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The Gulf of Mexico and the Real Estate Industry - Throwing Money at the Wrong Problems

By
Education & Training with Sell with Soul

Oil on beach

A few weeks ago, there was a bunch of hoopla on the local Florida TV stations about a $40M+ bill passed to help the Florida Tourism Department advertise to the world that our beaches are still pristine and oil-free. In fact, I was enjoying a Bushwacker at AJ's in Destin during the filming of one of the promotional spots... but I guess I didn't look the part of a happy tourist cause they didn't ask me to be in the commercial ;-[

Anyway, it occurred to me (okay, actually it occurred to my friend, but I'll take the credit) that it seems a bit odd to spend a whole bunch of money promoting Florida's pristine and oil-free beaches when, um, they may not BE pristine and oil-free by the time the spots hit the airwaves. In fact, they almost certainly won't be.

And that's exactly what happened. Last week, the oil hit the beaches of the Emerald Coast, and is on its way to the rest of Florida's Gulf coastline. The promotional ads have been pulled, and the advertising money shifted to marketing Florida's other, non-beachy attractions.

Okay, I get it. Tourism is huge here and without it, the Florida economy will suffer. Lots. But, Houston (or more specifically, Tallahassee), we have a problem. We have icky, nasty, stinky OIL off (and now on) our shores. Maybe if we solved the REAL PROBLEM, life could return to normal and the tourists would happily come back. But no, we're spending lots and lots and lots of perfectly good dollars on advertising that perhaps could be better put to use to Save those Beaches the tourists really want to visit.

How is this relevant to real estate? Well, I had the same feeling a few years back when NAR started running all those (presumably expensive) ads (with our money) about how valuable the services of a REALTOR® are. Frankly, the ads sounded defensive to me; as if NAR was trying to counteract the negative perception our industry enjoys from the general public. At the time I wondered if all those dollars might be better spent actually doing something about the REASONS our industry has a bad reputation (and there are plenty) instead of trying to convince people that their perceptions of us were incorrect.

Anyway, I don't have any real point here, except to say, as I've said for years now, that our industry has some serious credibility issues with the general public, many of which are well-deserved. I've written extensively on what these well-deserved credibility issues are, but for now, let me just say that I'd love to see some of our REALTOR dollars spent, not on band-aid advertising, but rather on improving the competence and professionalism of our practitioners.

Rant over.

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Comments (19)

Mike Saunders
Retired - Athens, GA

Jennifer - you might not realize it but you do have a point. It is always easier to spend time, money and resources on "bandages" than address the root cause of the problem. Florida's problem is the impact on tourism, the root cause being oil. Not sure if the real estate professions real problem is perception of realtors (when I start hearing as many realtor jokes on Leno & Letterman as lawyer or politician jokes I will be sure our image truly sucks) and if that is the way to counteract the perception. I do often question both NAR's timing and message, such as the flyers going out last year touting the investment potential of a home as one of the major reasons to purchase.

Jun 08, 2010 12:53 AM
Jennifer Allan-Hagedorn
Sell with Soul - Pensacola Beach, FL
Author of Sell with Soul

Mike - Yep, that's exactly my point, thank you!

Jun 08, 2010 12:56 AM
Dick and Dixie Sells
Sells Real Estate, LLC - Trinity, FL
Realtors, Tampa Bay Florida Homes For Sale

We had to go home to Tennessee last week and just about every one (not only family but people at restaurants, gas stations, hotels) were asking about our beaches. It is on everyone's minds. The money should go toward FIXING the problem, not TV ads. One of the ads aired right after the news report of the oil reaching Pensacola!

Jun 08, 2010 12:57 AM
Gary L. Waters Broker Associate, Bucci Realty
Bucci Realty, Inc. - Melbourne, FL
Eighteen Years Experience in Brevard County

I can see the ads promoting the east coast beaches but not sure why. Of course resources need to be placed into cleanup - period!

Jun 08, 2010 12:59 AM
Jennifer Allan-Hagedorn
Sell with Soul - Pensacola Beach, FL
Author of Sell with Soul

Michael - I'm not sure but it sounds as you're saying that you disagree with my premise that advertising money might be better spent solving the root cause of the problem... and that's perfectly fine! But I guess, in my naive opinion, if we have to choose where the dollars go, I'd rather see them going toward solving a potentially devastating problem, rather than on desperate advertising that appears to simply be trying to distract summer tourists from the Elephant in the Room. And I have to assume that Florida's other attractions already have budgets to advertise themselves?

Gary - No, I can't see that perspective. Bummer for the Gulf, but if other beaches ARE clean, Florida can certainly use those tourist dollars coming in.

D&D - I sure hope this crap doesn't reach your area...

 

Jun 08, 2010 01:19 AM
Mike Mitchell
Kee Realty - Saint Clair Shores, MI
REALTOR (R)

It makes me so angry everytime I read, watch or hear about this oil spill. I cannot believe how long they have let this problem go, it makes me sick. I agree with you that money should be spent to solve the problem and clean up the coast.

As far as the Nar ads / commercials you struck a chord with me there also. I remember when they were running t.v. and radio commercials in my area saying on average home values double in 10 years! They were running these in MI when house values were dropping 50 - 100k and foreclosures were at a record high. Then just recently, I hear Nar's tax credit commercial the very last week before it's set to expire??? Why would they wait until then to run an ad?

 

Jun 08, 2010 01:45 AM
Doug Rogers
RE/MAX Coastal Properties - Destin, FL
Your Real Estate Resource!

Hi Jennifer--I know the point of your blog was more aimed at Realtors fixing true credibility issues, but here goes another beach rant.

My family works 49 weeks a year so that we can spend 3 weeks in Destin (something is wrong with that BTW) and we were concerned about the oil spill. I noticed on the Destinlog that vendors in the city were STRONGLY urging folks to under report the oil impact.

Imagine how pissy a family from Cleveland, Philly, Nashville would be if they came to Destin because the beaches were "perfect", only to find that fishing is closed and the town smells like an Exxon refinery. Think they would EVER return?

Jun 08, 2010 03:22 AM
Ken Tracy
Coldwell Banker Residential - Naperville, IL
Helping clients buy and sell since 2005

Hi Jennifer.

Very sad what is happening in the Gulf...

And you are right on about those NAR ads.  They were embarassing!

Thanks for writing,

Ken

Jun 08, 2010 03:31 AM
Robert Rauf
CMG Home Loans - Toms River, NJ

The adds sound more like a cover up than a solultion.  I just hope it is figured out soon, it is a nightmare!

Jun 08, 2010 07:12 AM
Ruthmarie Hicks
Keller Williams NY Realty - 120 Bloomingdale Road #101, White Plains NY 10605 - White Plains, NY

Hi Jennifer,

BUt you DO have a point.  If your marketing offers nothing of value, why spend money on it? You can fool some people all the time, you can fool all the people some of the time, but you can't fool ALL of the people ALL of the time.  And when you try to fool people - those who got burned tend to be louder.  So you are trying to get a short -term fix at the expense of your reptutation overall...THAT does sound like the state the real estate industry is in to me.  I think its a great analogy.

Jun 08, 2010 07:33 AM
Charlie Ragonesi
AllMountainRealty.com - Big Canoe, GA
Homes - Big Canoe, Jasper, North Georgia Pros

I read some of the NAr ads and did not believe them myself !!! So how is the general public supposed to believe them? While I do not like the doom and gloomers there is something to be said for honesty. As to your other point. Hopefully the down turn in the market over the last couple of years will do the job and weed out the problem real eastate folks

Jun 08, 2010 10:01 AM
Julia Odom
Select Realty Professionals - Chattanooga, TN
Chattanooga Homes for Sale

All of the NAR ads saying what a great time it is to buy struck me the same way. It seemed like they started running those ads right about the time they realized the bubble had burst, before it had even started deflating. Drives me nuts.

Jun 08, 2010 10:02 AM
Wendy Rulnick
Rulnick Realty, Inc. - Destin, FL
"It's Wendy... It's Sold!"

Jennifer - My home town and real estate business is in Destin Florida.  I cannot say I disagree with you about over-inflating what you are selling. Tourism bureaus included. The beaches ARE great now in Destin.  But the oil looms.  It would be like putting a blindfold on to downplay that. One must just focus on solutions.

Jun 08, 2010 12:23 PM
Ann Cordes
Century 21 Randall Morris and Associates, Waco - Waco, TX
Home Ownership is Not a Distant Dream

I live in Waco Texas and we will forever be known as the town where the Branch Davidian tragedy happened. Only it didn't. It happened almost 40 miles away in a small town called Elm Mott. I wish the Waco Convention and Visitors Bureau had a budget for ads to counteract that.

Jun 09, 2010 04:56 AM
Shannon Lewis
Beringer Realty - Champaign, IL
Realtor, Broker - Champaign-Urbana, IL

I can't stand NAR tv ads. My blood boils every time I see one. They are completely uneducational...and make Realtors look really snooty. I generally disagree with what they promote, and it angers me that part of my dues goes towards paying for those things.

That's enough of a rant for now. Sorry that your beaches are oily:-( I hope the effects aren't terribly devastating for Florida, and that it gets cleaned up sooner rather than later.

Jun 09, 2010 09:22 AM
Christine Pappas - REALTOR®
eXp Realty - Willoughby, OH
When You’re Ready To Move, I’m Ready To Help

Looks like it was a good thing that you sent me a bag of sand along with my autographed "Sell with Soul" book (which I love!).   My husband made fun of me that I wanted some of what might be the last of the clean sand for a long time, he never thought the oil would make it that far.  It is so sad that it is. 

I can honestly say that I am shocked that we don't have a solution to this horrific problem with all the brilliant minds in the world.

I pray that someone will find a solution quickly.

Jun 10, 2010 01:38 AM
Jennifer Allan-Hagedorn
Sell with Soul - Pensacola Beach, FL
Author of Sell with Soul

Christine - Glad you like the book!!! And yeah, hold onto that sand... it might be worth something some day...

Shannon - they are really bad, aren't they?

Ann - I dunno... don't they say Any Publicity is Good Publicity? LOL

Wendy - Fingers crossed for both of us.

Great comments, everyone and thanks for the good wishes for the coastline!

Jun 10, 2010 05:58 AM
Charles Stallions
Charles Stallions Real Estate Services - Pensacola, FL
850-476-4494 - Pensacola, Pace or Gulf Breeze, Fl.

If it hadn't been for the Governor and Buck Lee we would have gotten through all of May and most of June without any suffering of the Tourism market. Their sky is falling mentality done more to hurt the beach for this year than the oil spill.

This could have been stopped from day one, it is almost as if the government wanted a crisis to look good but it has went wrong.

If the pipe was bronken off at ground level would not the hole fill back in as it has been before man put it there.

 

Jun 13, 2010 01:40 AM
Chad and Sandy Neumann
Chad and Sandy Real Estate Group - Jacksonville, FL
Jacksonville Realtor (904-414-6200)

You are right. (And YUK! to the photo.) This is a disgrace and terrible cover-up. Avoiding the problem will not make it go away.

Jun 23, 2010 07:03 AM