This blog post is a response to a comment on Mr. Seller, is your Home looking Out of Season? that I wrote. In my post, I showed pictures of a snowy home and a snowy beach that were just emailed to me by my Realtor in Canada (I’m prospecting for properties in New Brunswick). I had to ask my Realtor (whom I met through Active Rain) if this was his listing and was relieved when he said it wasn’t.
I never named the listing agent of the snowy home or my Realtor, but rather took this as an opportunity to remind sellers that they need to pay attention, just in case their Realtor is not. And I added that I make it a point to refresh the pictures of my listings so that my clients’ homes do not look “out of season” as this one does (although, thank goodness, our seasons are not as drastic in south Louisiana).
I never said I was perfect or that I never make mistake, just that I thought this was unacceptable.
In the comment section of my post, Andrew wrote:
We are all in the same profession, wearing the “R”. Before we climb on another and vow we would never do it, often there is something in the marketing of any of us that needs beefing up. The opinion the public has of us is fueled by what we say in public, on line. Just post images that are more plentiful, interesting, in season but don’t dash those in northern climates with snow, dead grass in spring and image rotation.
Mind you, Andrew’s comment is also online for all the public to see and it is directed at me and not anonymous like my original post was. But I digress….
What I want to point out to all the Realtors who feel like Andrew is that the opinion the public has of us is also fueled by what we DO in public and online. And when Realtors market snowy homes in the middle of July or market properties with fuzzy or horrible pictures for all our buyers and the public to see, they are the ones making all of us look like a lazy bunch.
And when the buyers I have prospecting in my MLS receive these horrible listings in their mailbox, it is my face that is all over them!
Yet, because we are all wearing the “R”, as Andrew puts it, we should just be quiet on our counterparts’ bad practices because if we say something negative, it makes us all look bad?
Seriously?
Every time I go on a listing appointment, I tell sellers why they should hire me and why I’m different from the competition. This notion that we should never say anything negative about another “R” in public is ludicrous and most likely the reason why the public has this tendency of putting us all in the same boat, i.e. we work until we have a signed listing agreement and then we sit back and wait until another “R” brings us an offer.
As Realtors, we are small business owners first and foremost and as such, we compete for our clients’ business. Competition is a good thing. It is what makes all of us aim to be better. Would we tell Apple to never say anything negative about IBM because they are in the same kind of business?
Lastly, I hope this Realtor in Canada finds my post and asks me take it down, especially if it means that he/she will update the pictures and make us all look better.
And that’s my rant for today.
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