When I read the Sunday paper I always take a peak at the obituaries. Mostly to see if I am listed. This past Sunday I got to thinking about how similar the obituary section of the paper is to real estate company web sites.
Real estate company web sites usually include a page with pictures of agents a brief bio, and maybe some details about the services they provide. There is a banner across the top, with the name of the real estate company on it. The obituary pages of the paper are similar, there is a banner across the top and then and pictures of people with a brief bio, and details about services.
There are other similarities. I look at the dates in an obituary and see that the person who passed away was born in the 1920’s, which means they would be in their 80’s today, yet the person in the picture looks to be in their 20’s or 30’s. This seems to be true on real estate company web sites too. I have met agents who are 10 to 20 years older than the person pictured on the company web site. Yet the pictures in the obituaries some how look more natural than those on the real estate site.
Not all obituaries have pictures with them. The same is true with agent bios on real estate web sites. For the obituaries the picture section is simply left blank, on the real estate web site the place where the picture should go will have a shadow of a face, the company logo or a for sale sign.
I often wonder who made the rules about real estate company web sites. Did they get their ideas one Sunday morning as they were reading the obituaries?
HA! What a great post. I love observational humor on my Monday morning. I actually feel the same way about real estate sites. I also feel real estate is obsessed with self portraits. Why? I’ve heard most people say that it helps people feel more familiar with you. Sure, ok. Maybe if the pictures actually looked like the person you meet. I wish the realtor picture trend would just go away – obviously this is just my opinion.
As far as websites, if I could do a second of promoting here…a site launched earlier this month to showcase real estate sites that don’t resemble the obituaries. It’s http://www.poshd.com. That’s it. No pitch, just thought I’d mention it.
Thanks Shaun – I had to tone it down a bit. I have seen your site. It is not all the different from St. Paul real estate blog. If I had taken this post further I would have said the the real estate agent and company web sites look similar and are among the least attractive sites on the internet. 🙂 If I were looking for a house I would not want to look at a bunch of faces.
I really like the comparison to the obituaries. Looking at many different Web sites recently I cannot understand why the majority of Agents do not take the time to write a well thought out Bio and powerful description of the services they offer. Either they use the same information that the other 101 Agents in their Company use (provided by the Company) or they list designations that most people do not know what they mean or say they were the listing leader in 1984, tell prospective clients that they are “honest”, ” have integrity” and “will go the extra mile” (does this need to be said?) The obituaries are usually more interesting and if you want a real giggle read the Wedding announcements in the Sunday New York Times.
Rhonda – I here you. At one of our local bigger real estate companies almost all of the bios are the same and they really advertise the company and not the agent. The general public doesn’t get that real estate companies don’t buy or sell property, the agents do.