Look, I guess it comes down to if you believe that realtors are salespeople or not...I just got done listening to sales tape where the trainer spent the whole side of the tape talking about "dressing well." "Looking good," "wearing good clothes." Isn't that image? Isn't that looking the part of success? Or maybe you think Bob Proctor (the sales trainer on the tape) is full of crap. I don't know...

I am not making this up to annoy people. Most sales trainers, from Zig Ziglar on down, talk about "image". "Looking the part of success"...Now, if you're one of those non-"A" personality types, who don't like to think of real esate as a "selling" job, then so be it.

Maybe we ARE thinking about "Image" and not wanting to look cocky, flashy, showy, arrogant, or boastful?

Nothing wrong with "image." Good hygeine, nice, newer, clean, stylish well cared for clothes, (you don't have to wear Armani to be stylish). A confident attitude, looking people in the eye, a firm handshake, determined, knowlegable demeanor. A car that is well cared for, in great condition and doesn't look like it belongs to Peter Falk. These to me, say more about someone's success than whether they drive a $90,000 car or not.

The fact is, success does NOT equal living to extremes and showing off all your toys.

I guess it all depends on the image you're trying to portray.

You can have all the stuff and still come off as a pompous arrogant #$%&#.

Speaking of images projected by what we drive, I made an opportunity to visit and ride for a week with a fellow professional in *chowcowgo* as he called it. His niche was FHA 203K and as a consultant for mortgagors in the rehabilitation loan program he would also inspect for the mortgagees after the loan closed for escrow releases on the work-in-process construction.

His choice of ride was a used *ChowCowgo* police cruiser ususally bought from the city auction and mostly Crown Vics with high mileage as they were left over unmarked detective. He would leave the little whip antennas on the truck deck often driving the alleys short cutting to thru streets.

Since a lot of his projects were in brownstone revitalization areas, he projected thru his vehicle the image of don't mess with me, cuz when we snaked around - we looked like *Da Man* complete with cheap dark sunglasses and the whip antennas

Interesting huh...

Pepperjack,

There are a lot of cars between Hondas and Toyotas that don't need to cost $90,000. And why is driving a nice car "living to extremes" as you put it?

Sorry, but I'm still cracking up that people think driving a Honda or Toyota as a realtor car is ok. To me, nothing screams success like a clean and tidy Honda Civic.

You guys are killing me. I think my grandmother had a Honda once.

Come on people. Think, act, dress, and drive like your successful. Your clients will go with success. Any why does success have to mean arrogant like some of you suggest? Success is an attitude, but it has nothing to do with arrogance. I drive a nice car because I am handling the most expensive assets and transactions that most of us will ever have. Would you want to see your stock broker driving a Honda or Toyota. Not me, I'm going with the 'non-arrogant' professional that dresses, looks and acts like a million bucks. That's who I want handeling my affairs. Not a very nice sweet country bumpkin with a clean honda.

Just my opinion. But, maybe in CA I'm just in a different market.

Thanks everyone for their comments. For the most part they were good. But I think it has gone on enough. Therefore I will close the topic. It will stay up for a while and then be deleted.