I read an article earlier titled "Insider secrets on selling your home in a down market", Carolina Buia, an author for Shine on Yahoo asked four top real estate agents across the country to give their best selling tips in a cool market. There was some solid advice here, but I had to stop and reread the #10 tip.
10. It's not enough to have cookies baking in the oven. That's so 1999. According to Routh-Silberman: "A buyer needs to see themselves living in the house." Silberman's team has taken home staging to a whole new level by hiring kids to set up lemonade stands in the front yard, getting a friend's golden retriever to swim in the pool, or hiring a chef to have appetizers at the ready.
Kids selling lemonade?
Dogs swimming in the pool? I've heard of hiring actors, however I've never known of anyone that has done that. A big, wet, shaking barking dog in the backyard, much less the pool, does not give me the warm fuzzies. As cute and funny as it may be, I doubt a buyer with children will find it so amusing or welcoming. I don't mean to offend dog owners, but any home stager or real estate agent should tell you take the pets with you. Now, their wanting to use a dog as a prop and swim in the pool?
I have to give them this, that is definetely thinking out of the box, and taking it to a whole new level!
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Dogs would certainly be an attention getter, but not sure the right kind of attention! Will the dog be cute enough to bring in an offer? Unlikely, in my opinion.
My luck the dog would decide to shake himself all over the buyers as they arrive!
That has to be the most ridiculous advice I've heard in a long time. I'm sorry, Routh-Silberman, but I think it is a terrible idea.
My thoughts would be...eww...wet dog on the carpet. Wonder what they are using to "cover" the smell. Not a good plan!
Just what every buyer wants, a swimming pool filter clogged with dog hair! I'm sorry, but that advice is way off the mark. Buyers are becoming more savvy, and even the "cookies baking in the oven" trick is pretty obvious by now, and hiring the neighborhood kids to sell lemonade? Creative, maybe--effective, I doubt it.
A professionally staged home that's competitively priced and in a good location will sell without the over-the-top gimmicks. We stagers know it to be true, but some realtors don't quite get it yet!
I would vote for that 1999 idea. I know it doesn't help but a least it is traditional and not idiotic.
Wow! A little over the top. On the flip side, my dog is going to love going to work with me. LOL
That's a real eye opener
Now I know how to leverage my dogs - as Staging props! Great addition to my business plan! Thanks, Cindy! Julie
OK - everyone agrees the dog thing is WAY "out there" and in my humble opinion, not appropriate. Reminds me of the episode of Million Dollar Listing where one of the Realtors put swans in the pool and all they did was honk all day and poop in the pool....
More concerning to me are kids in the front yard selling lemonaide! My thoughts as a buyer would instantly be, "Who are these kids and why are they in my (potential) yard? Does this neighborhoood just let their kids run rampant to put up a lemonaide stand in any ones yard?!". Just my $.02 ~ spend it how you wish.
It is definitely "out of the box" thinking, though I feel perhaps too far out of the box ;-)
Bad, bad-terribel idea! Boo!