Today, as I was walking in Old Town Alexandria, I passed by the offices of at least 3 real estate brokerages (including one of the offices of my own brokerage, RE/MAX Allegiance).  These offices are all located in an area with a lot of foot traffic, right in the heart of historic Old Town amidst boutique shops, restaurants, hotels, and historic sites.

As I quickly walked past, I noticed that each window had taped to it a piece of paper with a picture of a house (or condo), with a short description and name and phone number of the listing agent.  Okay, I'm not an idiot -- I've seen this many many times, not only here, but in real estate offices around the country and throughout the world.  It's a fairly common practice -- one designed to lure the common passerby into thinking about real estate and possibly coming into the office to ask about a particular property. 

It's just that today for some peculiar reason, it got me thinking.

How Much is That Housie in the Window?

As I continued on, I noticed that one or two pedestrians were stopped along the sidewalk sidetracked for a moment by pictures of real estate.  They spent about 40 seconds pondering the one page flyers in front of them before continuing about their daily business (or leisure as the case may be).

The particular office where I hang my shingle does not employ this method of combining tape, paper, and window.  In fact, it would do no good at all, since we occupy the second floor of a building which is set back at least 60 feet from the street which itself is not pedestrian friendly.  Thus, walk-in traffic is minimal, if it even exists at all, in my office.

So I thought about the tens of thousands of pieces of paper hanging in the windows of real estate offices around the country and the world.  Crumpled into paper balls these real estate ads would certainly fill several dumptrucks and likely a large corner of a major landfill.

What's my point?

Here it is.

Paper.  It's so 1700s. 

Actually trusty Wikipedia notes that "The earliest recorded forms of paper were in use in Egypt in around 3500 BC, made from the papyrus plant. True paper is believed to have originated in China in approximately the 2nd Century AD, although there is some evidence for it being used before this date."

If I were running a brokerage (and I'm not) in a highly foot-trafficked area, here's what I would do and I toss this out for the consideration of any Broker/Owners out there:

Scrap the paper. 

Buy a few flatscreen monitors and load them up with virtual tours and photos of the listings, even video. 
Put these in the windows of the brokerage. 

Now there's differentiation!  That's compelling.  This will stop people in their tracks and get them to stop in your office.  Hey, you can even have office contests to see which agent's listings will appear on the screen during prime time.

Think about it.  Maybe you are already doing it -- if so, you're ahead of the curve.

Get people asking the question -- How Much is that Housie in the Window?