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The Pink Flamingo Story

By
Managing Real Estate Broker with Howard Hanna Rand Realty License # 49FA1074963

For my 200th blog posting (!!) -I was prompted to write this after someone pointed out a mistake I made but did so without being nasty. This occurred early in my career when I worked in Rochester with my old college rommate Kevin and his father Paul at their company. Both trained me in the business, and I owe my career to them.

Paul was the broker and owner of the company (he still is) and operated out of a converted house in a commercial zone on a busy street on the border of a residential neighborhood. The house needed painting, and Paul decided on a beautiful shade of burgundy. It was a similar shade to brick. However, the entire building had to be primed and, Rochester being the place that it is, it rained for 4 consecutive days after the priming.

Oh, and the primer was a Pepto-Bismal shade of pink.

Because of the weather and a weekend, we had a pink mess for 7 days or so. One morning we retrieved a very nasty anonymous voicemail. The caller was spitting venom but didn't have the guts to leave a name. The guy must have assumed that the primer was the building's permanent color, because he was complaining about how the house didn't fit in with the neighborhood, and called the building a "pink flamingo."

My broker was bemused by the message, and replayed it for me a number of times with that one eyebrow up like he was Spock. "Come on Phil, we're going out shopping."

So we hopped into his car and went to every department store in town. We cleaned the entire stock of plastic pink flamingos on the west side of Rochester completely out. Then, this crazy guy and his loyal page spent the bulk of the afternoon placing plastic pink flamingos in the front yard of the office. We put them in lines, made families of several little ones following a big one, one "speaking" in front of 4 others, you name it. There were probably 40 plastic flamingos in the front yard.

And they stayed there for weeks while we all giggled about the aneurysm the anonymous curmudgeon must have been having over the look of the place now. "That'll send him straight over the edge," smiled Paul. He'd adjust the little buggers every morning when he arrived too.

Instead of a week of pink at most, our anonymous complainer got about a solid month of a large pink monstrosity with a flock of 40 plastic flamingos nesting every time he drove by.

If anything, business improved. It got people talking, and those that knew Paul knew he was up to something. The next time I'm in Rochester visiting I think I'll bring a few plastic birds back with me. You never know when you'll need some.

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Susan Neal
RE/MAX Gold, Fair Oaks - Fair Oaks, CA
Fair Oaks CA & Sacramento Area Real Estate Broker

Talk about making lemons from lemonade!  It does pay to have a sense of humor and have fun in life.  Sounds like that was a good place to work.

Jun 08, 2009 02:41 PM
Cris Burlew
Beach & Luxury Realty, Inc. - Saint Pete Beach, FL
Broker ~ St Pete Beach FL Real Estate

Now, that is a funny story. Shows the sense of humor your former broker had/has by taking a negative message and turning it into something fun. This lesson should teach us all on how to turn a negative into something positive, thanks for sharing.

Jun 08, 2009 02:42 PM
Shoshana Shay
St. Pete Realty - Treasure Island, FL

I love it!  And the image of flocks of pink flamingos in Rochester, of all places (not exactly flamingo home base) :)  Thank you for the laugh today!

Jun 08, 2009 02:47 PM
Eileen Hsu
Douglas Elliman Real Estate - Manhattan, NY
LICENSED REAL ESTATE SALESPERSON

So does that mean I will be seeing some blue turtles or rabbits in Westchester?

Jun 08, 2009 03:16 PM
Jim Hale
ACTIONAGENTS.NET - Eugene, OR
Eugene Oregon's Best Home Search Website

If even bad press is better than no press for a politician, how could a good sense of humor hurt a REALTOR in a tough market.

No news is bad news. Some news is good news.

Tackiness sells.

(Or was that something else?)

Jun 08, 2009 06:16 PM
Mark MacKenzie
Phoenix, AZ

This is so refreshing, "I was prompted to write this after someone pointed out a mistake I made but did so without being nasty."

Go figure, having tact and class goes a long way. :)

Jun 09, 2009 01:57 AM
Tim Bradley
Contour Investment Properties - Jackson Hole, WY
Commercial Real Estate Expert in Jackson Hole, WY

We have a neighbor who complained for weeks about a new house color in the neighborhood. When it became apparent that no one was going to listen to her, she announced that she would put a pink flamingo in her yard as a protest, that being the most obnoxious thing she could think of. That was 6 months ago, it's still there, and I still get a giggle out of it...I like pink flamingos!

Jun 13, 2009 09:18 AM