I've been meaning to write this post and Suzanne McLaughlin's post today about silouetted photos motivated me to get busy on it. I would say that the majority of agents and general public prefer to see a picture of the person they are communicating with. Suzanne was wondering why so many agents just have a silouette on their blogs, cards, and/or web sites. These silouettes were somewthing our parents did back in the 60s. We had them hanging on the wall going up the stairs when we were kids. My mom had 7 kids. I think she still has those silouettes, but I also think they went out of style in the late 60s or early 70s. Only your friends and family would recognize you from a silouette. The picture below is my Grandmother. She wa s an agent back in the 60s in the Vienna, Falls Church VA areas and beyond. She was with more than one broker, I remember her being with Shannon and Luchs, and Brown and Brown I think to name a couple? She had her picture on her card then and agents since then have had their pictures on their cards, so there must be something to it! Back then there were no cell phones, no voice mail, no computers, no faxes, no email, no web sites or virtual tours, (were there even pics on the mls Lenn?) I don't think so, yet she made a living selling $30,000.00+- houses. I remember the only tools I saw her use were:(1) Her office- People called her office and went to her office. People actually expected her to meet them at her office! People just scheduled things back then, then did them. (2) She always had a clean car! I remember her last car was a Pontiac LeMans (3)She had a notebook, calender, pens, and I believe a book of listings to show (4)She had yard signs with her Brokers name, Her Name, & # on them. and (5) She carried this little book called " Pathfinder". You looked up a street by name, and there would be directions street by street to find the street you're looking for.
I believe an agent today could make it in real estate using those same 5 tools. (1) Today- We still meet people at the office and schedule showings (2) Agents still should have a clean car (3) We still have notebooks and calenders, and our listings are on our laptops or pads (4) We have signs with our brokers name, our name, and #s on them. and (5) Our " Pathfinder" is an ADC map or GPS.
Has real estate really changed that much in the last 40-50 years? Why do agents chase after every bit of new technology that someone tries to sell us? Do we really need SMS, text messaging, cell phones w cameras, smart phones, single property web sites, qr codes, 24 hour 800 hotlines, videos, pictures on 500 different web sites, 20 different URLs, automated feedback,etc ?
I think just focusing on the basics, and doing the basics better and more efficiently, combined with all the training that we do these days, an agent could do fairly well in this business today without all of the excess technology that's available to us. And despite all the stories that many agents are removing their pictures from their web sites and cards because it's suposedly costing them business, I think we live in the " Digital Age" where everyone expects to see a picture, and expects us to have a camera and know how to use it! I really don't care if someone judges me by my picture. I've worked with both buyers and sellers from El Salvador, Guatemala, France, India, Iran, Romania, Great Britain, Iceland, etc and none of them chose me to be their agent based on my picture. I have no way of knowing if someone chose not to contact me based on my picture, but if they did, I probably wouldn't have wanted to work with them anyway. ( I do understand some female agents being reluctant to post their picture for safety reasons, but they could just post a logo, a sunsrise or sunset, a house, etc, to take the place of their silouette.)
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