How to Sell a House

If you're looking for the details on "how to sell a house", I'll cut to the chase:

Bury a St. Joseph statue upside-down in your yard, facing toward the for-sale house. After the house sells, the seller is supposed to dig up the statue and place it in a spot of honor in their new home.

:)

I stumbled upon this piece from the Wall Street Journal that talks about the inverse relationship between the housing market and sales of St. Joseph statues. When the market is bad, sales of the statues rise (because people are looking for ANYTHING that will help sell their house, even if it doesn't work.) When the market is good, homes sell quickly, so no help is needed from St. Joseph.

I find this piece interesting because:

• It's nonsense, but people do it. And they can't even agree on the rules. Should the statue be upside-down or right-side up? Should it face the house or not? Is it to be placed 6 feet from the house or 6 yards? And on and on.
• When we had our house for sale last fall, I purchased a St. Joseph statue to aggravate my wife (I told her I was going to buy one and she said I was crazy, so I did it.) In fact, the one I purchased is the gray one on the far right in the Journal's piece.
• I has some semblance of being related to personal finance.

Just thought I'd throw the topic out there and let you all comment on it. Has anyone ever heard of this legend? Has anyone ever used it? Did it work?

Comments

[Gran Torino]

FWIW, it worked on me (as a home buyer). About the third month after moving in I found an odd "chess piece" in a flower bed. My wife explained the lore of the St. Joseph statue. For the record, I found it right side up (head up) facing the house, about 25 yards away from the front door.

[Travis]

Never head of it. I just sold my house in MI last August as a FSBO...never even had to actually put the house on the market as my neighbor mentioned to someone at her garage sale we were selling. Easiest home sale ever and our agreed upon price was $500 more than the appraised value so not too bad in determining the homes worth.

[getagrip]

I had never heard of this until I found such a small, grey, plastic statue in my front garden when we were planting after having bought our house. I guess the folks who sold the house to us forgot to dig it up (or they just didn't want to fly back from California to do so). I also don't know that it helped the sale nearly as much as being the first potential buyers to get past the home's renters who were trying to prevent the sale of the home (delaying viewings, not being home when people showed up and having the doors bolted, etc.) until their lease was up and had finally been told to cut it out. Even though the house had been on the market for three months we were the first to see it and the first to put an offer in.

I still have the statue sitting on the windowsill in the kitchen.

[The Wallet Doctor]

I've never heard of this particular ritual before, but it doesn't surprise me too much. When people are so invested in selling their homes, it makes sense at least some people will get a little carried away trying interesting methods.

[JayCeezy]

As a toddler, I inadvertently overdosed on baby aspirin.

I saw St. Joseph.

[PJ]

Of course this doesn't work because they're doing it wrong. You're supposed to bury a statue of St ANTHONY to sell a house! C'mon!

[My Wealth Desire]

I never heard about this legend. In my opinion, I didn't see any relationship between the statue and the house. Buyers will get attract to the house based on the physical qualities and appearance of the house.

[M19]

I think people might be far better off finding a good agent, throwing a fresh coat of paint where needed and cleaning out their closets prior to putting a lockbox on the front door. But that is just me.

By the way, don't walk under a ladder or open an umbrella in the house !

[Old Limey]

When we wanted to sell our home back in 1977 we told all of the neighbors in our street about it. It wasn't more than a day or two when one of our neighbor's friends dropped by, made us a good offer, and bought it.

The one we had just bought was a really good deal thanks entirely to our realtor. She had called me up at work and said "I have just taken a listing on your ideal home, meet me there ASAP.

I called my wife and we met at the home. The owners had called our realtor after a big argument that ended in them wanting a divorce, they hadn't researched the value of it and had agreed to the price of $107,000 that our realtor had suggested.

We had earlier looked at one on the next street that was listed by its realtor owner for $150,000 but it had features that we didn't like, primarily a swimming pool and a corner lot.

Anyway the one we looked at for $107,000 was perfect in every way, particularly because it was at the bottom of a very quiet court and had a side yard that had not been landscaped and was perfect for my future vegetable garden, as well as having the largest lot in the development. We made a full price offer and signed it that evening. The deal was done and we have lived there ever since, and watched its value soar over the years, since it's now in a prime location in Silicon Valley (which was called the Santa Clara Valley back in those days.)

The next development was that the other realtors in the office had clients that would have paid much more for the home but since we had a signed purchase agreement there was nothing the owners could do to cancel it.

[Mary Ann]

I am a practicing Roman Catholic married to a lukewarm Christian-who happens to have a Phd in Finance with experience in personal finance. I wanted to sell our house for the past three years and did buy the house statue of St. Joseph. He was loath to give up the tax deduction. I never buried it; but I did pray to him. Well, a year ago, the apartment of my dreams opened up, he liked it, ( and recognized that the stairs in our house were becoming a major problem) and we got it. (there was an application process and it was not a given that we would get it) So we had a house to sell. It sold in two weeks. You could say that we priced it right or were just lucky-and both would be true. But I did thank St. Joseph and the statue has a place of honor.

I also submit you are giving St. Joseph a place of honor - in your blog. And on today-see an the first paragraph from a blog I get from Notre Dame in South Bend.

For centuries, May 1, known as May Day, was celebrated as a traditional springtime festival date in Europe. As the Industrial Revolution changed the face of society, May 1 also became a date on which unions and political activists organized activities to advocate for workers. This day became known as International Workers’ Day, and is especially popular in communist states.

St. Joseph has a traditional feast day on March 19, but for a time, the Church had also honored Joseph during the second week of Easter. In 1955, this feast was transformed to the feast of St. Joseph the Worker and moved permanently to May 1 to highlight Joseph’s patronage of workers and craftsmen.

[crashdamage1957]

Bury a St. Joseph statue upside-down in your yard, facing toward the for-sale house, and get a buyer for the house WITHOUT actually listing the home for sale, and I'll call THAT a miracle.

[pk]

fmf
Im looking for the links of your posts about you relocating to OK for new job. Can you please direct me to those links.

thanks

[FMF]

pk --

They were on Wealth Lion. What specifically do you want to know?

[pk]

fmf,
I want to read your journey on landing a new job in OK. I think it was very detailed multi part series. Please share.

thanks

[FMF]

pk --

It was actually one post. I'll be giving an update soon, so stay tuned.