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"Everybody's Doing It, Doing It, Picking Their Pose And....

By
Real Estate Agent with MOOERS REALTY ME Broker License 106759

Real estate brokers are not a shy bunch, and in local newspapers around Maine, the nation, on buses, billboards where they are allowed by law, you see smiling, jovial agents, REALTORS holding a phone, ready to serve.

bender Pick me pick me. The smiling pose slid in to the local newspaper and left there for years. Outdated, selling the agent, broker, brand. I always thing, gee, the expense of that ad and only showcasing the real estate practioner over and over, week after week could have had some property tagging along. Sharing the spotlight, some of the fame and attention. Or better yet, less broker, more property or a rotation that shakes it up, gets it noticed, more bang for the buck. More cow bell. Something rotated in and out property wise, or even local event wise that piggy backs on that 52 week Little Jack Horner smile insertion. 

Maybe it is the image itself that seems unnatural or that all of the images seem to have the same stepford broker, crazed and dazed look to them?

American Idol birds of a feather and do it this way. Only this way. I ran in to one Bangor Maine agent at a REALTORS state convention last year that I did not know and that did not look anything like the image that has been playing, showing in her local newspaper for the last five years. Like a Hollywood actor, actress without the makeup, stage dramatics? Kind of a let down, not what I expected reaction up close and personal.

Maybe if the image was seasonally changed like real estate home images are. St Patricks day the broker has an irish hat on, holds a four leaf clover and says "You'll have the luck of the irish too if you can Jimmy Da Broker today at 555-1212." Or a cowboy 20 gallon hat, a rope and byline that "Howdy partner, let bubbles, kittenCowboy Jane lasso you a real estate bargain...ride into the office today at 123 Morning Glory Circle".

Did a blog last week about being one of the herd of REALTORS, real estate brokers doing things because everyone else in the pack does it that way. The weekly image when you are not the only one but part of a sea of images loses something in its luster, newness, creativity. The portrait, image just parked there like a road side that weathers, gets dinged, or forgotten because it never changes. Becomes part of the scnery as the newspaper reader scans for new developments, something different to read with his wheaties or grape nut and grapefruit. Do you say "cheese", pick your POSE and lock it in for the world to see reading that local paper? Is your image bigger than the brand, the logo and is it all about the eventual jumping ship and distancing yourself from the agency, brokerage house you list, market, sell local real estate out of? In Maine, it seems debate over the size of the font, its placement on a website for the real estate agent, associate broker is argued, changed or brought in line with and made smaller than the agency's header, billboard, propaganda. Placement on the mls, what to do with "teams" that have websites that give the impression they are the agency on their own and not a satelite operation within the designated real estate broker hierarchy. It's not unique to Maine right?

I'm Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers

Comments (9)

Pam Turner, REALTOR®, e-PRO®, SFR
Century 21 Belk Realtors Dalton GA - Dalton, GA

I can't stand those fake-looking photos of people at the desk holding the phone -- or the ones where they stand with arms crossed trying to look important! I wish people would just be more natural!

Apr 27, 2010 11:43 PM
Cathy Polan
Royal LePage ProAlliance Realty,Brokerage - Trenton, ON
Royal Lepage Proalliance Realty Sales Rep.

I cannot stand the old pics of real estate agents.  The ones in which you know the pic is over 10 years old.  Ugh! 

Get an update people.

Apr 27, 2010 11:46 PM
Deborah Byron Leffler BzyBee Real Estate Lady!
Keller Williams Realty Boise - Nampa, ID

So many good points in your post....I have an agent who I really like in my office....all i keep hearing is "i need to get a website but I don't know how to manage a website or how to do it"   I keep telling her to use the KW one for now....but I need a better one I hear.....FInally I told her why?    She said because "everyone says you need one for leads"    Ok...........but if you aren't even using the KW one properly why would you waste money on getting a website that you won't keep updated or even visit.....if you don't advertise and tell people that you have a wbsite what is the point....just because "everyone has one???"   

ANd pictures...of agents....that is a whole nother can of worms...LOL 

Apr 27, 2010 11:48 PM
Barbara Todaro
RE/MAX Executive Realty - Happily Retired - Franklin, MA
Previously Affiliated with The Todaro Team

Andrew.....when I do direct mail advertising, I have a different theme every month and during holiday months I do humorous cards with our heads on something that represents the holiday, just as an example....marketing yourself can be a fun project....updated head shots are a necessity though....no high school photos of older agents!!!

Apr 28, 2010 12:32 AM
Andrew Mooers | 207.532.6573
MOOERS REALTY - Houlton, ME
Northern Maine Real Estate-Aroostook County Broker

Maybe if the collection, ever growing larger, of real estate agents in local papers did not post glamour photos with hairdos, tuxedos making them look like on the way to receive a golden globe, a cma award, an oscar or emmy that might help. Look like you do in your job as a Realtor the rest of the 364 days, not a night on the town in Manhattan, Marco Island, Newport or Martha's Vinveyard. And don't look at the camera...with a deer in the headlights smirk, or practiced smile. Catch the broker in action but not always selling real estate. Show he/she is a person, strongly involved in the local community so flipping pancakes at the Kiwanis or Rotary club breakfast, volunteering as a little league coach showing a player how to hold the bat, hit the ball as you pitch to him. Or serving on a local town board or hiking, skiing, doing something fun that identifies different segments of folks built the same way to make a connection. Be transparent but not in a false, pretensious way but in a real, unspun Beach Boys not Marilyn Manson shock and awe approach. Be real as Dave Chappelle says..keep it real.

Apr 28, 2010 12:36 AM
Andrew Mooers | 207.532.6573
MOOERS REALTY - Houlton, ME
Northern Maine Real Estate-Aroostook County Broker

Barb you marketing whiz. Reach, frequency are two desires in any campaign. To plant one image that stays until you head to the nursing home and hang up the R you wear on your lapel..well, its like saying I am on the internet with a site that went live in 1998 that has not be revisted, changed or updated. And your website is all you have on line and you tell people I'm on the internet. Yeah barely. Marketing like you are on the witness protection program and like you don't want to be found, are a secret agent with a very low profile. If you are spending the money on a marketing plan, change it up, make it fresh, and keep it distinctly different than the rest of the herd. At least change it up, get with the times, buy a Droid and get ride of the rotary phone in the 52 week insertion

Apr 28, 2010 12:42 AM
Maureen McCabe
HER Realtors - Columbus, OH
Columbus Ohio Real Estate

Yesterday a client told me "we have to change that picture"  about the picture I am using on my websites... here. I still have my old photo with long hair on my business cards.  A very business like business photo.

I am not photogenic.  I don't like staged photos. 

I do not like photos with phones, with signs... with arms folded across the chest... I think agent focused advertising is passe...  It is not about us, our name, a catchy little jingle made up around our name.

Apr 28, 2010 01:13 AM
Terri Onigkeit
Keller Williams of Northern Colorado - Fort Collins, CO
GRI

I just updated my photo, we do spend time selling ourselves.

Apr 28, 2010 03:01 AM
Andrew Mooers | 207.532.6573
MOOERS REALTY - Houlton, ME
Northern Maine Real Estate-Aroostook County Broker

Maureen, hear you. I would rather have my logo, not me in the icon, profile shot. Terri...I think less attention to us, more on the property and area is the secret. We are in the background and subtle not trailer truck or train air horn like in approach.

Apr 28, 2010 03:35 AM