From Kinkos to Clicks: The Short History of Real Estate Marketing

Oct 27

When I first got into real estate, “marketing” meant a tank full of gas, a stack of flyers, and a phone that was permanently attached to my desk. Back then, we didn’t have Canva, social media schedulers, or CRM drip campaigns. We had Kinkos, Eckerd’s, and Walgreens, with a 24-hour photo counter that could make or break your weekend open house.

The Analog Years: When Marketing Meant Mileage

Picture this: you’ve just listed a three-bedroom rancher with “potential” (read: mauve carpet and wallpaper borders of ducks). You grab your trusty 35mm camera, pray the flash works, and head out to get the perfect front-elevation shot. Then it’s off to Walgreens to drop off your roll of film, where the teenager behind the counter promises your photos will be ready “by Thursday.”

If you were really hustling, you’d pay extra for one-hour developing. Then, armed with your glossy 4x6 prints, you’d dash into Kinkos to build your flyer masterpiece — a Word document with clip art of a key and maybe, if you were advanced, a gradient headline.

We didn’t email those flyers. We drove them to other offices. We faxed them. And oh, those faxes — we’d fill out little letter-blocked forms to submit listings to the MLS book or local newspapers to be featured in the Sunday real estate section. Those ads cost maybe $30 to $50 to get your property featured, and that felt like a small fortune when you were eating peanut-butter sandwiches between showings. But you’d cross your fingers that the listing sold before your beeper bill was due.

And if you really wanted to know who was “making it” in real estate, you didn’t check Instagram — you looked up at the billboards. If someone had their face on one, or even better, a glossy magazine ad, you just knew they were making it big. The rest of us were trying to scrounge up enough for open house balloons while dreaming of owning our own laminating machine.

The other thing we did? We called people.

Not like today, where agents say in their voice message, “For a faster response, just text me.” No — we actually picked up the phone, dialed the number, and talked to human beings.

We called people. We knocked on doors. We begged our friends to “keep us in mind.” Networking wasn’t digital; it was literal. You’d meet up at weekly sales meetings to swap hot listings like baseball cards: “I’ve got a 4/2 in Hoover under $200K — what you got?”

It wasn’t better or worse. Just different. Slower, but somehow more personal.

Enter the Internet (and a Whole Lot of Panic)

Then one day, the internet showed up — and with it, a new world of “marketing opportunities.” I remember the first brokerage websites that appeared in the early 2000s. They weren’t listing portals like we know today. They were digital business cards that said, “Hi, we exist.”

When the MLS went digital, we thought it was the height of technology. You could sit at your computer — which probably sounded like a jet engine and was on dial-up internet — and search for listings in real time. No more flipping through three-inch-thick MLS books or waiting for next week’s edition.

Then came Realtor.com and Zillow, and you could practically hear agents everywhere gasp. We loved the visibility, but it felt like losing control. Suddenly, our “inventory” — our livelihood — was available to the entire world without them ever needing to call us first.

The Social Media Boom: From Door-Knocking to Double-Clicking

Then came Facebook. At first, it was all baby photos, kitty cats, and “What’s your farm-animal name?” quizzes, but before long, agents started posting listings. It was magical. No more copy-shop lines, no more quick trips to Office Depot for paper and toner.

And then, of course, came Instagram and YouTube. Suddenly, agents everywhere were expected to be photographers, video editors, voiceover artists, writers, SEO specialists, and media personalities — all while still actually selling houses.

You could run ads to anyone, anywhere — for a price. But that’s the catch, isn’t it? It’s still about money. Back in the day, you spent $50 on a newspaper spot and hoped for a phone call. Now, you can spend $1,500 a month on Facebook, Google, YouTube, and still hope for a phone call.

When I started, someone told me, “Most agents are undercapitalized and that’s why they don’t succeed.” I don’t think I really understood it back then. But quick translation: most of us are broke. But when you take on a listing, you need money to market it properly.

The Myth of the $0 Marketing Plan

Every week, I meet a new agent who says, “I just got a new ring light!” like that’s the missing piece between them and a million-dollar year. Or they proudly tell me they took someone’s “Google Masterclass” for $49 and now “know how the secret to SEO.”

Sure, you do, honey. Right after you decode Google’s ad algorithm in your spare time between closings and sign installs.

Here’s the truth: Google, YouTube, and Facebook are not charities. They run multi-billion-dollar advertising companies. Their business model depends on you believing that you, too, can “go viral” so you keep putting your money in their slot machine. Every now and then, they let someone hit the jackpot, and we all cling to that like gamblers watching the bells go off on the nickel slots at the Bellagio.

“See?” we tell ourselves. “It can happen.”

But just like Vegas doesn’t let you drink for free without gambling, Google doesn’t give away traffic for free either.

The Photography & Video Revolution (or How to Lose a Weekend)

Then there’s photography. Professional photos are the baseline now — non-negotiable. But I still see agents out there snapping listing pics on their iPhone like it’s 2015.

And just when you think you’ve nailed photography, here comes video. “You just need your phone and CapCut,” they say. Sure — because editing, scripting, lighting, and posting across five platforms is something you can totally knock out between showing appointments.

Even AI gets thrown in as the magical cure-all. “It’s free!” they say. Yes, because it’s bad. The good stuff — the kind that doesn’t make your listing look or sound like it was designed by a robot who just discovered beige — will cost you, too.

So, Has It Really Gotten Easier?

That’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it? Has marketing gotten easier and cheaper with technology?

I’d say no.

Your reach is bigger, but only if you know how to pull all the levers — and you can afford to. The truth is, the game hasn’t changed as much as people think. The tools are different, but the fundamentals are the same: you need capital and connections.

That was true in the Kinkos days, and it’s still true now.

The biggest lie modern agents buy into is that they don’t need other people — that they can learn everything from YouTube videos or $297 “masterclasses.” We show up to sales meetings for “tools” instead of relationships. But the real tool — the one that’s completely free — is still the same one that built this industry: human connection.

The Real Estate Agent of Today: Half Salesperson, Half Content Creator, All Tired

Today’s agent has to wear more hats than a Broadway wardrobe rack. You’re expected to be your own videographer, photographer, editor, writer, SEO strategist, social-media manager, and sometimes therapist.

It’s not easier. It’s just faster, louder, and more expensive.

But here’s the upside: we have more opportunity than ever before to show who we are, to tell stories, and to connect directly with the people we serve — no middleman, no fax machine, no film rolls. All you need is the perfect thumbnail artwork.

Still, I can’t help but miss the days when a good listing photo meant you didn’t cut off the roofline — and the only algorithm you had to please was the editor’s submission deadline for the Sunday paper.

So to all the agents out there grinding through edits at midnight, juggling ad budgets, hashtags, and drip campaigns — I see you. You’re doing what generations before you did: figuring it out, one listing at a time.

Because from Kinkos to clicks, the tools change. But the hustle? That part’s timeless.

TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read)

Real estate marketing has come a long way — from faxing black-and-white photos to the Sunday Times to filming 4K drone footage of a $275k ranch. Technology made it faster, not cheaper. We’ve traded our beepers for ring lights and our Kinkos runs for Canva.

But the core truth never changed: you need capital to market and connections to sell. Everything else is just noise — very expensive, very shiny noise.