In this article
What a buyer actually checks
Three things, usually in this order: the RERA number and what the RERA site says about the project; the Google reviews of the developer and the project; and whether the previous projects were handed over when promised. A developer with a delayed project and no explanation online has already lost the buyer who searched for it, and most of them do.
That is why reputation for a developer is not a social-media job. It is the delivery record, made visible and explained.
Know what is being said
Set up alerts for the company name and every project name — Google Alerts is free — and read the reviews on Google, the portals and the property forums monthly. Most developers find out about a problem when a buyer mentions it at a site visit, six weeks after it was posted. Knowing early is the whole difference between a complaint and a reputation.
Answer everything, especially the complaints
Reply to every review. A thank-you to the good ones takes a minute. A calm, specific reply to a complaint — what happened, what was done, who to contact — is read by every buyer who searches the project for years afterwards, and it is the only thing that turns a bad review into evidence that the company answers. Never argue, never blame the buyer, never go silent.
Ask for reviews from the buyers who took possession, at the moment the keys are handed over. The review count matters, and it does not build itself.
Show the delivery record, not the brochure
The most persuasive thing on a developer’s website is a page of delivered projects with the promised date and the actual handover date next to each. If the record is good, show it plainly. If a project was late, say when it was delivered and why. Buyers forgive a delay that was explained; they do not forgive one that was hidden, and they find out either way.
Photographs of finished buildings with residents in them beat renders of buildings that do not exist yet, every time.
When something goes wrong
A delay, a dispute, a viral complaint. Decide now — not then — who responds, how fast, and where. The response is a factual statement from the company within the day, a direct conversation with the people affected, and a public update when something changes. Silence is read as guilt; argument is read as worse.
Fake reviews from a competitor can be reported to the platform, with evidence; it is slow, and the better defence is a large enough number of real reviews that a few fake ones do not move the average. That is another reason to ask at every handover.