Anna Duncan for sale sign on a building on de Maisonneuve Blvd.
I find it funny how much real estate advertising is reduced to showing the faces of the realtor, as if that had any bearing on the property for sale.
Look at a newspaper classified section, and that’s where you see all the headshots of pretty women – not the personals or the employment ads, but real estate.
Still, this window poster from Londono Group’s Anna Duncan caught my eye a little while back. Sure enough, she’s a former fitness trainer. Now she’s being badass on For Sale signs.
I’m not sure if that makes it more or less likely that I would buy a condo from her.
Unfortunately pretty always outweighs knowledge. I have seen this in action at trade shows I have presented my products for sale. You could have the dumbest bag of hammers standing in the booth, who has zero knowledge of what the product does and morons will fall for it every time. The problem with us, men, is that we think of one thing. Admit it, we do. We always think there is an outside chance that the pretty girl will sleep with us if we smile back and even let go of a few bucks in the process. With the lines of communication open, we all live with the fantasy that we now have an in with the pretty girl. It will of course never happen unless you are filthy rich, then you could be the ugliest pig in the pen, but your money will buy the stupidest, prettiest thing around. Look around, ugly fat rich men with pretty young stupid girls.
Very Tacky….. incredibly silly advert… wow. I was on their real estate website and I am sure the people who work there are nice and everything but that image is so cheesy and funny. HAHA hilarious.
OMG…this really made me laugh. Thanks for the chuckle this morning feller.
She certainly doesn’t look very “accessable” in that pose…
Yes, she looks as if she’s ready to kick your ass if you don’t buy this condo.
Well, I know some guys who would not mind having their arses picked, even by a woman…
Londono herself got some kinda tv show largely on the virgue of her goofy hairstyle, so I think they’re trying to cultivate some eye grabbing stuff.
Funny, I JUST saw a similar one, for a different female agent with, I think, a different firm. I couldn’t believe it. It’s moronic to think that anyone would chose an agent on that basis. But as Vahan notes, it clearly works. And not just for male clients, I suspect.
Ha ha. I pass that sign almost everyday and am relieved to know that I’m not the only one who thinks “attitude” when I see this sign. My 4 year old asked me yesterday why that “scary lady” (his words, not mine) was in the window.
In her defence though, it’s not just the women. I know of a local guy whose last name is Bond. One of his ads features him in a dinner jacket, and yes, he’s actually holding a gun. What that has to do with real estate, I don’t know.
But yes, the Saturday Gazette features lots of pics of attractive women who are obviously investing a lot of money in clothes and hair products.
She scares me.
Like travel agents, real estate agents have become obsolete. You are basically paying someone a comission to use the internet in your place.
Real estate agent is a waste of time, get yourself an attorney. Much cheaper since they work by the hour ;-).
Just so you buy in Villeray! (… or just south of the market, in western Petite-Patrie).
Although she is certainly an attractive woman, she looks like a Dom. “You WILL buy this condo!” barked Ilse the She-Wolf of real-estate speculation… Princess, she may not be very accessible, but may well inflict a handicap with her steel-toed stilleto boots.
How is this different from choosing a TV news anchor?
Many of the Londono Group signs are like that. I’ve heard Tatiana on radio & TV before – never heard someone so self-absorbed before.
As I’ve said before Londono Group boss Tatiana Londono is the world’s most obnoxious real estate agent. What does that get her? First she gets her television show seen nationally(courtesy of Debbie Travis), now she’s on weekly with Tommy Schnurmacher on CJAD radio. At least in local Montreal media, sometimes talent is secondary. At least real estate agent Mary Lamey(Mary in the postings on this thread) left the Londono Group. The worst television program I’ve seen in my whole life, was the locally produced program ‘Lifestyles’ hosted by Ann Shatilla about a dozen years ago. That show got Ann a television on-air job in Los Angeles. Now she covers entertainment(including sometimes critiqueing) for Associated Press Television in Los Angeles. I also remember Ann as ‘supposely’ a hard news reporter for several years on CFCF News. Just because it’s local Montreal television talent, doesn’t mean it’s any good(Ann Shatilla now also heard on CJAD radio talking daily hollywood gossip from LA, & hosting a weekly syndicated Hollywood Trend Report program).
lol that’s my teacher’s girlfriend. I assure you she does not look as scary in real life.
Omi-San and Homer, believe me when I tell you that a good real-estate agent will save you money when you’re buying and get you more money when you’re selling. Just don’t choose your agent by the size of her . . . hair!
As for goofy marketing angles, have any of you seen the agent in the 10-gallon Stetson known to one and all as cowboyd? It’s kinda catchy.
P.S. There’s no photo on my sign.
http://www.marylamey.blogspot.com
BTW – The Gazette only lets agents run their photos, not pictures of the houses. La Presse actually charges more if you want to run your photo but lets you run a picture of the property for cheap.
Correction: The gazette allows you to post a photo of a home, many of these agents just think that their looks sell.
Correction: Many of these agents post photos from the dinosaur years
Ah, yes. Real-Estate agents. Always at the forefront to make sure houses remain unaffordable for most people.
And before you say that they maximize the sellers’ equity value, I’ll just point out how well that little game worked out in the USA…
(OTOH, I guess that here, we’re pretty impervious to their oxdung, since here is the only place in North-America where house prices haven’t crashed)…
I used to do a lot of newspaper display advertising work, design, sales, etc.
Real estate was a big money-maker for my paper, and all the agents, sometime in the early 90s, I think, got on the headshot-in-ad band wagon. Some of them looked pretty creepy, which always livened things up in the ad dept.
I do think it works for the simple reason that a human face, no matter what flavor, makes the eye retard its optical scan of a crowded page just slightly and in theory, every split second counts.
For the same reason magazine covers with faces usually sell better, esp. if the face has at least 2 inches between the eyes (honest) and best of all, if it’s Princess Diana.
Great ad and if it is getting that much attention, then the ad is doing its job.
I know her and she is a dedicated and hard working girl, will go the extra mile for all her clients and almost always smiling.