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Personal Connection

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Paul George,

The Personal Connection

When Zillow launched, they said it would take the place of real estate agents. Now, with artificial intelligence, again it’s said we won’t need real estate agents.

What those entities don’t have is the personal connection.  I have built my business on the personal connections.  The majority of my clients have come from referrals, be it personal referrals or causal referrals.  My 33-year career has lasted because I started in the family grocery business running cash registers and being out on the floor talking to the public.  I watched my father in the stores everyday interacting with the customers and knowing they kept coming in not because we had lower prices, but because they wanted to see my Dad and talk about OSU Football or the Martins Ferry Purple Riders (his high school along the Ohio River). 

They came in because of the connection.

Businesses today are losing that connection.  Many realtors are becoming teams, machines where they buy leads from Zillow or other sources, assign the lead to fulfill a need (buy or sell a house) and then move on.  My favorite sports teams are losing me for similar reasons.  I’m an adamant Ohio State fan but they are losing me because I’m just a source of income for them.  With the transfer portal, bribing kids for NIL money, raising ticket prices, charging for just about anything that has a buckeye on it, I’ve just about had it because they lost that connection, it’s only about money.  I don’t know who the players are going to be from year to year, kids demanding money for the opportunity to showcase their talents has just broken my loyalty.  I graduated from OSU in 1984, my son is graduating from there soon but I’m pretty much spent. I will continue to go to games but not as much to see the game itself nor the tradition. I go to tailgate with Jack and Gina, Josh, and my other vendors who I have a personal connection with.

I lead The Paul George Real Estate Group.  The team consist of me, five other agents and one assistant.  When you call me to buy or sell a home, you get me.  I do not have buyer’s agents or listing specialists, it’s me.  When you hire me, you get me, not one of my team members. Yes, I could be much more efficient and sell more homes like many other seasoned agents by utilizing buyer’s agents but then I lose that personal connection. That is not in my DNA, I can’t just “hand off” a client. I think that connection is what’s missing in many things today. 

How do you have a personal connection with somebody you met from Zillow?  How do you create a connection from some service you hire from the internet? How do you expect me to support a school when they forget previous connections that I supported in the past?

Fear of letting my clients down is what motivates me to do my best.  This fear comes from never wanting to lose that personal connection. Many younger clients think they don’t need the personal connections because they can get things in an Amazon or Uber instant, but I make it a point to get to know them so I can better fulfill their needs.  Old school connections are making a comeback, it just may take a while to realize it.

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