10 creative -- and weird -- ways to market a home
When trying to sell a home, sometimes it pays to get creative.
Playing up certain trendy home features, such as farmhouse sinks or subway tiles, could help your home sell faster and boost its price. But sometimes sellers want to give listings a little something strange to get them the attention they need.
That's where these creative strategies come in. Whether it's offering a free Tesla with the purchase of a $6 million Brooklyn triplex or just a "relatively stabby-free neighborhood" with the purchase of a $102,900 Lancaster, Pennsylvania, home, the sellers behind these listings know how to grab potential buyers' (and the internet's) attention.
Click ahead to see 10 real estate marketing techniques that truly stand out from the crowd.
The cutest tour guide
How could anyone say no to this face?
The owners of this Vancouver, Washington, home included a cute baby crawling through most of their listing photos. He crawls through the living room, inspects the sinks and gives potential buyers something to look at in the otherwise empty rooms. It's hard to say whether he helped or hurt potential buyers' ability to see themselves in the home, but one thing's for sure: The little guy is memorable.
The home sold for $230,000 in January 2013, according to Zillow.
"Not stupid or desperate"
When buyers see that a home's price has been reduced, they may think the seller is desperate to unload the property and will sell for an even lower price.
Bill McSpadden of Bill McSpadden Real Estate in Knoxville, Tennessee, wanted people to know that wasn't the case with the 2008 price reduction of one of his homes, insisting the sellers were "not stupid or desperate." He later told Realtor Magazine that this strategy was in response to the prevalence of lowball offers in the area at that time resulting from the housing downturn.
No fury like …
Elle Zober of Beaverton, Oregon, had no qualms about telling the world why her three-bedroom home was on the market. According to the website she made to advertise the home, she checked her phone bills in March 2012 and found that her husband of 10 years, with whom she had two children, was having an affair with a "22-year-old college student who likes yoga... and, other people's husbands."
Zober's website says she received an offer for the home after it spent 23 days on the market. However, according to Zillow Zober doesn't know if she'd do it again. While the strategy was successful in garnering attention for the property, she said more people seemed interested in her personal life than her home.
Cash reward for Facebook shares
One Canadian family decided to save the money they would have to pay a real estate pro by instead putting their home on Facebook and asking friends and family to share it. If a share led to the sale of the home, the family promised to pay the share-er $1,000.
"The power of social media is amazing. It can find lost dogs, lost children. It can locate criminals, so we said why not try the housing market and see how that goes," homeowner Lori Ralph told CBC News in December 2015. The listing was shared about 5,200 times in the first week.
Free Tesla
"Buy-one-get-one" deals are nothing new, but one Brooklyn development company took it to a new level in 2014 when it offered a free Tesla model S sedan worth more than $80,000 to the purchaser of a Park Slope triplex. The building, which included a charging station for the Tesla in the garage, was listed for $6 million.
Hide and seek
11 Ivanhoe, Irvine, Ca 92602 from The Boutique Real Estate Group on Vimeo.
Kids are great at exploring homes to find all the best hiding spots, so why not use that skill to show a house?
This video by The Boutique Real Estate Group in Orange County, California, used a children's game of hide-and-seek to show the rooms of a home.
According to Zillow, the home sold for $2,078,000 one day after the video ad was posted to Vimeo in February 2015.
Merely a flesh wound
Some real estate listings highlight a property's features in a pretty matter-of-fact-but-complimentary way. This homeowner decided to take a different approach.
In a 2014 Craigslist ad (since removed, but preserved in full elsewhere online), a man selling his Lancaster, Pennsylvania, row house (pictured above) had great things to say about the neighborhood.
Just check out this opening line:
"Do you want a low-maintenance home in a relatively stabby-free neighborhood? Do you want to live within walking distance of five bars? In the event of a cardiac emergency, wouldn't it be nice to be only three blocks away from Lancaster General Hospital? Well, I have the home for you."
According to Zillow, the house sold in January 2015 for $102,900.
Location, location, location
In another bizarre listing description earlier this year, a Birmingham, Alabama homeowner decided to highlight the home's excellent location. Again, the actual listing is no longer active, but the full text lives on in news reports. Check out these highlights:
"Take your child to the Creative Montessori School or just toss them over the fence in the backyard to get them there quicker because you are running behind because getting a kid ready in a timely fashion is difficult. (Disclaimer: Don't throw kids.)"
"Worried about your soul? Walk to church at Dawson Baptist or Trinity Methodist depending on the age you were baptized. If that isn't your style, the home is convenient to 280, downtown Birmingham, and the interstate so you can go to the faith of your choosing. I don't care. If you would rather sleep in on Sunday, the street is very quiet."
Sound like the place for you? The home is now for rent for $1,650 per month.
Mad for “Mad Men”
This mid-century modern home in Doraville, Georgia, was staged to look just like it did when it was built in 1960. Real estate agent Vanessa Reilly told Hooked on Houses that she dressed up like Betty Draper while her boyfriend played Don Draper for this "Mad Men" reenactment in 2011.
While the home has modern updates like stainless steel appliances, a tile backsplash and updated bathrooms, this unique staging helps highlight some of its more retro features, such as the original fireplace, slanted ceilings and basement built-in shelving.
Slightly haunted
Homeowner Greg Leeson decided that honesty was the best policy when writing a description of his century-old Dunmore, Pennsylvania, home on Zillow. He said the home was "slightly haunted," but insisted it was "nothing serious."
Leeson told Zillow Porchlight in 2013 that he wasn't sure what he was legally required to disclose in the listing regarding any potential hauntings, so he decided he should mention it, just to be safe.
While the listing got a lot of media attention at the time, according to Leeson, it was removed in March 2014. The home is back on the market now for $119,900.