Why do real estate agents always put their picture on their billboard and business cards? Are they all crazy, that they have to have their face seen by as many people as possible? Is it some kind of American Psycho competition, in which Katherine Barger of ReMax out-hairsprays Mark Duckard from Century 21? It’s just bizarre to me, and they all do it.
I picked up a real estate agent’s card today and looked at the lady’s picture on it and remarked, out loud, that I thought it was a loony practice. A lady in line behind me pointed out that she’d been an agent for twenty years and she absolutely had to have her face seen by the public, it was a matter of marketing: her face was her business. And, really, I know I’m no great looker, but it wasn’t that great of a face to begin with. Do these agents really believe that people will buy a house from them just because of the highlights they recently added to their hair? I just don’t get it.
I’m not one to rant very often, but I’m definitely categorizing this as a rant. Sorry. It’s not that it makes me ill or anything (like telemarketing does), it just confuses me so much that I can’t stand it. It’s an industry standard, for God’s sake! And it makes no sense at all!
Take the photograph at right, for instance, this guy took the time to sit down and completely erase the background (sloppily, I might add) from his picture so he could make it a transparent background gif. This was the first agent found in a Google image search for “real estate agent.” You make the call; is this a great marketing tool or industry insanity? I’m opting for #2.
September 12th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
But everybody else is doing it, so it must be working, so the new ones all have to do it.
September 12th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
Hah! So right…