Faces and prices

Why is so much real estate marketing, aside from listings, just faces and prices?

The postcards roll into my mailbox like this:

Impeccably dressed, smiling Realtor situated to the side of the latest neighborhood sale price. There’s a chart. A website URL. Phone number. She’s wearing a well-tailored dress. Designer shoes. She’s implying she made this price happen with her proprietary magic formula.

My thoughts:

Oh look. Another home sold in our neighborhood for over a million dollars.

But wait.

I’m not even thinking about selling my home.

I don’t want to pay over a million dollars for a smaller home in a less attractive neighborhood because prices have doubled since I bought, along with the cost of living. 

I also don’t want to triple my tax bill overnight. Or be homeless for months while I search for a new place.

Where’s all that stuff in these postcards?

The polished Realtor seems to be hiding it behind her smile.

I wonder why she’s not telling me how she’ll guide me through all those worries. How she’ll ensure I won’t be left with equity but no place to feed my family. How she’ll fight for me to get a fair deal. How she’ll show up no matter the day or time. How she’ll lead me to mortgage, title and closing help who actually care about my outcome. 

I wonder why Realtors market to me this way. I wonder if my home sale price will be on her postcard some day.

I mean — it’s easy. I know they buy these templates for pennies. Cut and paste. Publish. Send.

I know they have better things to do than to market to me. I know they’re good at their jobs. I know they have family lives too. I know they work tirelessly, weekends and holidays, putting out fires, tempering wild emotions, staying on top of so many things that are constantly changing.

I know they came to real estate after some other career and, like me, are just trying to make it all work. I know they are people people and want to help.

I know this marketing must work because they all do it. Right?

But faces and prices are so surface-level. They may as well send me Archie comics from the ‘50s with their name and number stamped on them. I already know the plot lines. 

No wonder public perception of Realtors is so damn low. No one really understands how critical they are. They pose beside dollar signs so many times, we begin to equate the two as one.

This marketing is landfill. I’m much more interested in a point of view. An approach. A person beneath the veneer. A promise that goes beyond “Hey look how much money this home I sold made me and the sellers and everyone else involved!”

Tell me about the challenges you helped these sellers overcome. Tell me about the other side of my home sale that I can expect to be different with you than others. Tell me about complexities you’ve worked through that I’ve never even thought of because I don’t sell homes every day.

Tell me what happens at our first meeting. Introduce me to people like me who were fearful and worried and reticent.

Tell me something, please.

Every Realtor has a face. Every home sale has a price. 

Maybe this well has run dry.

Or maybe I’m just overthinking this.