THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 10, 1995 TAG: 9506080332
SECTION: REAL ESTATE WEEKLY PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: ABOUT THE OUTER BANKS
SOURCE: Chris Kidder
LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines
You're a real estate agent. You move to the Outer Banks. You're hired by a small real estate company. Let's face it: Although you've owned property and vacationed here for years, your network of contacts is thin.
The Outer Banks Association of Realtors has 415 Realtor-members with an additional 100 non-member agents affiliated with Realtor companies. There are at least 100 more active agents who have no ties to the association. Almost every one of them was here before you.
How do you compete? How do you get listings, sell houses, earn commissions with more than 600 other real estate-minded folks trying to do exactly what you're doing?
If you're Wayne Strickland, an agent with Bodie Island Realty, you let the houses you list sell themselves. Yup, Strickland's houses talk. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, his houses are out there talking to folks Wayne would never get to meet. Drive by one of his listings and a sign tells you to tune your radio to 1610 on the AM dial. When you do, you get a 90-second sales pitch.
``Hello. Can you see me?'' asks a house in Martin's Point. ``Well, you could if you called Wayne Strickland,'' says the voice. The soundfront house, well off the road and down a curving, unpaved drive, is hidden from view by thick trees.
The Talking House goes on to give basic features of the unseen house; to comment on the fact that it's been well cared for. The sunsets are great, it says. Listeners are told the asking price and given a short sales pitch.
Martin's Point, a gated community where casual traffic is verboten, may seem like a strange place to use a sales tool like the Talking House. Not really, says Strickland. People already living or visiting in the neighborhood are a good source of referrals. The Talking House gives enough information to pique their interest.
But the ideal place for a Talking House is where there's a lot of traffic. And then, next to dressing in a chicken suit or waving fists full of dollars, there's probably no better way to get immediate response from passersby.
Strickland didn't invent talking houses. The credit for that goes to Realty Electronics in Fond du Lac, Wis. They used computer technology to create a portable, re-usable, no-moving-parts-to-break radio transmitter.
The transmitter is the size of a notebook computer, weighs 2 pounds, and plugs into a standard electrical outlet in the house. It's not very powerful. The range is 300 feet or less. Using the unit requires no FCC license; it doesn't interfere with any other radio or television transmission.
``We have sold more than 30,000 of the Talking House units,'' says Realty Electronics president Scott Matthews. ``One agent in San Antonio started with 10 and is now up to 100.'' Well, Texans always have gone about things in a big way. Here on the Outer Banks, Strickland has used his Talking House marketing on three houses since January. He's just added a fourth.
So far, none has sold, but the broadcasts have brought him business. A Talking House on the Kitty Hawk oceanfront ``has gotten an incredible number of calls,'' says Strickland.
He just closed last week on a sale resulting from one of those calls. The one sale more than paid for the Talking House program.
(Realty Electronics sells their product as a package: 7 Talking House broadcast units with five-year warranties, yard signs and a large supply of Talking House listing brochures cost $1400.)
``My listing wasn't the right house for the buyers but they called me because of the Talking House. I was able to show them another house that was just what they were looking for,'' he says. The Talking House clinched the listing of another house. It's brought him several other good leads on listings and sales. ``I'm real happy with it,'' Strickland says. ``It's tough to get established and this has really helped me stand out.''
In fact, Strickland is relying on more than mechanical gimmicks to earn his living. He backs up the Talking House with a notable sales package that includes a listing guarantee.
One of the most common complaints homeowners make about real estate agents is that agents don't earn their commissions.
Strickland says, ``I promise to provide you with excellent service.. . . If you feel I am not doing an excellent job in marketing your property, you may terminate the Listing/Marketing Agreement with 24 hours written notice.''
No arguments, no ifs, ands or buts, he says. ``I don't want unhappy customers. I'm too new and have too hard a time getting customers to have anyone going around complaining about me.''
So far, Strickland isn't getting any negative vibes. The Talking Houses are getting an enthusiastic response from buyers who like having their questions answered on the spot. Sellers see that it's ``one more thing that can help sell their house,'' he says. by CNB