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You know you’ve seen them…

A sign that proclaims, “This home is for sale by a TOP PRODUCER!”

[FYI -  trumpets and the voice of angels typically accompany every reading of these signs.]

Recently, while traveling home from the Inman Connect conference in San Francisco, I received a text message from a buyer client that contained a picture of a “TOP PRODUCER” sign with the following question, “What does top producer mean?!”

After laughing out loud and garnering some sideways glances from my fellow travelers, I responded to my client’s inquiry about the sign and the home it was advertising for sale.

Isn’t that telling, though?

The real estate consumer does not know what, “Top Producer” is supposed to mean. Yet, within the real estate industry, we kinda, sorta know what it means. Although “Top” is a sliding scale and “Producer” could simply indicate the production of something that is less than useful.

So What Does Top Producer Mean?

To the buyer or seller of real estate the phrase, “Top Producer” could not matter less. It is an industry specific term whose meaning is as elusive as DB Cooper. In all seriousness, this sign is the sign of a newer agent or an agent that has recently switched to a new brokerage and is awaiting their new signs to be delivered.

So why would someone even think to use a sign that says, “Top Producer?” Well, it does two things, apparently:

1. Assuages the agent’s ego;
2. Makes the consumer believe the agent produces a lot of something.

Yes, I am being sardonic here. The use of the term “Top Producer” in real estate has been overused, over-hyped and abused in the real estate industry. The only time I can imagine a real estate client being concerned about the label “Top Producer” being applied to their agent is when it comes to selling or buying the client’s property. The phrase means absolutely nothing without results to back up the claim. Even then, the phrase is useless, because the results of the agent will speak for themselves, to the client.

This phrase is further degraded when it is used by new agents. Newer agents, by default, could not be Top Producers. If they were Top Producers, right out of the gate, why didn’t they pop for signage when they became an agent?

What’s the Point?

[deep breath]

My beloved real estate industry has done a hideous job, over the last thirty years according to Harris Polls, in addressing the needs of the real estate client. Bandying around a phrase such as, “Top Producer,” only solidifies the image that we are concerned about our image first and clients second.

It may be a small thing, but enough pebbles do make a mountain. Right now, the real estate industry is too busy staring at our own little pebbles and not concerned enough about the needs of the real estate client.

To my client that sparked this rant, thank you for the inspiration.

Follow up: Carole O’Dell reminded me of this video on YouTube. Thank you, Carole!

httpv://youtu.be/r-77ec8oCls