{"id":390,"date":"2006-09-26T02:48:39","date_gmt":"2006-09-26T09:48:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=390"},"modified":"2006-09-26T02:49:11","modified_gmt":"2006-09-26T09:49:11","slug":"blogoff-post-13-little-white-signs-are-tin-eared-real-estate-marketing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/390\/blogoff-post-13-little-white-signs-are-tin-eared-real-estate-marketing\/","title":{"rendered":"Blogoff Post #13: Little white signs are tin-eared real estate marketing . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"

This is one of my favorites from my Arizona Republic<\/i> column<\/a>:<\/p>\n

You’re driving through a neighborhood, and there it is. Not the “For Sale” sign, the rider – the little white plastic sign slung beneath. There, for all the world to see, is the ultimate testament to tin-eared real-estate marketing: A house that declares in bright red letters, “I’m gorgeous inside!”<\/p>\n

Words are simple machines. They’re the means by which we transmit ideas from one mind to another. Whatever message the sender might have hoped to convey, the only translation a thoughtful mind can make is this: “I look like a dump from the street!” More fully: “Even though I look like a dump from the street, I promise to make up for it by being more than unusually nice on the inside.” The worst part is, the houses usually don’t look like dumps from the street, not that anyone would have to point that out.<\/p>\n

What should the sign say? How about this: “I’m even more <\/i>gorgeous inside!” A house making that claim ought to have a nice curb appeal, but here’s an even better idea: Why not trust buyers to make up their own minds?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Someday I may expand on this, because I think all those goofy signs are funny:<\/p>\n

“Very Special!” “Many Extras!” “Won’t Last!” “You’ll Love This Place!” “Honey, Stop the Car!”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My own thoughts on real estate signs are well-documented by now<\/a>, but I just can’t get enough of making fun of these little riders. Everything sells something: Not just dumb, but palpably cheap…
\n<\/p>\n

Technorati Tags: arizona<\/a>, arizona real estate<\/a>, phoenix<\/a>, phoenix real estate<\/a>, sellsius 101<\/a>, real estate<\/a>, real estate marketing<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is one of my favorites from my Arizona Republic column: You’re driving through a neighborhood, and there it is. Not the “For Sale” sign, the rider – the little white plastic sign slung beneath. There, for all the world to see, is the ultimate testament to tin-eared real-estate marketing: A house that declares in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-390","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-marketing","7":"category-real-estate","9":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":269,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/269\/words-words-words-how-evocative-listing-copy-helps-to-sell-homes\/","url_meta":{"origin":390,"position":0},"title":"Words, words, words: How evocative listing copy helps to sell homes . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 31, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Mike Price at Mike's Corner is kvetching about clumsy Realtor lingo, and while I'm with him on the main point, I have turf of my own to defend. Sez Mike:I've often wondered what consumers think when they are subjected to the same goofy tag lines and incomplete sentences that seem\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":845,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/845\/the-frumpiest-little-dump-in-the-midwest-makes-news-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":390,"position":1},"title":"The frumpiest little dump in the Midwest makes news again . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"January 3, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"O, the ignominy! Danville, IL is in the news again... This time, my frowsy little fly-blown hometown amends its past notoriety as the cheapest-of-the-cheap housing markets by refusing to release its abysmal sales data at all:[T]he Danville Board of Realtors in Illinois has decided to withhold sales data from the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Investment"","block_context":{"text":"Investment","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/investment\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14253,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/14253\/rage-and-rates-a-tin-foil-hat-production\/","url_meta":{"origin":390,"position":2},"title":"Rage and Rates… a Tin Foil Hat Production","author":"Sean Purcell","date":"March 3, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The question is: when do you lock the rate for your client? Well, if we knew the actual date this crazy, unforseen event may occur, we could watch closely and lock right up to the day before. Why the day before? Because there are three possible outcomes to this disruptive\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Lending"","block_context":{"text":"Lending","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/lending\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":202,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/202\/ten-more-bricks-in-the-wall\/","url_meta":{"origin":390,"position":3},"title":"Ten more bricks in the wall . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 11, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I write a lot about disintermediation, but it's not a front-burner issue in our business. Not yet, anyway. We know that much of what we sell, as a business, is the convenience of being able to dump the real estate problem on us. I'll say to clients, in jest, \"If\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16296,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/16296\/can-bernanke-keep-mortgage-rates-this-low-into-2015\/","url_meta":{"origin":390,"position":4},"title":"Can Bernanke Keep Mortgage Rates This Low Into 2015?","author":"Brian Brady","date":"April 1, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been a vocal critic of Ben Bernanke.\u00a0 I thought his Quantitative Easing schemes would eventually create a bubble in the Treasury and mortgage-bond markets.\u00a0 Bernanke has committed to keeping rates low for another 18-24 months. I was wrong.\u00a0 I violated the first rule of market prognostication (from the late\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Lending"","block_context":{"text":"Lending","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/lending\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6448,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/6448\/if-selling-is-not-a-viable-option-you-need-to-fall-in-love-with-your-house-all-over-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":390,"position":5},"title":"If selling is not a viable option, you need to fall in love with your house all over again","author":"Greg Swann","date":"January 3, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"This is my column for this week from the Arizona Republic (permanent link). \u00a0If selling is not a viable option, you need to fall in love with your house all over again The foreclosure market dominates the news, but it remains that good old-fashioned American homeowners occupy the overwhelming majority\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}