Queensland property ‘pirates’ walk the plank over salty ad

Coral Sea Property Management agency, well known for their brazen pirate themed real estate marketing in Townsville, have been stripped of the Real Estate Institute of Queensland accreditation after taking one billboard campaign a step too far.

The billboard featured an image of Monica Lewinsky and the query “Last agent leave a bad taste in your mouth?”, according to the Townsville Bulletin.

REIQ chairman Rob Honeycombe told the Bulletin that the conduct blatantly flouted their code of conduct, even while the principal of the agency, Shaun Podbury, said that they weren’t offensive they just wanted to provoke a reaction.

Heading onto their website, where they promise to pay investors’ rent after day 14 if they haven’t tenanted the property, the fun continues.

“Bloated magpie-legged corporate w-nkers go ghostly white and tremble at the knees at the thought of such a guarantee,” they write in their manifesto.

Their code of conduct also includes “No corporate w-nkers”, along with treating owners, tenants and “crew” with respect and running a tight ship.

Many of the staff photos feature a young team in tie-dye shirts, some with pirate flag tattoos on their moderately exposed bottoms.

Explaining the pirate theme, they note that they are different, system and processes focused. They say that they stand by their statistics, publish them constantly and want to make their captains (read: property owners) more money.

“We thought it time someone shook up the industry, so pirates we decided to be.”

A rolling feed on their website notes that as of today, their current vacancy rate is 1.26% and they have just one tenant in arrears.

Their monthly newsletters to investors provide these details, while their monthly tenant newsletters encourage the majority who have paid the rent and also give out a “tenant of the month” award (a free breakfast at a local café), recipes, maintenance request reminders and information around a $250 gift for those who provide a referral of a family member or friend.

While some aspects are completely hilarious, for instance referring to their office contact as ‘Chairman Meow’ (a pirate cat with an eye patch, hook and cutlass, based on their actual pet), it’s clear not all their stunts amuse.

This article first appeared on Property Observer.