I go to a lot of weddings. Somewhere north of 30 every year. Of course, I am required to show up and be creative on demand, but that is a different post. Every weekend I meet around 200 new people from all walks of life – some are family of the bride and groom, some are college friends, some are from out of town, and others are local Austinites.
Being the friendly guy I am, I’d strike up a conversations with almost everybody I photograph. I When I would mention that we are looking for a house, it seemed like everybody suddenly was a realtor. “Yeah”, they’d say “I’m working as a bank teller until my Real Estate business takes off” – sort of like a struggling actress waiting tables in Los Angeles.
I’d politely take their card, and say “thanks”, but invariably never call, since we had already found The Best Realtor in the World.
Yesterday a very strange shift occurred. Now when I mention that we just bought a house, I get something like, “Oh yeah? My Dad is a contractor, and he will give you a great deal”.
Besides being a hands-on kind of guy, I’m picky. Really picky. Crazy Artist Picky about really strange things. I don’t really let this side of me show through to the general public, but just ask Jen. She can tell you. I like my kitchen drawers organized a certain way. Any spelling mistakes you see on my blog are completely intensional (for Google Searches). And when it comes to where I live, the construction needs to be absolutely perfect.
Just yesterday, while I was getting ready to photograph the bridal portraits at Laguna Gloria, the Make Up artist came up to me and we started a conversation. Before I finished telling her how excited I was that we were going to sign papers this friday on our first house, she had begun to fish around inside her purse. Not for her MUA card, but for a card for her “other” job where she was a secretary for her husband’s contractor business.
This Make-up-artist/flooring contractor secretary is a great marketer, too! Before I was home from the shoot, she had already eMailed me a zip archive of pictures of flooring samples they had recently installed.
By the way, when it comes to Architecture Photography, I’m EXTREMELY critical. I grew up looking at issues of Architectural Digest at my Grandmother’s house, and that is pure perfection.
Did all the realtors turn into contractors overnight? Was it the economy that made this shift? Perhaps is was the daylight savings time shift – Spring forward and into a contractor.
My type-A personality has already started a little section of my business card file for my new growing collection of home handyman business cards…
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