There are a lot of real estate agents.  The NAR reports over 1.2 million members, and the Atlanta area alone has more than 40,000.  It is hard to NOT know a real estate agent.  Regardless of where I go and who I talk with, they know an agent.  Today at the cell phone store, the clerk helping me has an agent for a Mother-in-Law.  There are three in my small neighborhood.  There are at least two at my son’s pre-school.

The fact is that is is hard to turn around without bumping into one of us.

And there are agents that make it even worse.  Mention on Twitter that you are thinking of buying or selling a home and all of sudden you are getting creamed with direct messages and reply tweets… and they aren’t even just local… agents from all over the country will try to refer you to someone they “know” near you.

I’m not shocked that much of the public is annoyed, at best, by our omni-presence.

And to make matters worse, the vast majority of agents are interchangeable.  The same weak “strategies” are touted as innovation.  The same ads with the same taglines.  The same property descriptions.  The same “slide show with funeral music” virtual tours.

How many times have you seen…

• #1 for Service.
• Integrity has found a home!
• You’re neighborhood expert… everywhere in Atlanta.
• Show & Sell
• To see it is to LOVE it!
• Good Bones…

I’m in the industry, and I know scores of agents that are different… and I’m still turned off by the stereotypes I see.  I can fully understand why consumers are turned off.

“Prices are going up, up, up… It’s a GREAT time to buy!” the NAR exclaims.

“Prices are coming down, there are deals… It’s a GREAT time to buy!” says the NAR.

Yeah, that makes us trustworthy advisors…  NOT.

But I do want to say something.  I want consumers to know something.  And this is important…

There are some GREAT agents out there!

There are agents that look for new technologies to help their buyers and their sellers.  There are agents that are just as upset by the dregs of our industry as you are!

We strive to be exceptional!

Some of us are struggling.  This IS a tough market.  Listings take more work to sell.  Buyers want to see more properties.  Instead of cutting corners and hoping, we are doing more.  We are pushing beyond what the “normal” agent does.

• Better websites… when most agents don’t even produce a website for their listings… even though at least 85% of buyers start their search on the web.
• Unique Signage… instead of the boring, easy to ignore sign just like the one up the street.
• Property Video… because buyers want to know what it is like to be in the home… and video is better at that than still pictures… and a slide show with crappy music isn’t going to cut it.
• Score of Pictures… because buyers say they want more pictures… and 8 or 12 or 16 from the MLS isn’t fulfilling that need.
• Interactive Virtual Tours… because consumers want to be engaged.  They want to participate, not just spectate.

In every aspect of the business, there is a way to push beyond what most are doing.  Some of us are pushing those boundries.