{"id":68,"date":"2008-06-28T12:38:32","date_gmt":"2008-06-28T19:38:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=68"},"modified":"2008-06-28T12:34:24","modified_gmt":"2008-06-28T19:34:24","slug":"in-the-battle-of-the-baseball-cards-the-biggest-shoe-box-wins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/68\/in-the-battle-of-the-baseball-cards-the-biggest-shoe-box-wins\/","title":{"rendered":"In the battle of the baseball cards, the biggest shoe-box wins — but Realtors who master the art of marketing homes will be fine"},"content":{"rendered":"

[This post appeared on BloodhoundBlog on June 30, 2006, our second day. I’m reprising it now as a part of our birthday celebration. It’s fun for me to see how much of what I talk about here was with us on our very first days. –GSS]<\/em><\/p>\n

 
Cathleen and I live pretty much continuously in a fairly intense business conference. We’re both paying very close attention to everything, and we are in nearly-constant contact. On the ground, we’re aware of what we like in the work product of our competitors, what we don’t like, what we think might be worth improving upon and what we know from rigorous testing is a complete waste of time and money. We pay even closer attention to the net.world, because that’s where our own bread is buttered, and because the internet will someday be the entire bakery. We’re about to skip away to Las Vegas to celebrate our wedding anniversary, but we’re taking three books on marketing — not real estate marketing, just marketing — with us.<\/p>\n

That brings me to this<\/a>, an argument that representation of sellers trumps home marketing. I don’t absolutely hate<\/i> the premise. I have made a similar argument<\/a> myself. What’s interesting to me — fascinating to me, a full-time obsession for me — is the idea that real estate marketing is somehow imperiled by internet-based disintermediation.<\/p>\n

First, what is being done on the internet, so far at least, is not marketing. It’s listing, at best, the compilation of baseball-card-like stats, and if Realtors conflate the two, it’s because they have never understood marketing to begin with. “The houses sell themselves,” we say to ourselves, and there is a truth to this. If you take buyers where they want to be, they’ll pay to stay there. In crucial respects, buyer representation is the easiest sale in the history of sales. In other respects, it’s impossibly hard, of course, which is why the failure rate among Realtors is so high. But, unlike virtually every other type of sales, you do not have to convince the client to want<\/i> your product before you can attempt to sell Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This post appeared on BloodhoundBlog on June 30, 2006, our second day. I’m reprising it now as a part of our birthday celebration. It’s fun for me to see how much of what I talk about here was with us on our very first days. –GSS]  Cathleen and I live pretty much continuously in a […]<\/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":[4,7,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-68","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-disintermediation","7":"category-enduring-interest","8":"category-real-estate","10":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3278,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3278\/listing-real-estate-the-bloodhound-way-the-marketing-power-of-a-custom-yard-sign-is-not-the-color-not-the-photography-not-even-that-it-is-custom-made-its-the-text-on-the-sign-that-stops-traffi\/","url_meta":{"origin":68,"position":0},"title":"Listing real estate the Bloodhound way: The marketing power of a custom yard sign is not the color, not the photography, not even that it is custom-made — it’s the text on the sign that stops traffic","author":"Greg Swann","date":"June 26, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"We've been making custom yard signs for two years now, but that represents the third generation of our sign philosophy. The second generation featured a huge picture of Odysseus the TV Spokesmodel Bloodhound, and that was a real traffic stopper when it was new. The first generation sported a huge\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":[]},{"id":3254,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3254\/technorati-599-now-theyve-got-my-attention\/","url_meta":{"origin":68,"position":1},"title":"Technorati 599? Now they’ve got my attention…","author":"Greg Swann","date":"June 21, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"We stopped running the Technorati widget a while ago. They went through some kind of hosting nightmare, and they were dragging us down on page loads as we waited for their software to time out. But they did some kind of recalculation this week, and suddenly I'm loving them a\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":2644,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2644\/living-up-to-the-bloodhoundblog-mission-statement-were-everything-you-wish-were-in-realtor-magazine\/","url_meta":{"origin":68,"position":2},"title":"Living up to the BloodhoundBlog mission statement: We’re everything you wish were in Realtor magazine","author":"Greg Swann","date":"February 23, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This is our mission statement:BloodhoundBlog is everything you wish were in Realtor magazine \u2014 but isn\u2019t.Damned if it ain't the gospel truth! Realtor Magazine does a cover story on real estate weblogging -- and none of the Bloodhounds are there. Not sour grapes. We're the big dogs in this menagerie\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":3049,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3049\/unchained-unplugged-and-off-the-clock\/","url_meta":{"origin":68,"position":3},"title":"Unchained, unplugged and off the clock…","author":"Greg Swann","date":"May 2, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I can't think of any better way to make the real estate business rebound than having way too much other work to do. I've been writing Unchained content, juggling Unchained details, responding to a bunch of Unchained mail -- all while negotiating and planning listings and working with buyers. Next\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":552,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/552\/casual-friday-on-wednesday-night\/","url_meta":{"origin":68,"position":4},"title":"Casual Friday on Wednesday night…","author":"Greg Swann","date":"October 18, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Twelfth Night, set in the fifties. Ick. I love the drama as an art form, and I almost always hate to see it performed. Nothing ruins a great play like a gaggle of clucking actors. While we're out, I commend your attention to this. Wrap your mind around the change\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15195,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/15195\/brian-brady-makes-it-happen-bloodhoundblog-unchained-is-on-for-anaheim-friday-november-11-2011\/","url_meta":{"origin":68,"position":5},"title":"Brian Brady makes it happen: BloodhoundBlog Unchained is on for Anaheim, Friday, November 11, 2011.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"October 6, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Brian Brady got us a room, may the gods whisper his name in awe. We're working on sponsorship, and I'll have speaker announcements in the coming days. 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