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It would come as no shocked to most brokers that actual property actuality TV doesn’t precisely mirror the total actuality of the true property trade and the everyday agent working in it, panelists mentioned throughout a session at Inman Join Las Vegas on Thursday.
“Reality is a misnomer,” Ernie Carswell of Douglas Elliman instructed the viewers. “This is entertainment.”
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Ernie Carswell | Douglas Elliman
Carswell is a star of the truth collection Kendra Sells Hollywood. He was joined on the Inman Join stage by Ben Belack of The Company, who stars in Shopping for Beverly Hills, and moderator Katie Kossev of Facet.
“How do we inform the public better on that?” Kossev requested the 2 actuality stars.
“I think it starts with not having a pack mentality when it comes to marketing,” Belack mentioned. He lamented the apply of brokers selling their gross sales figures and accolades throughout social media and thru print advertising and marketing, saying that he made a significant shift in recent times to focus extra on the buyer as a substitute of selling himself.
“We make our marketing collateral more consumer-centric,” Belack mentioned. “I want it to be less about me and more about the consumer being the hero.”
Kossev admitted that as a result of her life is already so entrenched in all issues actual property, she doesn’t watch actual property actuality TV exhibits. However she shared the suspicion that, in contrast to Carswell and Belack, who each appeared to be so clearly skilled and critical about their enterprise, many brokers who’re featured on actual property actuality TV aren’t one hundred pc skilled.
Ben Belack | The Company
“To be honest, I think for the agents who have been headliners on the show for a number of years, it has certainly reinforced their business,” Carswell mentioned.
“However, the agents that it attracts have this idea that ‘This is so easy, we just have to be a fashion plate …’” Carswell continued. “That is not at all how it is in Beverly Hills. It is hard work, but we love it.”
“What other job can you have in the national marketplace where there’s no ceiling on your income?” he requested.
Sadly, actuality exhibits flip the trade into one thing that’s all about “fast cars and high heels,” Carswell added.
“That really disappoints me because it attracts the wrong element.”
For Belack, getting on a actuality TV present was one thing he noticed as a method to draw extra eyes to his enterprise. When he noticed prime earners like Carswell and The Company CEO Mauricio Umansky on actuality exhibits, he figured if he did the identical, it might give his enterprise a lift as a relative unknown in a market that he didn’t develop up in.
“I would argue that people hire who they know,” Belack mentioned. “So I made my singular focus to being known as much as I could.”
“I want people to constantly affiliate in their mind, there’s Ben Belack — real estate.”
Katie Kossev | Facet
With that fame, sadly, superstar brokers may also appeal to undesirable consideration as nicely, Carswell added.
“It is a mixed bag,” he mentioned. “We get some real crazy people that come calling … But there are real people out there who get attracted to agents who seem to represent professionalism on the shows … But it gets edited out a lot.”
Carswell and Belack each lamented that usually probably the most critical parts of the enterprise don’t make it to the ultimate episodes viewers watch on TV.
“What’s truly professional and low key — on the cutting floor,” Carswell mentioned.
As a substitute, producers love to spotlight the interpersonal drama, like huge breakups, he added.
However brokers who wish to capitalize on visibility via video don’t must land an element on a significant actuality present, Belack added.
“I think that the algorithms in general, where everyone is turning, everyone is discovering brands on YouTube; they really like hyper-local,” he mentioned.
“So if you become the mayor of your beach, you’re going to be hard to beat. And it’s so cheap to push your video as an ad into someone’s feed that’s located in your net.”
It doesn’t matter if there’s already an enormous No. 1 agent positioned in your market, Carswell urged, as a result of folks prefer to see recent faces. However in closing, he echoed Belack’s sentiment that brokers ought to flip their advertising and marketing towards the consumer, as a substitute of boasting about their very own achievements.
“I really like what Ben’s saying in that we should focus on the client,” Carswell mentioned.
