Extreme Home Staging

CNN Money has a story about home staging gone to the extreme about 25 miles north of Hollywood in Santa Clarita, CA. Rather than just add some new furniture, fresh flowers, and home baked cookies, a real estate developer is adding in beautiful people!

Model homes, the spokesman says, can tend to be sterile and dry. So to put some life into the house, actors play out the life they might lead in that home.

In one performance, the ‘model’ family spent about three hours pretending it was Mom’s birthday. They baked a cake, sang happy birthday and the children drew and framed a picture - of a Centex house. The original cast included a former Baywatch hunk, Jaason Simmons, in the role of Dad.

Is it a good idea? Usually you want the potential buyers to envision themselves in the home. You don’t want to transfer your home into their mind, but their mind into this home. Only time will tell if this idea pays off.