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Real Estate: Punk Rock Style

Joey Ramone would have made millions selling real estate!


It’s time to put some anti-establishment spirit into your real estate business. F@%K tradition and standout.

Throughout punk rock history, technical accessibility and a DIY spirit have been prized. In the early days of punk rock, this ethic stood in marked contrast to what those in the scene regarded as the ostentatious musical effects and technological demands of many mainstream rock bands.

You don’t need to read every book on real estate to be an All-Star Agent. Develop your own style and stand out from the crowd. Embrace your inner entrepreneur and do-it-yourself. Design your own logos, craft your own brand of service, and create a unique voice on your blog.

The Ramones stuck to what they knew and tried to perfect it. Many of their songs sound similar in beat and rhythm, but that’s their brand and it’s why they rawk! You can’t be all things to every client. Stick to what you know and perfect it.

Develop a cult following by providing a style of service that has people talking around town. Clients should want to work with you because you rock! You can only rock if you are different, otherwise you’re just like somebody else – go against the mainstream grain.

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I know one agent who charges $395 for a client to get into the car before touring properties. That’s punk! What is the punkest thing you’ve done to go against the real estate grain?

Hey Ho! Let’s Go!

Written By

Chaotic Good adventurer on a quest to optimize the lives of others. Husband & Father to Wolverines. Founder of RETSO + Managing Director at Path & Post.

12 Comments

12 Comments

  1. Benn Rosales

    July 19, 2008 at 11:04 am

    haha I love it. a post a week ago had some concerned about the word F*(k and this is exactly the message that flys over their head. It is a scary proposition to stand out, and some stand in the corner on purpose afraid of what the crowd may think- f*&k the crowd, rawk on.

  2. Dale Chumbley

    July 19, 2008 at 11:42 am

    Brad,

    You just blew my perception of you! I even jumped into your blog to investigate further… Social D? Nice! Great post here, got me thinking and that is a good thing. ;?) Look forward to hanging sometime and talking old days… You, Mariana & I could have a blast. https://www.flickr.com/photos/dalechumbley/2155810918/

    Punks not dead!

    Dale

  3. Brad Nix

    July 19, 2008 at 12:36 pm

    @Dale your comments made me think of a classic Descendants tune, which is coincidentally named ‘Suburban Home’:

    I want to be stereotyped
    I want to be classified
    I want to be a clone
    I want a suburban home

    Thanks for calling yourself out as a punk rocker. I look forward to catching up with you and Mariana one day – maybe in a mosh pit!

  4. Vicki Moore

    July 19, 2008 at 12:44 pm

    I think my ideas are creative but do they rawk? I don’t think so. Time for some re-evaluation. Hmmm.

  5. Matt Wilkins

    July 19, 2008 at 2:11 pm

    Brad, I htink you have said what many of us are thinking. I think part of being successful in this business is being yourself and using that to your advantage. I see too many agent unhappy because they are trying to “follow the leader” or believe that they won’t succeed unless they follow a certain system.

  6. Eric Blackwell

    July 20, 2008 at 4:17 am

    @Matt- I agree with your point entirely. I think you have to HAVE a system,,,without the discipline to follow your plan you will get no where…but it needs to be YOUR system…I agree that ,many people think that if that plan does not come from ACME, then you are toast. The closer what you do is to the true you, the more you succeed IMO

  7. Glenn fm Naples

    July 20, 2008 at 5:51 am

    Matt – great chefs create their own recipes based upon a basic recipe – adding a little of this and little of that or taking a little something from another recipe. So take something or add something to existing recipe and create your own recipe for success. And do think outside the box.

  8. Mark Eckenrode

    July 20, 2008 at 10:27 am

    @brad – my man, we need to talk. growing up in OC, i grew up punk… high school with Social D, classmate drummed for Suicidal Tendencies, Offspring & No Doubt played our backyard parties.

    anyway, back to punk, marketing, and real estate… boring marketing never gets noticed. one of my fav examples of a Punk Agent was a fella that always wore a kilt… yeah, he was all Rob Roy styled. He wasn’t about the Tahoe and a tie.

    one way to break away from the monochrome realtor mold is to look outside the industry… what’s working elsewhere? adopt and adapt that, not what some other agent is doing because his broker did it years before and his broker years before that.

    in the words of Minor Threat: “out of step with the world”

    and a fav punk business moment of mine… consult Fortune companies while sporting a tattoo that runs down my arm and onto my hand…. and they LOVED it 😉

  9. Paula Henry

    July 20, 2008 at 6:57 pm

    I am feeling a bit old here 🙁 My kids did Punk – I know Offspring and No Doubt – but there is no doubt, I am a generation behind.

    Just driving home from my daughters, I was thinking about a post for here, In theory, it was about the same idea – what do we do to differentiate ourselves today – to stand out from the crowd.

    Like Vicki – I don’t rawk either – I’m in the process of totally re-evaluating, thinking about a new broker and disbanding my team. I do agree, we do need systems, while being creative.

  10. David Jones

    July 21, 2008 at 3:57 pm

    I hate being a “joiner”, but I’ve got to agree with you.

    A lot of being punk was not being afraid to do things your way and not listening to anyone that said you were wrong. Punk railed against the “establishment” and authoritarian dogma.

    Parts of the punk mentality will still work, but you have to be smarter than we (thought we) were back then. 30 years on the purple hair and Doc Marten’s may be gone, but that just makes it easier to slip inside the front door and do a Huntington Beach Strut around people’s preconceived notions of “how things work”.

    We don’t sell real estate (we create technology for mortgage and real estate professionals), but we get told on a daily basis that we just can’t change the way things have always been, or do what we know is right.

    F@%K Off indeed.

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