A real estate or lending Google Business Profile should carry the firm's real-world name, an office that qualifies under Google's eligibility rules (or a service area if clients are not met at the address), the fewest categories that describe the core business, and a description of who the firm serves and where, with no rates, promotions, or links. Brokerages and lenders also have to decide which agents and loan officers hold profiles of their own, and property managers have to keep individual rentals off the profile system.
When a seller looks up an agent, or a borrower searches for a nearby lender, the profile can be where the name, phone number, map pin, and reviews first appear together. This page relies on Google's guidelines for how a business should represent itself, and it makes no claim about how assistants or Google's AI features draw on profile data. Treat the profile as another public statement about the firm that must agree with the rest.
These notes are for brokerages, lenders, and property managers planning profile content. Check Google's current guidelines before each edit, since they change, and ask your broker of record or compliance lead whether profile text and posts count as advertising under the rules that apply to you. The real estate and lending hub covers the wider plan.
Offices qualify; properties do not
Google's eligibility guidelines list "Rental or for-sale properties such as vacation homes, model homes, or vacant apartments" as ineligible, then add that "Sales or leasing offices, however, are eligible for verification." A property manager can list its staffed leasing office, but it should not open a profile per building or per vacant unit. An open house is not an office, and a brokerage should not create a profile for a listing. The same guidelines also exclude "Lead generation agents or companies," which matters for any firm running a separately branded lead capture site.
A lender that meets borrowers only by phone and video may fit Google's description of a service-area business. Google's representation guidelines say "If you're a service-area business, you should hide your business address from customers." Decide which model fits each office before anyone edits the profile.
Agents and loan officers as practitioners
Google names real estate agents directly: "insurance or real estate agents are all individual practitioners." Where several practitioners work from one location, "The organization should create a Business Profile for this location, separate from that of the practitioner," and a solo practitioner at a branded office is directed to a shared profile named "[brand/company]: [practitioner name]." The guidelines also say "Sales associates or lead generation agents for corporations aren't individual practitioners." Whether a particular loan officer fits Google's practitioner description is a judgment to make against the current guidelines, not an assumption.
Control is the other half. Google says "Only business owners or authorized representatives may verify and manage their business information on a Business Profile." A brokerage should decide in writing who is authorized for each practitioner profile, then have the office manager answer a test question: "If a loan officer leaves on Friday, who holds the login to their profile on Monday, and what does the profile say by Wednesday?" A firm that cannot answer may have a profile still sending calls to someone who no longer works there.
Departments and categories
Some brokerages run a mortgage desk or a property management division under one roof. Google says "Publicly-facing departments that operate as distinct entities should have their own page," with a name and category distinct from the main business. Whether your desk or division operates as a distinct entity is a fact about your firm, not a marketing preference, so confirm it before creating a second profile.
For categories, Google asks for "the fewest number of categories it takes to describe your overall core business," chosen to complete the statement "This business IS a," not "HAS a." A brokerage does not become a mortgage lender by adding that category because an affiliated lender sits down the hall.
Write a description a borrower or owner can use
Descriptions, per Google's representation guidelines, must not "Focus on special promotions, prices, and offer sales" and cannot include "links of any type." A lender's rates are out of the description on Google's rules alone, before any credit advertising rule applies. Updates that mention a payment amount or a down payment percentage can also trigger the extra Regulation Z disclosures tied to those terms, including "The 'annual percentage rate,' using that term," so send those to compliance first. The writer should not be inventing the service area, the client types, or the licensing wording, since the firm's own approved records already hold all three.
The table shows one fictional firm's description, before and after: a brokerage in Virginia with a property management division.
| Version | Description text |
|---|---|
| Before | Best agents in Richmond! Free home valuation, and low rates from our lending partner. Click our website for current listings. |
| After | Residential brokerage serving buyers and sellers in the Richmond area, with a separate property management division for single-family rentals. Our agents explain pricing, listing agreements, and offers before you sign. Licensing details for the brokerage and its agents are listed on our website. |
Each claim in the revised text still needs the firm's confirmation. Lender profiles carry one more check: the CFPB directs consumers to a free NMLS lookup showing whether a firm or individual "is authorized to conduct business in your state," so keep the NMLS identifier identical on the website, the profile, and every other listing.
Keep the profile and the website telling one story
Staff changes are where profiles drift. An agent who left months ago, or a state the lender has dropped, still showing on the profile tells searchers something the website contradicts. Review the profile at every hire and departure, every office opening or closing, and every change in licensed states. Photos need the same care as text: HUD's advertising regulation reaches "words, phrases, photographs, illustrations, symbols or forms" that convey a dwelling is available or unavailable to a protected group, so cover photos and post images go through the same review as the copy. For the reviews that collect on the profile, see how real estate firms should use reviews; for the matching website pages, see what agent pages should include.
In Hudson South's four steps, the Authority Asset holds the approved name, services, licensing details, and people that both the profile and the website draw from. Hudson Twenty-One records how the firm communicates across 21 dimensions, so the description reads like the firm. Market Intelligence compares how other brokerages and lenders nearby present themselves, and AEO Creation produces the answer-first website pages a profile visitor lands on. For a quick self-check first, try the free AI visibility check: eight questions, about two minutes.
Compare your public descriptions with competitors'
On a free 30-minute call, Hudson South walks through where your website and the sites of nearby brokerages and lenders differ in what they tell buyers, sellers, and borrowers.
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- Business eligibility and ownership guidelines. Google Business Profile Help. Read 2026-10-16.
- Guidelines for representing your business on Google. Google Business Profile Help. Read 2026-10-16.
- ยง 1026.24 Advertising. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Read 2026-10-16.
- Is there any way I can check to see if the company or person I contact is permitted to make or broker mortgage loans?. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Read 2026-10-16.
- 24 CFR 100.75: Discriminatory advertisements, statements and notices. eCFR, Office of the Federal Register. Read 2026-10-16.