"Where's the Beef?"

"Where's the Beef?"

By Martin J. Rueter, WREA President

The above inquiry highlighted a memorable Wendy's fast food commercial a few years back. Remember Clara Peller, the feisty old lady in the lacy, navy blue dress?  "Where's the beef?" she'd yell out not so meekly to no one special inside the "Brand X" wimpy-hamburger joint. She became a TV phenomenon overnight, and "Where's the beef?" became a national cliché.

Funny, I remember Clara whenever I hear a discount real estate agent tout his anorexic real estate service on TV, bus benches or Internet blogs. I thought about her after that one-sided 60 Minutes segment a few months back. "Where's the beef?" I said; looking at the Red Fin's of the real estate world trying to minimize what "real" real estate agents do for home sellers and buyers. What do such "limited service providers" do for their limited fee?  Very little except charging the seller too much to do most all of the agent's job!

That is... until I look at most real estate advertising today, particularly the propaganda put out by many "full service" real estate agents (including a few of our own). Rather than promote our listings, the extent of our services or our superior advantages, we seem stuck on self-proclaimed virtues (honesty, friendliness, professionalism), and the fact we've been doing this for more than a year or two. Clara might very well ask us, "Where's the beef?"

If we spent as much time aggressively marketing our properties as we do airbrushing our photograph, we might help eliminate the growing belief among many consumers that real estate people are narcissistic, grossly overpaid... and do little except answer the phone (poorly) and fly Goodyear blimps over their homes proclaiming their wonderfulness. I realize we do much more for our commission, but don't do well explaining all that we do to attract customers, capture them, sell them and save deals through that excruciating pending period ... full service for a full fee. Instead we hire "handlers" to make us look tan, slim and successful, and "self-help" coaches to keep our self esteem on a record high. Or spend even more time trying to neutralize the discounters through legislation or collective bad mouthing. Let us all compete, I say. But let's more clearly explain our advantages, and demonstrate our competence, not just boast of it.

We're a self-congratulating lot, that's for sure, maybe because our parents deprived us of that Kids Meal toy when we were five or six. So we still hoard outdated trophies and plaques in our garages and attics in case we need an emergency PMA fix (I still have my Tinker Toys tucked away somewhere). Are we that insecure? Or haven't we fully internalized our expertise and value, AND our ability to articulate the thoroughness of our marketing plan to those truly needing us during tougher real estate times?  Could we give a complete listing presentation ... without the big listing portfolio... without resorting to excessive personal platitudes?

"Where's the beef?" Clara still exclaims, over and over and over in nostalgic reruns. Tell her we've got cold lockers full of it at Weichert, Realtors^®.  Big slabs of corn fed Black Angus - superior training, superior management, superior marketing, superior results. And with all the trimmings too. "Call Weichert^®... they've got the best beef...!"