Last Wednesday, Jeff Turner, three of his sons and I were having lunch at Jerry’s Deli in Marina Del Rey, CA. Jeff’s boys were slurping down multiple chocolate milks and that meant multiple trips to the Men’s Room. If not for that, this story could not have been written.

On his third trip to the Men’s Room Jeff noticed a framed advertisement hung on the wall just outside the door. It didn’t register on his radar screen during his first two trips. Inside the frame were 6 listing flyers for nearby homes from a local REALTOR® team.

Each flyer was an 8 by 11 sheet, so you had to be within 2 or 3 feet from the page to read it. It was hung on a wall that was not visible until you were standing just outside the Men’s Room, an area visibly separated from the restaurant. If you didn’t need to use the rest room there was no earthly reason to go there.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but when I need to use the rest room, my mind is focused on my mission. Im not likely to be distracted by anything, much less a REALTOR®’s ad. And when I’m leaving the rest room, I’m not likely to want to jerk my head 90 degrees left to look at a flyer, throw my neck out of joint and require a trip to my chiropractor.

Jeff and I could not let it rest. We called the manager over.

“Do people have to pay to put up ads like that one?” I asked him, pointing to the REALTOR®’s ad.

“Oh yes,” he said. “Its all handled by the agency that prints our menus.”

“Do you know how much?” I asked.

“No, I dont,” he replied. “But its probably not cheap.”

Whether its cheap or not, the question for me is this: Why do REALTORS® (or anyone else, for that matter) spend money on frivolous, ill-conceived, ineffective advertising gimmicks that don’t work?

Is it just ego? After all, Jerry Buss (the Lakers owner) sometimes shows up at that restaurant usually wearing jeans and a Laker Girl.

Readers, please help me understand why so many people continue to spend money senselessly while ignoring solid marketing programs that get good results over time.

Why? Why?

I know you know this, but we’re busy people. Sometimes we need a little reminder.

This is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. You probably have a website and/or blog. Do you see where I’m going with this?

Making a Real Estate Show is one of the easiest things in the world. It’s probably second nature to you by now.

You could use the power of your online presence to help raise awareness of this and any other cause that is close to your heart. It costs nothing and although this shouldn’t be part of our motivation, it is also a great way to show your clients that you care.

This Show features members of the online real estate network ActiveRain. In a small but very visible gesture, many of the network members are turning their profile pictures pink. It’s a small thing, but when you get a lot of people acting together, it doesn’t take much individual effort to make an impact.

[realestateshows]218657[/realestateshows]

Thank you ActiveRain and Real Estate Shows!

<b> BOLD FOR EMPHASIS </b>

If you didn’t know before, you will know now, those basic HTML tags before and after the headline above are what make the headline appear <b>bold</b>, or <i>italic</i> or <u>underlined</>. When put in the right place, they don’t show up in the text, as they do here. They merely tell the browser how to display the text inside the tags.

You can add now add these tags to your property descriptions at Real Estate Shows and they will properly display in your Show Flyers. The “BRAND NEW CUSTOM HOME!” headline shown on the right is typed in the property description like this: <b>BRAND NEW CUSTOM HOME!<b>, but it simply displays bolded.

You can even put links inside the property descriptions. To put a link in your property description, use this text, replacing URL with your link and Text To Be Displayed with what you want the link to be called. <a href=”URL” target=”_blank”>Text To Be Displayed</a>

So, this link, HTML LINKS, would be written: <a href=”http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_links.asp” target=”_blank”>HTML LINKS</a>.

Here is a live example of using html tags in your property descriptions.

Here’s an excerpt from a well done post by Joel Burslem:

PRICE REDUCED! SELLERS MOTIVATED! MAKE OFFER! Blah, blah blah . . .Here is the real scoop. . . . . . . . . It seems I can’t sell this house in the hood . . . I thought it was just misunderstood . . . agents were showing, sellers were glowing a contract seem nearly in site. But to no avail, no matter how much I hail . . . PLEASE BUY THIS HOUSE IN THE HOOD

Why 3241 Gatlin Drive is not Selling | Future of Real Estate Marketing

This is definitely worth a read!

The good people over at MyTechOpinion.com, have scooped a new high speed modem that is launching today.

Are you a mobile real estate agent? If so, you know that mobile broadband technology has seen some major improvements over the last few years. Well, tomorrow (October 5th) you will see another step forward in mobile computing technology as Verizon introduces their new compact external broadband modem.

Read the rest: Technology for Real Estate