Your Real Estate Content Might Be Costing You Trust. Here's the Fix.

Most agents I coach are posting. That’s not the problem. The problem is that a lot of what they’re posting is quietly telling people, “Don’t call me.”

A typed-up testimonial on a pretty graphic. Three tips for first-time buyers. A market update full of acronyms. It all feels productive. But when Dave Richards and I sat down with Tessabella Jelten, a marketing strategist, real estate coach, and founder of The Neighborhood and House of Agents Academy, she showed us how much of that content works against the one thing we actually need from it: trust.

If your real estate content marketing is getting likes but not conversations, this one’s for you. Here’s what Tessabella taught us, and what I hope you change this week.

Watch or Listen to the Full Episode

Why Typed Testimonials Can Read as Fake

We live in a world of reviews. How many do you have on Google? On Zillow? We all chase them.

Tessabella pushed back on that, at least for certain clients. She’s in her 20s, and she told us: “Never one time have I looked at a testimonial or a review or anything like that before making a decision ever.”

Part of the reason is that she sees so much social media, and she knows how much of it is made up. So here’s her honest reaction to the classic testimonial graphic: “If it’s just like a couple lines of written text on a graphic, I assume you made it up.”

That one stung a little. I’ve seen a lot of agents lean on exactly that kind of post.

She’s not saying testimonials are worthless. She called them important and valuable, with a time and place. But the version that lands is the real one: “an actual like screenshot of a text message.” A real text from a real client who says they can’t believe they finally got the house.

Proof that looks real beats praise that looks polished.

Tell the Story, Show the Struggle

What Tessabella finds more powerful than a testimonial is a case study. In her words: “Tell me instead the story of what happened with that person.”

Then, inside that story, maybe one slide of the carousel shows what the client actually texted or emailed you. Now the testimonial has context.

And don’t skip the hard part. “We all love the struggle, right? We all want to hear like what went wrong.”

Her example: a friend’s friend had to rent for another year because there was no way they could afford to buy. And here they are on closing day. Here’s how we got them there.

That’s a journey people can see themselves in. Nobody relates to a highlight reel. They relate to the problem you helped somebody climb out of.

Describe Their Problem Better Than They Can

This was the moment I stopped Tessabella and told everyone listening to rewind and hear it again.

“If you can explain somebody’s problem, pain or desire better than they can, they automatically assume that you have the solution.”

Think about the buyer who has never even tried to get pre-approved. Not because they don’t want a home, but because they’re terrified of being rejected. They’ve never said that out loud. Then your post says it for them.

As Tessabella put it, “because you described it, I assume you’re a safe place to go.”

That’s the job. Your content doesn’t have to prove you’re the smartest agent in town. It has to prove you understand the person reading it.

Education Doesn’t Have to Mean “3 Tips”

I asked Tessabella for the biggest thing to avoid, especially for the agent who’s brand new or a little older and doesn’t know what to say.

Her answer: put yourself in the consumer’s shoes. People scroll while they’re getting ready in the morning, sitting on the couch at night, eating lunch. What catches them in that moment is far more often “this person thought they could never buy a home, and here’s how they did” than “three tips for a first-time buyer.”

Here’s the reframe I want every agent to hear: “Sometimes educational content is simply guiding you through an entertainment experience.” It can also be a connection, a chance to get to know you. That’s still education.

She’s been doing a lot of relocation content lately. Instead of “three tips for relocators,” it becomes something like: “I relocated my family here 10 years ago. Here are three things I wish I knew before I did it.”

Same tips. More meaning. As she said, “it’s still essentially the same content just packaged differently.”

Don’t stop teaching. Start attaching yourself to what you teach.

Be the Same Person Online and Off

So where’s the line? How much of yourself should you show?

Tessabella’s standard is simple: “you should try to represent yourself on social as similarly to how somebody would interact with you in person.” Her favorite compliment is when someone meets her and says, “Oh, you’re just like you are on social media.” To her, that’s the goal.

She does draw two lines for herself. First, she stays out of the political rabbit hole, because it doesn’t lead to a conversation she can tie back to trust.

Second, and this is the big one: never make people feel stupid.

We live in this terminology every day, so it feels normal. Most people have no idea what any of it means, and if they do, it’s from the home they bought 20 years ago. Tessabella said it plainly: “if somebody’s saying something and it makes me feel like I’m like dumb for not knowing that, I don’t feel comfortable reaching out to that person.”

Her fix: if you share something technical, translate it. Add “here’s what this means for you if you plan to be a buyer in the next six months,” or if you’ve owned your home for 20 years. Put it in their frame of reference.

I’ll say it the way I said it on the show: stop using acronyms. No one knows what you’re talking about. And when people feel lost, they don’t ask. They just don’t call.

Go Hyper Local, Then Go One Layer Deeper

For a long time, social media felt like trying to get as many chickens in the coop as you could and hoping one of them wanted to buy a house. More followers, more reach.

Tessabella believes in hyper local content. But she sees the next layer as connection to the specific person sharing it. Her example: “these are three neighborhoods I love in Scottsdale as a mom of two kids.”

That’s hyper local geographically, and then “another layer of hyper local” to the people you’re actually speaking to. Someone who’s a mom of two, or expecting, sees that and thinks, that’s me. Or, that’s who I want to be.

She added two guardrails. It has to be authentic to who you are. You don’t have to be the exact person you’re talking to, but it should be aligned. And it doesn’t have to be all real estate. Something like “five places I go out on the weekend and feel safe as a single female in Scottsdale” shows your personality and still speaks to a specific person.

Pick a place. Then pick a person. Then talk to them like you know them.

Your Next Move

Here’s one thing to do today: go find your most recent “tips” post or testimonial graphic and rewrite it as a story. Who was the client? What were they afraid of? What went wrong? How did you get them to closing day? If you have a real text from them, use it.

That’s Execution. Not more content. Better content.

If you want a system to keep yourself consistent with the work that actually moves your business, grab the free 13% Cheat Sheet. It gives you one 10-minute move for each FIRE burner, so you can get a win today. And if you haven’t read it yet, grab The 13% here.

This was a short segment from a longer conversation. Watch the full episode with Tessabella here, and catch more on The 13% Podcast YouTube channel.

Keep grinding.

Lance