My Name Is Liz Penner. I’m a Realtor. And I’m No Fun.
In this blog I am going to tell you why I’m no fun, why that matters, and why you might actually want that in a realtor.
I recently rewrote my website. My old website copy was written after I completed my BBA in leadership, and if you study leadership at the undergraduate level, you hear a lot about being warm, relatable, approachable, and servant-minded.
So that’s how I described myself. Warm. Affable. Easy-going. Fun to work with. There was only one problem: it wasn’t really me. Nevertheless, that website persisted for years despite being terribly written, painfully mundane, and aggressively average. Worse, it created an expectation that didn’t quite match reality.
People would read it, meet me, and discover that the person described online wasn’t exactly the person sitting across the table. It was the written equivalent of an outdated profile photo.
You know the one……..
Someone has a photo online where they look ten years younger, twenty pounds lighter, and suspiciously well lit. Then you make plans to meet them at a coffee shop and a completely different person shows up.
Now, I’m not going to lie: you may find one of those photos on my website too. In my defence, I asked AI to edit my eight-year-old photo to make me 15% better looking. So if you do plan to meet me at a coffee shop, just look at the website photo, imagine what I’d look like eight years older and 15% uglier, and you’ll find me.
But I digress. The bigger problem was that my website claimed I was going to create this wonderfully warm, personal, fun real estate experience.
And here is the reality: I am managing your life savings, and I am not particularly interested in being fun. I’m interested in being efficient, accurate, consistent, prepared, and reliable.
We are not going to a hockey game together, and we are unlikely to giggle under the blankets together over a new movie.
You can absolutely do those things on your own. In fact, while I’m on the job, I’ll be so prepared that you’ll have spare time to do the things you enjoy.
And while you live your best life, I will be preparing for what I do best: produce results.
Before I walk through your door, I will spend ten hours studying your property, your neighbourhood, competing listings, historical sales, zoning, development activity, market conditions, and anything else that could affect how your home should be positioned.
Once your property is listed, I will spend another five to ten hours a week making sure it remains competitive. I’ll look at the homes competing against yours. I’ll go through them, looking at their roofs, gutters, windows, layouts, finishings, mechanical systems, positioning, and anything else that might help me understand where your home has an advantage—or where we have a problem to solve.
When buyers come through your home, I may talk to them about building systems, efficiency, construction, building codes, neighbourhood concept plans, future development, resale implications, and the broader market.
And if that isn’t enough, I may pull out a financial pro forma and explain, with actual numbers, why your property makes sense. Then I’ll go home and write. I’ll create custom website content and blogs about your property.
- Not generic copy, but an explanation of what makes your home matter.
- Why someone might want to live there.
- What kind of life they could build there.
- What makes the neighbourhood interesting.
- What makes the property different.
I will communicate those things in a way that feels intelligent, specific, and human. I’ll research demographics. I’ll look at age trends, migration, housing preferences, technology, construction trends, development patterns, and changes in the way people live. Then I’ll ask how those things intersect with your particular property and its future resale value.
And when I’m not doing that, there’s a fairly good chance I’m reading about real estate, writing about real estate, teaching real estate, writing a textbook about real estate, or standing in front of a room full of builders explaining some unusually specific corner of the industry.
All of this is fun to me. I recognize that, to the average person, it probably sounds terrible. Real estate can be boring. It is technical, complicated, detailed, bureaucratic, financial, legal, and nuanced. It is serious business.
And right now, the market calls for seriousness. It calls for careful decisions. It calls for people who are willing to move beyond hype, personality, clever slogans, and the endless pressure to make everything entertaining.
Because when you sell a home, we are not talking about something trivial. We are talking about the largest asset you own. The stakes of your choices are pretty high. Years of equity are on the line. This decision affects your retirement plans, future purchases, and family security. I take that responsibility incredibly seriously. And given the choice, I would rather be dedicated than fun.
So no, when you hire me, I don’t promise you a good time. What I can offer you is something that matters more.
Certainty.
Certainty that I have done everything reasonably possible to position your property properly.
Assurance.
Assurance that the advice I give you is based on research, evidence, experience, and honest analysis.
Confidence.
Confidence that someone is paying attention to the details when the details matter.
Understanding.
The knowledge that I understand the weight of the decision you have trusted me to help you make.
That is the experience I want my website to promise. Because this version actually sounds like me.
So if you happen to want a long conversation about valuation metrics, a talk about ad copy or drinks while we chat about demographics, then call me. I don’t promise a good time, but I can promise an informative one.