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EP 248: How Credibility and the Right Partnership Led to 38 Transactions in 2020 w/ Carter Crowley

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The importance of the agent investor/relationship is something we’ve been talking about for a while now here at Carrot. We’ve often said that in the future, agents will need to invest, and investors should be licensed in order to better serve their leads. Well, the future is now. Now, more than ever, people are looking for ways to sell their homes. With the rise of iBuyers, people are looking to other sources when they are thinking about putting their home on the market. The agent or investor who is able to offer multiple solutions, is going to be able to complete more actions and help more people. Here’s how Carter Crawley is doing it.

Company Credibility Websites

Build Credibility, Attract Lenders, and Control Your Brand One of the most overlooked websites by real estate wholesalers and flippers is what we call a “main company” credibility website. The website that is your “online home”. Where business partners can learn more about you. Lenders and investors can see what you do and you can earn their trust. A place to post your wins as a company and educate your partners and clients. Our Main Company Credibility websites can help you create that online home that not only helps you build your credibility more easily, but also has our built in lead generation and SEO tools that makes your main website not just a pretty site… but also a lead generation tool at the same time.

What’s Your Credibility Score? The Top 5% Of Earners Are Doing These “Simple” Things To Build More Credibility In A Cluttered Market

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A lack of realism in the vision today costs credibility tomorrow. John C. Maxwell How serious are you about building a business that stands out from the clutter and gives you the income and freedom to live your best life? If you’re ready to get after it and do what it takes to succeed, this framework is for you! Key Takeaways Table of Contents Listen to the Podcast Podcast Timestamps & Highlights Lead generation, at its best Attract, convert & close more motivated leads Try Carrot Today In markets with little competition, the product and the offering are often the most important factors a prospect uses to decide what company to work with. But in a cluttered market, with lots of competition, like today’s real estate world… credibility has grown to trump “product” as the main deciding factor to make or break your next deal. So, what are the top 5% of real estate investors and agents doing to build more credibility in the market and make their competition irrelevant? Trevor Mauch, CEO of Carrot, dives into specific examples and lays out his Credibility Score theory to help you determine what you should fix ASAP to build your credibility even more. Listen to the Podcast Podcast Timestamps & Highlights 6:10 – What the consumer’s path to find a credible company online looks like.10:00 – Recognizing competitors’ opportunity to move in and cloud the consumer decision process is essential.12:00 – Example of an effective self-mailer used to build credibility. 15:15 – Marketing stages breakdown for real estate. What the most important pieces are.17:45 – Look at your past and present marketing numbers and build credibility after the first contact from a lead.18:50 – What it takes to build credibility into your real estate website.22:00 – We’re in the age of trust and credibility. Everyone is online. What are you doing to cut through the clutter?26:30 – Build a process within your business that adds credibility.29:15 – Taking a look at Opendoor and Express Home Buyers. Two examples of companies with a good credibility strategy.32:20 – Diving into Carrot’s credibility strategy.33:45 – Stanford’s Web Credibility Research Center – 10 credibility score items people view on a website.37:20 – What is the #2 most visited page on your website?39:30 – Does your real estate website look good on mobile? And what you need to fix if it doesn’t. Use our mobile check tool.42:40 – What does credibility mean? And how to do it so you connect with your lead more effectively.44:00 – Using the credibility score formula and how to build credibility through social media and testimonials.53:00 – Stacking upon the credibility score – Being picky on your website credibility.55:00 – Using some how-to’s to beef up the overall impression of your real estate website. And the importance of controlling the conversation around your brand.1:02:15 – Build things unique to your offerings to stand out from the online competition. Such as badges and logos.1:04:30 – Creating the connection with credibility and working hard to go the extra mile to show you’re an expert in your market.

Use the Carrot Credibility Bar to Build Trust and Increase Conversions

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Do we ever sleep? Not when it comes to optimizing your websites for conversion. ;-) Constantly, we’re on the look-out for new ways to improve your (our member’s) website conversion rate. But we don’t just want to increase your conversion rate, we want to make it dead simple for you to make those conversion rate improvements. In other words, we want to help you convert more visitors in less time. The Carrot Credibility Bar Here’s a look at what this credibility bar might end up looking like on your website. This is a version with a testimonial. And here’s a version with logos. If that ain’t enough for you, then we even have a custom version where you can add your own text and images to your heart’s desire – like we did with this block quote… Or video… Pretty awesome, right? But this new feature isn’t just remarkable because the dev team here at Carrot did an amazing job designing it and making it easy for our members to use. No. The feature is amazing for another, more important, reason. It’s going to help you build more credibility on your website, instantly. But you don’t have to take my word for it. ConversionXL ran an in-depth test to determine which type of social proof on a credibility bar is the most effective. They used testimonials with and without photos, logos, social sharing buttons, and a whole slew of other types of social proof. Here’s one example. Then, they had a control version that ran without any credibility bar. In the end, one thing was for sure: every single variation of the page with some type of social proof performed better than the control. And the reason is simple: when people arrive on your website for the first time, they have no reason to trust you. You have to show them that you’re trustworthy. Of course, you want to do that as quickly as possible to avoid them bouncing from your website. This is why a front-and-center, top-of-the-page, no-scrolling-required credibility bar is so damn effective at building that necessary trust. People see it the moment they arrive on your website and it confirms for the visitor that they can, indeed, trust you. Just consider massive organizations like Opendoor, insurance.com, or ourselves ( :D ) that count on a credibility bar for building trust with visitors. So, you’re probably wondering by now, What should I put on MY website’s credibility bar?  For that, there are a few different options. Consider… Displaying a compelling testimonial from a happy customer. Displaying a series of logos from publications your business has been mentioned in. Displaying a series of logos from other companies you’ve worked with. Displaying awards your business has won. The way you to choose to use this feature will depend on how you want to build credibility with website visitors and the kind of credibility builders you have access to. But, to help you make an informed decision, here are the types of social proof that ConversionXL found (from the study I mentioned earlier) had the highest recall rate among participants, and thus (this part is conjecture) the highest impact. As it turns out, testimonials were the most effective at generating website visitor recall.  Whatever type of social proof you choose, every single Carrot member should be able to make use of this feature – whether it’s through a testimonial or a series of company logos. This feature worked with our real estate agent websites as well! Plus, a credibility bar can help you stand out from other websites online (i.e. the competition), giving you the extra edge you need in your market. If you still don’t want to use the credibility bar, though, … Continued

How to Build Online Credibility for Real Estate

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We’ve done videos, coaching calls, and podcasts teaching how to build online credibility for real estate. Credibility isn’t a new thing, right? In competitive real estate markets, your online credibility score—the subconscious evaluation prospects make when visiting your website—can dramatically impact your deal flow and determine whether potential clients choose to work with you. Key Takeaways Audit your website and marketing materials to eliminate negative credibility points and strengthen positive ones—from logo clarity to content authenticity—to stand out in a crowded marketplace and earn the trust of potential clients. Table of Contents How to Build Online Credibility for Real Estate Having Clean Logos Is Important Credibility Badges Build Credibility With Testimonials Use Real “Local” Images One Of The Most Important Pages On Your Website Optimizing Your Website For A High Credibility Score Lead generation, at its best Attract, convert & close more motivated leads Try Carrot Today But, it amplifies when you have a competitive market. When you’re in a market with a lot of competition but lack online credibility, you have lower deal flow. When a buyer or seller has multiple choices, they often look at the agent’s or investor’s credibility. To help you learn how to build online credibility for real estate, we’ve devised the “credibility score.” Whenever you go to a store, whether online or in person, you go to the grocery store. You’re walking in the grocery store, and subconsciously, there are all kinds of things that you’re doing to size up that grocery store. Is the floor clean? Are the vegetables arranged in a way that makes sense? Are they rotten, or are they good? Are the people who work there wearing good clothes, clean clothes, or something that’s a uniform that looks like they’re put together? Are they friendly? Is the signage in the grocery store in a make sense way? All these little things stack up to create this score subconsciously in your mind. You’re probably not going to work with that grocery store because one of those things is wrong. You’ll probably not choose not to work with the grocery just because the signage isn’t exactly clear and clean. But, when you stack up all those together, and there are these negative credibility marks, what happens is, you leave the store and you go somewhere else, and you’re not sure why sometimes. You can’t place your finger on why you chose not to work with that company but another one, but this credibility score is subconsciously stacking up in your mind. We’re going to walk through as an agent or an investor. How do you size your business and find your credibility score? The first thing you need to look at is to realize people are subconsciously sizing you up, whether you think about it or not. If you’re doing what everyone else is doing, you’re probably not giving yourself many positive credibility marks. What we’re going to be doing is looking at the website. There are a lot of different things that people are doing when they’re trying to size up your website and size up your credibility score subconsciously. How to Build Online Credibility for Real Estate Having Clean Logos Is Important The first thing they will be looking at is your logo area, your logo area. Is your logo clean, or is it fuzzy? Is it pixelated? Does your logo match the colors and the branding on your website? I know that’s a little thing, but it’s one of those things that people can go, “Well, there’s something off. I can’t place what it is, but there’s something off,” … Continued

Real Estate Website Design: Credibility Sites Vs. Targeted Sites

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So you’re getting ready to launch your online marketing campaign, but you’re probably thinking “Man, what type of website am I going to build?” At Carrot, we have general credibility websites and we have targeted websites. Where the targeted websites are specific to a certain type of lead. It could be a motivated house seller. It could be a cash buyer. It could be a retail buyer. There could be a note seller or buyer. You get the idea. Those are very, very targeted towards a certain type of lead. We get a lot of our clients asking us, “Why can’t I focus it all into one general credibility site?” Or, “Is a general credibility site going to work well or perform as well as a targeted site specific for, as an example, motivated house sellers?” Well, this video and post are going to walk you through the data and what the actual results are and what you should do depending on the type of lead you’re looking for. Real Estate Website Design: General Credibility Sites So, first of all, we’ve got the general credibility site. A general credibility website is mainly focused on, just that, building general credibility for your company. So, it could be trying to get people there to show them who you are. What types of things you’re doing. What types of things you’re doing in real estate. And it could be multiple things. Saym, we’ve got this real estate fund and we’re flipping houses, so we buy houses. But we also sell houses and oh, by the way, did you also know that we do rent a home?” So it’s kind of “here’s who we are as a company”, and build that credibility. You could be looking for private lenders on that website. You could be building a cash buyer list on there and selling properties. That works really well on a main company credibility website. But it’s a lot of general stuff. It’s not really focused in on any one particular message. And it’s a split message. Your home page might say, “Hey, we are a real estate investment solutions firm. We buy, sell and rent houses.” But you’re going to be talking about all of that stuff if you’re on the homepage. So there’s no one focused message if you’re doing direct marketing toward that. If you’re driving a house seller there, they’re then going to get distracted by other messages. They’re going to get distracted by the message about investments. They’re going to get distracted by the message about looking for cash buyers and private lenders. If you’re doing direct marketing and paying money to drive people there, you don’t want to distract the message. But the general credibility website serves a very specific purpose. If you’re networking at your local chamber of commerce or rotary, you’re probably going to hand them the business card that drives them here. This website is then going to drive people toward your other specific target websites if you’re doing multiple things in your business. So you might have a link that says, “Sell your house.” And it’s gonna drive to your house seller specific website, ideally. That’s what the data shows works the best. Real Estate Website Design: Targeted Credibility Sites On the other side, you have the targeted website. So, when we suggest that you focus on using a targeted website, it’s any time you’re actually going to be actively driving people to that website to convert as a lead. These websites are set up for conversion. The general credibility websites are not particularly set … Continued

9 Ways to Boost Your Real Estate Investing Website Credibility

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In a field with low entry barriers and many unethical operators, a credibility-focused real estate investing website is essential for standing out and convincing motivated sellers, cash buyers, and private lenders to choose your company over competitors. Key Takeaways Implementing at least seven of the nine credibility-building website elements will put you ahead of 90% of your competition and significantly increase prospect trust, leading to more closed deals and business growth. Table of Contents Importance Of Building Credibility 9 Ways to Boost Your Real Estate Investing Website Credibility Action Plan To Boost Your Real Estate Investing Website Credibility Lead generation, at its best Attract, convert & close more motivated leads Try Carrot Today So, how do you boost your real estate investing website credibility? Real estate investing is one of those professions where the entry barriers for new investors are so low… there are lots of unethical investment companies out there giving real estate investors a bad name. So, how do you stand out above the crowd… and make it so that when a motivated seller, cash buyer, or private lender finds your website… they feel compelled to work with you? First… Importance Of Building Credibility (and how to do it with your website) It goes without saying… that today consumers have more options than ever.  If you’re a motivated seller going into foreclosure… or a private lender doing your research… one of the first things you’ll look at after you hear of a company is THEIR WEBSITE to see if they are real. Our society is an internet society now. Just look at the phone book and newspapers… those businesses are in decline… while internet news sources and directories are on the rise.  People go to the internet to research companies they’re getting ready to work with. So, what will a private lender prospect or motivated seller see when they search for you online? Will they even visit a website? If not, people immediately think, “They don’t have a site… are they a real company?”. If you have a website that doesn’t have the 9 elements below… that could be even worse.  Is your website harming your credibility (if I had to guess, I’d say probably 60%+ are). If people don’t feel comfortable that they want to work with you within the first 2 minutes of being on your website… odds are you’ll lose that business. So, here are 9 ways to boost your real estate investing website credibility. × × See How Carrot Works How many deals are you losing to your competitor’s website? See How Carrot Works 9 Ways to Boost Your Real Estate Investing Website Credibility Stanford University did a study called the “Web Credibility Research” project.  Stanford compiled 10 elements that your website should address that can either make or break your credibility as an investor… we’ve consolidated them into 9 elements that, without them… your credibility (and profits) are likely suffering.  See how many of these your real estate investing company website is doing well: So, how many of those 9 credibility builders for your real estate investing website are you doing on your website? If you’re doing 5 or more… you’re ahead of the curve. 7 or more… you’re doing better than 90% of your competitors. All 9?  You’re crushing it and should be teaching this lesson alongside us :-) Action Plan To Boost Your Real Estate Investing Website Credibility Real estate investor websites can be a huge tool in building credibility, or they can harm your credibility. If you currently have a website, pick 3 of the 9 elements above and implement … Continued

$75K+ in Deals on a $118/Month Budget: How Mark Outranked Competitors in a Tough Market

$75K+ in Deals on a $118/Month Budget: How Mark Outranked Competitors in a Tough Market Mark turned a side hustle into consistent deal flow, closing $75K in assignments, 7 listings, and 3 wholesale deals in escrow — all with zero ad spend, just sweat equity and a Carrot site. He ranks in the top 3 for many Arizona markets and now generates nearly a lead a day on average. Here’s how he did it. $75k in Assignments Closed in 6–8 months, all from inbound SEO leads 7 Listings From motivated seller leads that didn’t fit a wholesale deal $118/Month Budget No ad budget — only cost is time and his Carrot subscription Take our free interactive demo to get a full walkthrough of what Carrot can do for you. The Challenge: Getting Consistent Seller Leads for Cheap Mark was already a licensed agent in both California and Arizona, but he was tired of the grind of traditional real estate sales. “I’ve always worked with wholesalers and investors from the sales side. I decided to start generating those leads myself since I already had the network.” He wasn’t ready to spend thousands per month on paid ads. What he needed was a low-cost, high-leverage way to get inbound leads reliably. He realized it was time to rebuild his investing business on proven, consistent marketing sources. That’s when he found Carrot: The Solution: Launching a Carrot Site and Following the Playbook Mark came across Carrot while researching websites for motivated seller leads. “I was already running a WordPress site with BoomTown for my real estate business, but it wasn’t designed for investors. When I found Carrot, I knew it was built specifically for what I needed.” He signed up at the end of May 2024 and spent the summer of 2024 following the Carrot roadmap: setting up his foundation, following our SEO training, and watching Evergreen Marketing Live. × × Demo Carrot: How many deals are you losing to your competitor’s website? Take a Free Demo Steps for Success: Ranking in a Competitive Market with No Marketing Spend 1. Nail the Basics to Build Trust: Before diving into SEO, Mark made sure the fundamentals of his Carrot site were dialed in. He uploaded a professional photo, added a personal bio, included testimonials from past clients, and placed his logo across the site. These trust elements helped boost credibility with sellers and improve conversions. 2. Build Local Authority One City Page at a Time: In the Summer of 2024, Mark manually built out location pages for every major city in Arizona. He geotagged photos, used real local images, and optimized each page for SEO. “I manually created every page. It took a ton of time, but it worked.” *Now Carrot has auto-location pages to do this in far less time! 3. Stack Up SEO Wins with Long-Form Blogs: After the location foundation was complete, he turned to blogs. He pulled ideas from top Carrot member sites, found high-traffic keywords, and wrote 2,000–3,000 word posts. Each post linked strategically to his “how it works” page or relevant location page. He also used Carrot’s AI Rewrite Tool to improve clarity, structure, and keyword usage in his blog content. 4. Dial In Rankings with Daily SEO Tracking: Mark created and refined his blog content using Carrot’s built-in visual editor. He followed on-page SEO prompts and formatting best practices. To track results, he used the SEO Performance tab and Keyword Rankings Tool daily, keeping a close eye on movement and opportunity.Mark published and refined his blog posts using the Content Engine. He tracked performance daily using Carrot’s … Continued

How AI is Reshaping SEO for Real Estate Investors: What You Need to Know in 2025

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The search landscape has seen huge changes in recent years. If you’re a real estate investor who’s been watching your website traffic fluctuate or noticing fewer clicks from Google searches, you’re not imagining things. Google’s AI Overviews now appear in nearly half of all search results, and in May 2025, Google launched AI Mode for all US-based searchers. The era of traditional SEO strategies is rapidly evolving. For real estate investors who depend on their websites to generate motivated seller leads, these changes are business-critical developments that require immediate attention. When prospects search “cash home buyer,” “we buy houses,” or “sell my house fast,” Google increasingly provides answers directly in search results, pushing the #1 ranked website further down the page than we’re used to. So how should you adjust your SEO to make sure you still show up on top in 2025? Let’s cover some key strategies! KEY TAKEAWAYS (TL;DR) Let’s get you up to speed on the most significant AI-driven changes impacting search in 2025 and beyond. In this guide, we’ll cover what these changes mean for your real estate investing business, and give you actionable SEO strategies to help you maintain and grow your online presence. Table of Contents Lead generation, at its best Attract, convert & close more motivated leads Try Carrot Today The AI Revolution in Search: What Real Estate Investors Need to Know Google’s AI Overviews Are Dominating Search Results The most dramatic change affecting real estate investor websites began in May 2024 when Google officially launched AI Overviews. By December 2024, these AI-generated summaries appeared in 47% of Google search results, and recent data shows they spiked even higher during Google’s March 2025 core update. Most recently at Google’s I/O annual developer conference in May 2025, they announced the rollout of AI mode to all users in the U.S. Here’s what’s especially challenging for real estate investors: AI Overviews show up heavily for broad, top-of-funnel queries—exactly the type of searches your potential sellers are making when they first consider selling their property. When someone searches “how to sell my house fast” or “cash home buyers near me,” they’re increasingly getting AI-generated answers without ever clicking through to your website. The numbers are staggering: The Rise of Forum Content and Video Results Another significant shift impacting SEO strategies for small businesses is the increased prominence of forum content like Reddit and Quora in search results. This trend is particularly relevant for real estate investors because many forum discussions reveal the distrust and skepticism people have toward “cash home buyers” and the real estate investment industry in general. When potential sellers search for information about working with real estate investors, they’re increasingly finding forum discussions where people share both positive and negative experiences. This shift emphasizes the critical importance of reputation management and building authentic trust signals across multiple platforms. Video content is also showing up more often in search results, with both YouTube videos and short-form video content appearing more frequently. This presents opportunities for real estate investors looking to diversify their content strategy. Plus, research shows that websites with video content see 50% more engagement than those without. You can stay ahead of things by monitoring relevant forums and conversations in your local market area. Then develop content in both written and video formats that speaks directly to the concerns people have. Showcase the trustworthy, local people behind your company to combat the skepticism that some motivated sellers may have about cash home buyers. Building Brand Authority in an AI-Dominated Landscape The Growing Importance of Brand Mentions and Recognition One of the most significant revelations … Continued