Real Estate Agents Are Finding Creative Ways to Stand Out from the Competition Agents using new mediums to display photos and other promotional materials in memorable designs
RISMEDIA, June 29, 2006—In the ongoing battle for name recognition, Spring Cho recently unveiled her latest weapon: a chic new graphic with the real estate agent’s headshot rendered in simple black strokes a la Andy Warhol, silk-screen style.
She plans to use it on her business cards and posted alongside her Virginia real estate listings—a gutsy departure from the color photograph she’s used in the past but one that she hopes will help further define her name and company as a brand.
But she wonders if the image will be effective.
“Does this one stand out enough?” she asked on a recent afternoon as she studied the new graphic alongside several mock-ups of promotional material bearing her color photograph. “There’s too much white space,” she said, eyeing the graphic, which floated against a stark white background. “The picture gets lost.”
In perhaps no other retail profession do salespeople take such care in presenting their photographs. After all, an agent’s picture really does seem to be worth 1,000 words—at least as a promotion.
With rising interest rates pinching some buyers’ pockets, the once-brisk housing market is turning cooler. It becomes more important than ever for real estate agents to find creative ways to stand out among the competition.
In early June, the Roanoke Valley Association of Realtors reported 3,696 homes for sale or under contract across the Roanoke Valley. With 1,633 real estate agents working the valley’s market, the breakdown comes out to two houses for each agent.
While some agents opt for visibility, stamping their photographs on everything from billboards to promotional envelope openers, others strive to create an identifiable persona, one that conveys a sense of professionalism and trustworthiness.
“It’s certainly a prevalent thing in the industry,” said Stephanie Singer, a spokeswoman for the National Realtors Association in Washington D.C. “Real estate is a relationship-based profession, and so I think a lot of realtors like to have a personal touch.”
The marketing technique has become so popular that in some cases the agent photographs dominate the ads. The newspaper’s Sunday real estate section, for example, has come to look a lot like a high school yearbook dotted with postage-stamp size portraits. And the glossy real estate magazines occasionally have a full-page ad with a photograph of the Realtor and little else.
“It looks like some Realtors are putting bigger photos of themselves than the houses,” said Glenna Bannister, an agent with Long & Foster South.
“Sometimes you have to get out your magnifying glass to see the house.”
Then there’s “the look,” which ranges from cuffed-sleeve casual to buttoned-up professional.
In one ad, Realtor Joey Ingram poses against a lavender backdrop, one hand dug into his pants pocket, a tan blazer swung over his shoulder.
Then there’s Callie Dalton, who looks a lot like Vanna White in her promotional photo with her tight knot of blond hair and polished smile, giving what she describes as “a little attitude.”
Psychologically speaking, looks can go a long way, said Joseph Sirgy, a professor of marketing and real estate specialist at Virginia Tech.
“This is because photos of Realtors not only put a face to a name but also help create trust in the minds of prospective clients,” he said, adding that real estate transactions are often perceived as highly risky. “Trust is extremely important to reduce the perception of risk.”
But what does trust look like?
Women generally are perceived to be more trustworthy than men, Sirgy said.
Attractiveness can help a great deal, too.
“The ‘best’ face of a trustworthy Realtor is one who is older, attractive and female,” he said.
Still, some agents are finding there is a lot they can do to create this trustworthy image.
For the past nine years, local Realtor Mary Ann Gwyn has posed with one or all three of her grandchildren, an idea she borrowed from a similar advertisement in Better Homes and Gardens.
“I think people are attracted to it 1/8the ad3/8 because it makes them feel comfortable, and they can identify with it,” said Gwyn, an agent for Gwyn & Harmon Realtors in Roanoke County.
Realtor Curtis Burchett had a similar idea. For years, he’s posed with his wife and three children—a photo he appropriated from one taken for his church directory—and sometimes uses photos taken on vacations.
A favorite of politicians, the family portrait exudes a sense of familiarity. After all, everyone knows the family guy, Burchett said.
“The key in any kind of sales is you’d rather work with someone who you know than don’t know,” he said.
And that person you know must make a good first impression, some clients say.
“If you walk into a bank and you’re going to invest $200,000, if the lady gets up and she has on shorts and tennis shoes, would you want to invest your money?” asked Margaret Shupack, who with her husband, Charles, recently sold a house in Roanoke County.
“A lot of these homes are $300,000 and $400,000 homes. You’re expecting that person to move that home,” she said.
Visibility can also do a lot to make a Realtor seem more effective, some agents believe.
Anne Huffman, with Remax All-Stars in Daleville, said that agents with prominent photos often seem busier than others. It causes buyers to think they have a lot of listings and have more knowledge of the market.
For Cho, her promotional photograph—which adorns billboards, magnets and even a moving truck her company lends out—is as important as the properties she sells.
“I market the property as well as myself and the property gets sold quicker,” said Cho, who speaks in short, pithy sentences and a Korean accent. “Getting sold quicker means top dollar,” she added.
But such brazen self-promotion can also be a turnoff for some clients, toeing the line of being just plain old vain and gimmicky. And photos that are misleading or deceptive can be a downright turnoff for clients looking for a sense of credibility in their Realtor.
The Shupacks were jarred when, upon meeting a Realtor who walked through one of their open houses, they found she looked entirely different from the photograph printed on her business card. That photo showed a younger woman with long dark hair. But a much older-looking woman showed up, said Margaret Shupack.
“I looked at the card and looked at her, and I thought, ‘Who is this?’ “ she said.
That kind of deception, some clients say, can instantly undermine the sense of credibility that some Realtors have taken great pains to craft.
In fact, some experts discourage Realtors from using their photos alongside home listings, saying it takes away from the property they’re selling.
“We’re always looking for the competitive edge, but first and foremost, we need to think about the public and what they’re looking for,” said Bitsy Davis, a real estate agent with Prudential Waterfront Properties at Smith Mountain Lake. “Whether or not they want our glamour shots or our pets, what’s really important is the property.”
And even some Realtors will agree that photographs, along with other methods of marketing, are rarely effective in drawing clients.
Even Cho, who spends about a $1,000 a month to rent a billboard on Franklin Road, admits that about 80 percent of her clients come from referrals or the Internet.
Too, some photographs sell the Realtor’s services, not necessarily the house.
Several years ago, Steve Davidson with Remax All Points created two ads: one with him sporting a baseball cap and a whistle around his neck, with the tag line: “Let me coach you.” The other photograph featured Davidson in safari gear beside the words: “Let me be your guide.”
But he doesn’t include his photo alongside an actual home list. “If I’m going to advertise myself, I’m going to advertise myself,” he said.
Yet more often than not it’s a vicious cycle. In a society that is becoming increasingly driven by images, it’s not surprising that Realtors are following that trend, Sirgy said.
Nowadays, for many Realtors, the photo phenomenon seems to have snowballed.
Some fear that if they don’t run a photo they’ll be overlooked.
“You’d think, golly ned, why would I want to list with them,” said Huffman, who began advertising her photo after seeing the newspaper flooded with them.
“If you see someone with a nice smile, you think ‘I’d like to work with them’,” she said.
But even photographs these days are losing their edge, becoming blunted by the sheer number of them popping up on magazines and next to home listings.
That’s why Cho said she’s looking for new ways to stand out.
“Some people say a picture is like a logo. So I’m making my picture a logo,” she said of the her new graphic design.
She takes a step back and kneels down by a foam-board poster of herself. The photo is from years ago, one she feels is grossly outdated.
“I’m getting old. I need to diminish the wrinkles,” she said, advocating for the logo. “This one doesn’t show them.”
But she also worries about whether people can relate to the logo. She wants people to feel comfortable with her.
“I want it to feel real,” she said. She wants to exude confidence and build trust that she can accomplish the goal.
She looks back at the photo. “Can’t you see that in my expression?”
Copyright © 2006, The Roanoke Times, Va. |
