Fire your agent if they ever use the phrase "Unique Selling Proposition"

Like a lot of real estate agents, I get Inman News articles delivered to my inbox each day. More often than not, I dismiss them because of their industry-cheerleading feel. Inman knows who their audience is and are happy to pander to it.

But Realtors don’t deserve pandering, they deserve a swift kick in the head.

Since taking on HousingStorm.com, I am a more conscious of any articles about real estate technology. That’s perhaps why I even bothered reading this article.

Boy was I disappointed that I did.

From Inman News Video: the real estate game-changer

When I wrote “Waging War on Real Estate’s Discounters,” the main goal of the book was to help agents craft a “unique selling proposition” (USP) that distinguishes their services from their competitors and thereby earn a full commission. To achieve this goal, agents must be able to demonstrate how their USP helps sellers achieve maximum exposure to the marketplace that results in the seller obtaining the highest possible price in the shortest amount of time.

While there are plenty of ways to create a USP, some startling new statistics indicate there is a tremendous opportunity in a surprisingly obvious place: video. According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), only 1 percent of the agents are using video to market their listings, yet 73 percent of all sellers would list with an agent who uses video to market their property.

In other words, using video as part of your USP gives you an edge over 99 percent of your competition. If you want to convert more listings into signed business in 2010, video is one tool that shouldn’t be overlooked.

…

At NAR’s annual conference and expo last month, Jerry Rossi’s session, “The Hook of E-Motion,” was packed with useful tips about how to implement video in your business. Some highlights:

1. Emotion, not features, sell houses
The best way to tap into emotional buying is to use video. To engage potential buyers in your video, Rossi suggests using the “look, hook and then cook” model.

For example, if you are marketing a beach property, make a video called “Escape to the Beach.” Your video should be 60 to 90 seconds in length. Instead of walking through the house saying, “This is the kitchen, this is the living room, this is the view,” create an image that grabs their attention.

Rossi suggested taking a picture of your feet in flip-flops propped up on a beach chair overlooking at the waves lapping at the shore. Jiggle the ice in your drink and say, “Ahhh — home at last.”

The article gets worse from there. But there was one bright spot: the skewering comments that came at the end. Here is part of the first one…

…I agree with your suggestion that video is the way to go with listings. But I absolutely disagree with your suggestions for video. I’m a professional videographer, but I’m with a brokerage doing their video tours and their internet marketing. It is as if whomever suggested what to do with videography was pulled out of thin air. What are they thinking?

1. Emotion at the level of interest of watching a video and wanting to see the interior DOES NOT sell listings. In fact, I’d bet that it would turn off a potential buyer who is sick of seeing crappy, shaky video on YouTube. What a nice change to see nice, steady shots of a home. If this is a selling tool, it should be professional. Why would you suggest less than amateur videography? Would you suggest that the photographs agents take be any less than the best they can do? Emotions sell homes after you’ve created interest.

2. Your article is about videography being a listing tool. What about the seller? How happy is your seller going to be with your silly antics and corny shots of a the agent in flip flops walking down the beach?…

And this is where the rubber meets the road. You have a real estate “professional” trying to convince a seller that their crappy youtube video will result in them getting a higher price and, therefore, justifying their commission. Then, you have an actual professional calling the whole idea nonsense.

This is the central problem with the real estate profession today: we rely on spin and snake-oil instead of expertise.

One can only hope that with the expansion of google, discount brokerages, and MLS transparency, the public will no longer fall for our bullshit.

We should be paid for our advice and expertise in helping a client navigate through their transaction. Good agents are worth their pay and then some.

One can only hope that, as the industry evolves, the few actual real estate experts will rise to the top and the rest will go back to selling shoes.