I read some copy for a real estate listing, and I thought, “Wow, this is game and lame at the same time.” Game because the Realtor was really trying to stretch beyond typically insipid real estate copy. Lame because, well, even so — the copy was lame. It led with a cliche, then jumped immediately into EduSpeak, the unreadable argot of academia. Within a scant few seconds, we were right back in Realtorville, an unending list of features without a benefit — nor a beneficiary — in sight. In the end, it was game-by-intent, an attempt to attempt to do something different — without actually doing anything differently.
Here’s my take on the same theme:
What you notice first is the quiet — but you don’t even actually notice it. The air is so still and the silence so complete that you don’t truly hear the quiet until it is interrupted.
What was that?! That scampering sound. You peer into the underbrush and there it is — a Whiptail lizard twenty yards away — and you were actually able to hear its tiny footfalls.
You don’t feel the breeze as much as you see it in the lazy skirling of the Redtail hawks overhead. The sun is omnipresent, but you feel it best in the tingling on your skin. You breathe deep, relishing the crisp, clean scent of creosote slowly baking in the heat of the afternoon…
This is the desert — the desert you came here to find but lost somewhere in a vast, overpacked parking lot.
This is the desert — untamed and illimitable, alive and thriving against all odds.
This is the desert — not a day trip, not a camping trip, not a now-and-then excursion.
This is home. Your home, from now on…
That’s an introduction. I’m not selling a house. I’m selling a life. In this case, a life with some negatives — the commute to Phoenix is at least 45 minutes, and the buyer is going to find snakes and scorpions in the home several times a year. But what I want to sell about this property is the unique life that this home alone can provide. It isn’t for everyone. But it is for someone, and I need to connect with that someone on his terms — not my terms, not Realtor terms and not EduSpeak terms. If I can get a potential buyer to “move in” to that home in his mind, getting him to move in with his body is easy.
I know I can be an irritant. But the other end of this is that I catch hell every day from people much brighter than I am, as I work to get better at this. I think the thing to do with an irritant is to embrace it, to enfold it, to add layer upon layer of your own meaning to it — until you make of it a pearl of your own mind’s devising. You either accept the idea, making it whole and perfect, or you reject it entirely. The middle is a void…
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CJ, Broker in L A, CA says:
I own a second home in Green Valley, AZ. Your words brought to mind the way it was over 10 years ago when I first bought it … If you stood outside right before dawn, you could hear the coyotes yapping along La Canada Drive.
But I digress. I’ve written some lovely ad copy. I’ve written some honkin’ bad copy. In the end, it doesn’t have much effect in how quickly a property sells. The reason for writing evocative copy is more about personal excellence and doing things right – which is a good foundation for any business, anyway.
November 11, 2006 — 5:41 am
Greg Swann says:
> In the end, it doesn’t have much effect in how quickly a property sells. The reason for writing evocative copy is more about personal excellence and doing things right – which is a good foundation for any business, anyway.
How about I give you the point and then take it back four ways? There are four potential “clienteles” for a listing: The seller, potential buyers, interested third parties (such as the neighbors), and anyone who might be referred by the other three parties. Even assuming that good copy doesn’t help sell the home — and, for me, everything is about honing the edge — if the excellence of your total effort sells any one of those four clienteles on using you in the future, it’s still a win.
Here’s a fifth clientele for listings: Someday to be former Realtors. I used to lecture at the introductory class for pre-licensees at a community college. I would tell them flat out that I knew that most of them would not work as Realtors, but all of them were going to buy and sell real estate. We’ve done millions of dollars of business with past students. In the same way, if people who have dropped out of real estate remember that your listings are orders of magnitude better than other Realtors’, that’s a downstream source of referrals that, for now, is just bread cast upon the waters.
So: I’m with you. By doing your absolute best, you may realize future benefits, but the immediate benefit is knowing that you have done your absolute best.
November 11, 2006 — 7:14 am
Doug Quance says:
I see your point, Greg.
I’m not the most creative guy I know… and I have written some bad copy in my day – but I am always looking for ways to improve.
And you are right – I bet more than half of my flyers go into the hands of people other than current buyers.
It all goes back to the concept of selling the sizzle, and not the steak.
November 11, 2006 — 2:13 pm
Uncle Jack (Jack LeVine) says:
I jus just reviewed all of my listing copy. I always end up slipping back into features. I’m going to rewrite them all. I know I can do better.
March 3, 2008 — 1:53 am
Greg Swann says:
> I’m going to rewrite them all. I know I can do better.
I love that attitude. Good on ya!
March 3, 2008 — 2:14 am