Agents tell me they have been hearing this advice more and more often: "You shouldn't talk about yourself on your web site." One agent I know is paying an Internet consultant a healthy monthly fee for guidance. The consultant's advice? Strip your web site of everything personal.

Whoa. Hold on. Where did this advice come from? Based upon everything I know, and everything I have seen, this is totally wrong, wrong, wrong.

Have we undergone some massive cultural shift when I wasn't looking? I thought people wanted to know who they're doing business with. I thought the old sales axiom: "People buy from people they like," was immutable. All of a sudden people buy from people they don't know anything about? My head is spinning.

There's a famous old business ad that epitomizes this. You might remember it. An extremely grumpy executive, sitting in an old-style office chair, hands clasped, stares at you intently from the ad. The caption intones: "I don't know who you are. I don't know who your company is. I don't know what you stand for. Now, what was it that you wanted to sell me?"

People seek out business people they know and trust -- even hard-nosed, grumpy executives want to know who they are doing business with. Don't you? This is the basis for the extensive practice of personal marketing in real estate. Is personal marketing now obsolete too?

Freddie Mac, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp, commissioned an extensive study on home ownership issues a while back. Senior economist Donald S. Bradley said at the time, "The way people saw it, they had to deal with individuals who they didn't trust too much, like real estate agents, bankers and lenders… Time and time again, they said, 'All I want to do is deal with someone I trust.'"

Who wants to rely on someone they know nothing about? Sounds like a great way to get taken advantage of. What's remarkable is that there is even any doubt about this.

Maybe using your Web site to talk about your children, your spouse, your hobbies and your history is a bit too much. Then again, maybe not. Picture yourself in the conference room of a Fortune 500 company at a meeting with a high-level exec, trying to sell widgets by the millions. Maybe in the informal moments after the meeting breaks up, you happen to mention kids. Guess what -- you both have kids. Not only that, you find out you both have daughters who take horseback riding lessons at the same school. Don't you think this personal connection might help a great deal?

Yes, a full-screen shot of you embracing your spouse on the first page of your Web site is probably a bit much, but on the other hand, I've seen stuff like this work, if done right. You just have to use discretion. Would you walk into a prospect's office and, first thing, pull out a picture of your family? Probably not. So why do that on your Web site? But that doesn't mean you should strip your web site of personality and create an impersonal, dry, corporate-style Web site, either.

Just use your common sense. Your Web site should be totally packed with lots of tools and information just for your visitors. That goes without saying, but you can put your personality into it, too.

Put your personality into your web site

How do you put your personality into your web site? You can, and it works. When you do a listings presentation, are you a robot? If you are like most sales people, you look for a common ground between yourself and your prospect. You show them why they should work with you instead of your competitors -- and you also start a relationship. Successful real estate agents are great at this. Just do the same thing with your web site.

Authoritative speech such as the following can sound convincing: "Don't talk about yourself on your web site. People don't want to hear about you. They only want to know what you will do for them." This is true if you are a bore and only talk about yourself, or talk about yourself too much. Don't do that -- in person, or on your web site. But that doesn't mean you and your web site need to become robots without personality. Whoever came up with this bit of advice needs to talk to more well-rounded people.

How many agents have you heard of that stripped their web site of everything personal, and reported an increased response because of it? I haven't heard of one. I do have many, many letters from agents testifying that personal marketing -- putting personality into their web site and all their communications -- works.

Cindi Butkus has had her web site for less than a year, and it has transformed her career in real estate. She sold as much in the first half of 2000 as she did in all of 1999. Approximately 80% of her business now comes from her web site. Butkus says, "I ask people how and why they chose me over the rest of the agents in town and they all say 'We loved your web site and the way you talked about yourself. Before we met you we felt like we already knew you.'"

Gail Richey reports, "In July, I was called on the telephone by a prospective buyer currently living in Northern California. He said he and his wife were relocating to our area. They had seen our web site -- with our pictures -- and they thought they could relate to us and they hoped we could relate to them! …the last week of August they closed on their new $900,000 home."

A visitor to Anne Neer's Web site, wrote, "Dear Ms. Neer: First, I would like to thank you for your information and well-thought-out web site. Thank you for all the information you have provided. I have chosen to write to you because of all the lovely letters that your clients have written you as well the personal information you provided on your web site. Let me introduce myself..."

The e-mail writer went on to give Anne a full description of herself, her spouse, where they wanted to move to, why, and the important issues that needed to be resolved to make their move successful, along with a day-time phone number and a mailing address.

Would this person have sent an e-mail like this to someone with an impersonal, robotic web site? Sheryl Lowe was sought out by a client because they were both alumni of the same school. Says Lowe, ""I received an e-mail from London from a buyer because he had read on my Web site that I was a Univ. of Michigan grad, and so was he! This resulted in a $1.5 million sale 6 months later!"

Maybe some people like to interact only with impersonal robots, but I bet that your home buying and selling prospects do not prefer computers to people. Don't listen to anyone who tells you to get more impersonal on your Web site. Use your common sense. People buy from people they like. It was true and is true and always will be true. The Web hasn't changed that. People who say otherwise are probably the same people who said the Internet would eliminate real estate agents.

The June 2000 REALTOR Magazine featured several "web wonders". Here's what the magazine's panel of reviewers said about Judy McCutchin's web site: "The site expresses her personality, which is an important way to connect with anonymous cyber visitors."

Judy uses a caricature of a big dog all over her web site, her picture appears on every page, and she even has a page entitled "About Judy". Horrors! (Reportedly McCutchin's Web site earned $12.8 million in sales last year.)

Michael Russer of "Mr. Internet" fame and author of the N.A.R.'s e-PRO course, reveals "3 must-dos to create an online strategy." Must-do #3 is: "Establish a real human connection. You need to stand out by supplementing your site with personality."

People buy from people they like = personal marketing.

The web is just a new medium of communication in which to market your listings - and yourself. It goes without saying that your personal web site should be the cornerstone of your online personal marketing.

Let other agents listen to those "experts" who think that people don't buy from people they like, and let them create the dry, impersonal web sites. It's less competition for you.

Published: September 28, 2000

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