The people on Balboa Island in Newport Beach, California, got a nice surprise on Halloween morning as a band of nine real estate agents walked around the town as a greek goddess, a colonial-era soldier, a unicorn, an elf and fish with a cape.
Amid the seemingly random array of colorful costumes, there was a method to the madness: Together, the group of real estate pros were creatively educating bystanders about home architectural styles.
The fish in a cape? He was Cape Cod. The man in all black? Gothic. The schoolteacher? Tudor. The lady in all white with gold-plated olive branches? Greek Revival.
Kyle Gunderson, the genius behind these real estate costumes, said initial bystanders were confused, but once they clued them into what was going on, they started warming up and enjoying guessing what home style they were.
“I loved how some people started guessing costumes with a serious/confused tone, but by the end of guessing, they were giddy with excitement,” said Gunderson in an emailed statement. “I also loved the little, unexpected things that happened, like when one of our agents casually fist bumped a kid while walking by.”
Every guesser who got the answer correct got a $10 Starbucks gift card and an invitation to watch the completed video on Facebook to see if they were featured.
Gunderson said the day was grueling — they filmed for over an hour and a half, and Gunderson spent the rest of the day carefully editing the video and making sure it was Facebook-worthy.
“My amazing co-workers showed up at my desk during editing with lunch for me, as they noticed I skipped lunch to save time,” he said. “I knew it would be close on timing, but we made it happen.”
Gunderson and his team’s work paid off as the video has more than 3,000 views, 65 likes, 17 comments and 15 shares as of press time. But more than that, he says the real reward came from being able to connect with the Newport Beach community.
“The best part about this event was interrupting peoples’ day [to] bring them a smile and laughter,” Gunderson said. “It sounds cliché, but knowing all of the laughter that happened (both the people we interacted with, as well as our office), wouldn’t have happened if we decided the event would take too much work.”
Luckily, the Abrams Coastal Properties team is already thinking of doing a follow-up for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
“The Halloween event definitely inspired everyone in the office to begin brainstorming ideas for the holidays. I love that the people I work with aren’t [just] willing to do something like this again, but wanting to do something like this again,” he said.