Get Real

Yup, that’s the new marketing phrase. Because we Got Real. We type it in, those real on market properties, normalize that data,  geocode it, verify it; if a mistake slips in, our network of agencies calls us and makes us fix it, lickity split. (I’ve never typed the words ‘lickity split’ before. Sorry you had to read them.)

Our business model is catching on. Well, a few guys copied it off our website and started  competing businesses, at any rate. Imitation is the sincerest form of the flattery, so what can we say. We’re flattered! Our clients are sticking with us, as they’ve seen us grow through the years. Making stuff; fixing stuff; answering the phone.

It hasn’t been easy, because we have something that nobody else has, and we’ve had to fight for it. OnMarketBoston, our apartment hunting portal. Proving the value, to our agency partners, of a different way of handling the aggregate portal—getting rid of the redundancy—has been a struggle. Why?

Because everyone else just prints more listings. More is better! Even more—betterer! In cyberspace there are no limits based on physical reality! Everyone gets as many listings as they want! Take a look at Craigslist, or Boston Apartments—zillions of listings! Zillions and zillions and zillions! Wheeee!

You know what, though? There’s still the same number of real, on-market properties. So you know what all those  redundant listings are to you, the apartment hunter?

Can you say—a waste of time? We knew  you could, and we knew you would, if we explained how this worked. But we have to get your attention. I like using photoshop to make fake billboards which we might put up if all our money didn’t go into making those fresh tasty listings. (see above.) I write weird marketing poetry and put it on flyers. It’s fun, and when people read it, it serves a purpose. Spreading the gospel of Real.

So we’re celebrating our reality by walking the city, talking to vendors and coffeeshop owners and barkeeps, taking photos and slapping up flyers, talking to agency owners, brokers, agents, students, citizens, and probably the occasional zombie or android.

Because everybody has to live someplace, and not everybody should  be buying a house. Renting is beautiful. Just ask someone with an upside down mortgage. Just ask a parent who accidentally bought in the wrong neighborhood and who doesn’t have money for a private school.

Keep your options open; your ear to the ground, your nose to the grindstone, your head in the clouds, and your feet, well, I guess they go with your ears on the ground. The rumble you hear is the sound of change, boiling up from the center of the earth, getting ready to sweep away the status quo. Lickity split. Some of the changes will be bad, some good.

We’re one of the good changes. Real apartments on the web. Not classified ads—think inventory. Live inventory. For the places you want to live.