The Washington Post had an interesting article on Real Estate agent advertisements over the weekend. Follow the link to: Answer Man: Grimacing Over Real Estate Agent Ads.
Stokefire has helped quite a few Realtors and brokers craft their brands and we’ve yet to be convinced that a picture in an advertisement or business card is critical. The referenced article seems to back us up on this.
The current thinking in Realty seems to be that one doesn’t sell a house, one sells one’s self. Anyone can get you the house of your dreams, but only I (Blonde haired, dimpled, smiling) can get it for you in my uniquely personalized way.
This thinking may have worked a few years back, but now with more than 70% of Realtors (Coldwell Banker’s numbers from ref’d article) putting pictures on their cards you may be more unique without a picture than with one. I’ve sold three homes in the last decade and have witnessed the change by looking in the ‘card tray’ after a showing. Everyone’s cards used to look the same because they were conservative and respectable. Now they look the same because they have a picture, tagline, three phone numbers, and are essentially a jumbled mess of information. Obviously I don’t think this is an improvement.
This is not to say that I think personal branding is bad (I don’t.) Personal branding is great, but I just don’t see a picture as critical for business success unless you’re a) a model or b) a personal trainer. These are two industries that really do depend on looks for success. If 70% of the competition wasn’t doing the same thing in Realty then perhaps this method would work, but as it is, each new photograph makes all the rest less impactful.
So, if a Realtor’s smiling face isn’t enough to reinforce a brand, then what is? How about using an original (or at least regionally unique) message? Search Google for Realty taglines and you’ll find thousands or even millions of hits for things like “Home of Your Dreams” and “Find You Your Ideal Home.” How do I feel about tags such as these? How should you, the target client, feel about them? How about insulted? *All* Realtors should be trying to find you the ideal home, so saying it in the valuable space of a business card or advertisment is wasted space. It’s like Stokefire having an ad-blitz with the phrase “Stokefire – We Breathe!” [Ed. - that's a keeper!] There’s no added value – you’re just telling people you provide the same service as everyone else – and worse – that you’re not as creative as the better ones.
Here’s another way to see this. If you were going to sell your house, wouldn’t you want to know that the person selling it was going to be able to have your house stand out somehow from all the rest for sale in the area? If a Realtor can’t get themselves to stand out, then how the heck are they going to have your home do so?
Don’t even get me started about the big Realtor campaign hitting the airwaves now that essentially shouts “Use Realtors – We’ve Taken An Ethics Course!” Not only does this not say that Realtors are ethical, it points an unflattering light on the fact that Realtors might have been unethical in the first place. Just because someone sits through a four hour lecture on what it means to be ethical does not mean that they have achieved a state of ethical being once they’re done.
I truly value the services that good Realtors provide. The ones that get it – that Realtors can increase the value of a home, that they can take care of most of the difficult aspects of a home sale (such as negotiations, paperwork, prepping the home for sale, etc.) – are worth far more than the six percent that they frequently charge. The ones that don’t get it are worse than going it alone.
That’s enough brand poking for today. I may come back to this at another date to get into some of the finer points of Realtor branding and why a bad agent is worse than no agent, among other things.
Apr
03
2006
Sorry to be so slow in replying; (we were traveling), but there’s another element to be considered in placing a picture on a business card, or in a published ad – that is, personal safety.
In 1997 there was a particular vicious rape of a realtor showing a condominium in Tiburon, California. The perpetrator, an escaped convict from Utah, was captured a week later in Southern California using the victim’s cell phone. Before he was sentenced to life in prison, he said that he had bought the Sunday papers, looked for the most attractive realtor, and planned his attack from there.
The Sheriff of Marin County, a progressive-thinking fellow, had the head of the local Board of Realtors (also a woman) come to the next local Police Chiefs meting, where I was an attendee, to discuss the personal safety issue.
In spite of explaining the problem and outlining the inherent dangers, the Realtor lady wouldn’t budge on the need for photos. She and her members and her board, insisted it was a vital sales tool. She left the meeting unconvinced but forewarned.
I still think it’s a silly practice, but apparently no one can end the practice.
Perhaps she figured that most Realtors aren’t attractive? Or that there can be only one ‘most attractive’ and odds are good that it won’t be them? I’m guessing she thinks that better business is worth the risk.
I’d honestly never thought of this from the security angle. There’s something to that, but I wonder how slippery the slope is. Websites? Printed collateral? Signs on the door? What is safe and what isn’t? While I don’t dismiss the potentail danger, I think one could get sucked into a situation where one becomes a hermit rather than expose ones self to risk… Still. I’m not putting my picture on my card any time soon.
2 replies:
a) I’ve lost listings to some homesellers because I was the wrong gender, age, race, religiion, you name it, someone’s figured out how their realtor needs it to be the best agent to sell their home.
b) why is a bad agent worse than no agent?
because with no agent, then the home buyer/seller is aware and is in full alert mode. with a bad agent, the buyer/seller gets a sense of security from the agent, when of course, that security is false and is used to compromise. Et tu, Brute in the realtor world. Of course, good agents know those who aren’t, and use that to their advantage in representing their clients.