The Barefoot Broker Meets the Baker Broker

Today’s post is all about the Barefoot Broker meeting the Baker Broker here in Emerald Isle, NC. Whether you visit here occasionally or live here full time, knowing about the Barefoot Broker and the Baker Broker will add to your knowledge about the real estate market along the Crystal Coast and that is a story that deserves telling. Before I begin, please subscribe to my blog now, or at the end of this post.

Jim Batten helped start Emerald Isle Realty in 1962 by doing what his friends asked him to do, which was: "Watch out after our house in Emerald Isle, will you, Jim?" Jim was no dummy and the rest is history. And if you want to know that history, talk to Jim's daughter, Julia Wax or her husband, Mark.

One of my favorite memories of Jim, now long deceased, is encountering him shopping in the Food Lion with his thick locks of silvery hair, twinkling hazel brown eyes, a rumpled white shirt, and khaki shorts about to drop to the floor. His real estate company managed my rental real estate properties in Emerald Isle at the time and he and I would talk shop and the entire time we were talking I could not help but notice that Jim did not wear shoes or any other protective coverings on his feet. For all I know, Jim may have been the inspiration for Jimmy Buffett's song, "No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problem."

Like I said, Jim was no dummy. And, one day, in the mid-1970’s, he kicked off his Bass Weejuns and he took those gnarly feet of his and turned them into a brand, the Barefoot Broker, and sold more real estate barefoot than brokers today can ever dream of. If memory serves, that brand still has legs as the title of Emerald Isle Realty's Vacation Guide. To be sure, and all his clients would certainly attest, what made Jim a truly great broker was not his shoeless feet but rather his intrinsic honesty and ethics learned growing up on a dairy farm in western North Carolina. Once he shook hands and pledged his word, buyers and sellers, alike, knew that Jim had their best interest at heart.

Fast forward, some twenty years, later. I am now a fulltime resident of Emerald Isle, NC and I was eager to get on with the next chapter of my life. As my customers, clients and subscribers to my youtube channel, newsletter and blog know, I wear several hats, and one of them is licensed real estate agent. I am associated with the Crystal Coast Realty Group and Don Johnson is my Broker-in-Charge. Don and his agency are all about being honest, trustworthy and loyal to clients, the same qualities that Jim Batton lived by and the same qualities that were hammered into me by my parents many years ago. Indeed, qualities like these never go out of style.

Another thing that has not gone out of style is marketing and Don is always emphasizing marketing and branding to all his agents, including me. But, marketing and branding are hard. Robert Zimmerman had to leave Minnesota, live from hand to mouth in NYC, and play nightly in The Village before he "became" Bob Dylan. The Quarrymen had to play 10,000 hours in Germany before they 'became' the Beatles. So, what are my chances of marketing and branding myself, successfully?

Well, I won't know if I don't try. And, so I started out with marketing, what I call magnetic marketing, which is defined as all the actions I do to attract you, my customers and clients, to get your attention, so you will engage me to help you buy or sell real estate here along the Crystal Coast. My magnetic marketing is my business card with a call to action. It is my website, EI HomesforSale.com. My website content includes my blog and my videos and I invite you to subscribe to both. My biweekly newsletter goes to everyone who expresses an interest in the Crystal Coast. Occasionally, I wear my author’s hat like when I wrote a book about the Crystal Coast, entitled “Live Where You Vacation” which is available on Amazon.com. I designed targeted marketing to help For Sale By Owners and sellers whose homes did not attract buyers. My number of customers, clients, and sales tell me that marketing works.

And, now it is time to move on to the harder stuff... branding. Look around and you can read about "the smartest" or the "hardest working" or the yada yada broker. And, besides being generic, how do you know one broker is smarter or harder working than another? You don't. So, I am sitting in my donut shop, Flip Flops Donuts, in Emerald Isle and I am thinking about branding. Oh, and that is yet another hat I wear, that of donut maker. I am a hands on owner of Flip Flops Donuts. I not only sell the donuts but chances are I also helped make the donuts. This got me thinking, again, of Jim Batten, and his brand, the Barefoot Broker. Nice alliteration. Two words. Two syllables both. Definitely one of a kind. Memorable, too! And, BAM!, it hits me. The Baker Broker. Nice alliteration. Two words. Two syllable words. Definitely unique. Potentially memorable. So, with a tip of the cap to Jim, the Barefoot Broker, let me introduce you to the one and only Baker Broker, Denis Raczkowski! And, in a shameless plug for both of my businesses, purchase or list a home with me and you will receive complimentary donuts for an entire year.

To learn more about real estate in Emerald Isle, NC, Bogue Banks or the Crystal Coast, sign up to receive my blog on my website, www.EIHomesforSale.com. Subscribe to Emerald Isle Vacation Home Specialist on You Tube and receive free donuts from Flip Flops Donut Shop. To receive my newsletter or my book, Live Where You Vacation, text your email address to: 919-308-2292. Stay well and stay safe.