St. Joseph, A new way to sell real estate

Always looking for the most innovated way to market ahome is what most good real estate agents do. Some, however, are turning to a tactic that has been around for quite some time. Homesellers and real estate agents alike are buying statues of St. Joseph and burying his likeness in the yards of their homes for sale. St. Joseph, apparently, is a patron saint of homesellers due to the fact that he was a carpenter long before he was the step-father of Jesus. While not being opposed to prayer to sell a house, I object to any short-cut to hard work that homesellers and agents are known to take. I wonder what the buyer's are doing in this market named after them. Do you see them burying statues hoping a house will magically appear to them? No. My educated guess is that most buyers are waiting for some hard working real estate agent to get off their lazy butts and market the opportunities that exist in today's real estate field. Alas, they will have to wait because those agents are too busy burying statues or ordering them online so they can have a ready supply when homesellers come calling for their assistance. I can just hear the marketing plan: "So, what I'll do to sell your home is to 1. Put a sign in your yard, 2. Put a lockbox on your door, 3. Put it in the MLS and most importantly, 4. Loan you this wonderful statue of St. Joseph with instructions on where and how deep to bury him." Good luck with that.

Contribution from Larry Refsland, real estate agent for 13 years in the Twin Cities of Minnesota. Larry is currently working at a bank in Federal Way, Washington, where he is seeing just how much of a buyer's market we are in. Please feel free to comment!