resolves. You submit. You wait. You get denied without a reason. You try again.
It’s demoralizing in a specific way, because it isn’t a business problem you can outwork.
No amount of prospecting fixes a profile Google won’t confirm.
What We Actually Did
Three things, in order.
We got her verified. That came first, because nothing else matters until Google confirms the business exists.
We built the profile properly. Categories, service areas, and a structure that tells Google exactly what she does and where she does it. Most agents use fewer than three categories. Google allows ten.
We made her one entity. Same name, same photo, same details everywhere Google looks. Consistency across sources is what turns a listing into an authority. Then we kept the pulse steady: posts, photos, reviews, citations. Every week, no gaps.
60 Days Later
One closing. Sixty thousand dollars in commission.
We want to be precise about what we did and didn’t do here. We didn’t find her a buyer. We didn’t sell the house. Suzanne did all of that, the way she always has.
What we did was make sure the people looking for an agent in her market could actually find one.
What Other Agents Can Take From This
Check whether you’re verified. Not whether you have a profile. Whether Google has confirmed it. Those are different things, and most agents assume the first means the second.
Count your categories. If you’re using two, you’re leaving eight unused slots that competitors are filling.
Audit your name across every platform. Most agents are three different people online without knowing it. None of that requires a bigger marketing budget. It requires someone to sit down and fix it.
Closing
Suzanne was never bad at this. She was unfindable. Attention is expensive. Search is cheap, and in most markets it’s still unclaimed.
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the story
Suzanne Carney
Los Angeles
the story
Jade Shenker
New York City
the story
Ryan Serhant
New York City
The Top Agents is an editorial series by Ashford South studying how top producing real estate agents get found. We break down the marketing, branding, and search strategies behind agents we work with and outside agents making waves, so any agent can see what actually drives visibility in their own market.