Being a real estate agent is a business where image matters in a big way. Your clients and prospects will be investing hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars through you, and they want to know that you're someone who is fully capable of representing their best interests. So everything you present about yourself makes a statement to your clients, and prospects about whether you're the agent they'll want to work with... or not.

The car you drive can make a huge statement about you to your clients and prospects. If your car is a very small one, or is old, dirty, and in poor condition, what message do you think this is sending to the people you want to do business with?

Some agents might find themselves saying, "This is the car I want to drive, and I'm not going to change what I want to do for anyone." That's OK, as long as you are aware of the choice you're making.

Still another agent might say something like, "Well, I'd like a nicer car. But I really can't afford one."

You might after all. Bill was and is a highly-successful real estate agent. One time, Bill and I arrived in the parking lot for a meeting at the same time and he showed me the Mercedes-Benz he had just purchased. He asked me my opinion of the car, and I answered by telling him I thought it was very nice. He then responded by telling me he had purchased the car for only $5,000.00.

Now granted, the car was a number of years old, but it still looked great! And Bill really just wanted the look of a great car to impress his clients and prospects with, but he didn't want to spend a lot of money to get this look.

In the city where I live, it's normal for residential agents to have their names and companies posted on the driver and passenger side doors to their vehicles. So whenever I see a real estate agent's car on the street with their name on it, I ask myself what my first impression of them is from seeing this. Sometimes I see them driving subcompact cars, mid-size cars, luxury cars, pickup trucks, and sometimes I also see them driving SUVs. In fact, one agent's car I've seen parked at a golf course so often during working hours, that I'm convinced he's far too lazy for me to ever work on a transaction with!

My point is your car makes a statement about you the moment people see it. And since you're in a business where you're driving people around on a regular basis, your car will make an even bigger statement to people. After all, they'll be riding around in it with you for hours.

So what kind of car are you driving right now? And what kind of car should you be driving? Well, part of that depends on where you live and the real estate community you serve. Ideally I recommend you drive a car that is one of the nicer ones normally driven by the type of clients you're working with. As an example, in farm and ranch areas, a top-of-the-line Dodge truck could be impressive, but it's definitely not going to work in Beverly Hills. And in Beverly Hills, a Mercedes might work very nicely, but it may offend some people in Heartland USA who feel strongly about others owning autos without American brand names on them.

Many agents like a clean, well-maintained SUV. The SUV has become an incredible phenomenon in our society, and it's owned by people from all economic classes, too. As long as it's not very old, and it's kept in good condition, most people look upon SUVs as an acceptable vehicle for themselves, their friends, and their real estate agents to own. And of course you don't have to spend an arm and a leg to own one, either.

Published: February 24, 2005

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Jim Gillespie, Ph.D., is America's Premier Real Estate Coach℠. He has over 20 years of experience in real estate sales and is a past president of three different real estate companies. His FREE real estate E-newsletter with tips and creative ideas to help agents make more money is now read by over 35,000 agents nationwide. You can subscribe to his FREE E-newsletter by visiting RealEstateSalesCoach.com or contact him at Jim@RealEstateSalesCoach.com.