Nobody Cares About Listing Videos (And Other Things I've Stopped Doing)

 Most of the real estate industry is built on interruptions like cold calls, door knocking, listing videos nobody asked for. I'm betting on the opposite. I think people don't care about your highlight reel; they care about being educated and trusting you with one of the biggest decisions of their life. This is how I'm building GiorDior, and why I'd rather be your agent for life than for one deal. I'm going to say something that probably annoys half the agents in my city.

Nobody cares about your listing video. Dude.

I don't mean the editing or film looks bad. I mean the drone shot of a kitchen, set to a song you think is cool, isn't doing what agents think it's doing. It's not building trust. It's not making anyone choose you. It's a highlight reel for a house most people scrolling will never buy or watch. We make them for other agents and for our own egos.

So I've mostly stopped. This is what I'm doing instead, and why.

Capturing a cozy living room scene with a smartphone setup, highlighting the authentic, behind-the-scenes.

A good agent is a dentist for life, not a salesman for a day

Agents are trained to sell you. Create urgency, handle objections, close. Look... Closing matters, I'm running a business, not a charity, but the version of this job I want no part of is the one where I pressure someone into the biggest financial decision of their life so I can get paid.

The agents I respect don't make you feel sold. They make you feel like part of something. Think about your dentist. If you've got a good one, you don't shop around every six months. You just go back. They know your history, you trust their judgment, and the relationship outlasts any single appointment. That's the kind of agent I'm trying to be, someone you call for fifteen years, not someone who vanishes after the closing table.

This is the whole reason I think a great agent does far more than sell houses. The selling is the smallest part. The trust is everything.

People don't buy from the salesy agent. They buy from the one they trust

When someone's about to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, they're not looking for the flashiest reel. They're looking for someone who'll tell them the truth, including when buying is a bad idea. Education builds that, which a highlight video doesn't.

That's my intention underneath everything I make. Teach first. Be useful before I'm needed. By the time someone's ready to buy or sell, they already know how I think, because they've read it, watched it, or heard it. Trust isn't a closing technique. It's a deposit you make over months.

The graphic contrasts "Selling at people" with "Teaching people," highlighting the latter as more effective, focusing on trust, clarity, and long-term relationships over pressure and pitching.

Pick up the phone — but build something that outlasts the call

Should you pick up the phone? Yes. Calls matter, conversations matter, and you can't build a business hiding behind a screen. I'm not anti-phone.

A cold call works once and then it's gone. The energy disappears the second you hang up. I'd rather spend that same energy on something that keeps working while I sleep, a blog post, a YouTube video, a website that answers the questions people are already typing on ChatGPT. That's evergreen content. One good piece can earn trust for years, with people I've never met, in neighborhoods I've never knocked.

I'm documenting this whole build in public, including the embarrassing parts, like what it's really like to start a real estate business with no clients yet. Because the community is the point. I'm not trying to extract a transaction from you. I'm trying to build something you'd want to be around.

Is door knocking dead?

No , and I want to be fair here. Door knocking and cold calling still work for plenty of agents, and if it fits your personality and you're consistent, it can build a decent business. I'm not going to tell you a strategy is dead just because it isn't for me.

It's just not the game I'm playing. Knocking a hundred doors gets me a hundred conversations that end when I walk away. Writing one post that ranks, or one video that helps someone at 11pm, keeps compounding. I'd rather build the asset than rent the hustle. Same effort, different shelf life.

Why I'm telling you all this

Because the way I build is the product. If I'm going to ask you to trust me with your home, you should know how I operate before we ever talk. No "call me before it's too late." Just education, in public, on repeat, until you decide I'm your person, or you decide I'm not, and that's fine too. There's lots of good agents!

I write more about this whole philosophy and the messy reality of building a brand from scratch in my business blueprint if you want the longer story.

Final thoughts

The real estate playbook is in your face, interruptive, and built around the next transaction. I'm building the opposite: quiet, useful, and built around the next fifteen years. Nobody cares about my listing video. People care about being educated and trusting someone with their future. So that's what I'm going to keep making.

If that's the kind of agent you've been looking for, that's the whole point of what I do here. Grab my First-Time Home Buying Guide or join my newsletter, and let's build a relationship long before you ever need to make a move.