This link was left in the comments yesterday by ‘anonymous’ (nice name by the way). The newest twist on house marketing in the U.S.A. is to go beyond ‘home staging’ and actually hire actors to play the part of a happy family ‘living’ in the house during a sales presentation. If you like reality tv, maybe you’ll like fake reality?
SANTA CLARITA – The scent of baking scones wafts through the house as children’s feet pound the floors.
“Dad” rushes to get things ready as “Mom” lounges on the couch.
It’s a birthday party for Camille Chen. “Husband” Jaason Simmons has breakfast in the oven and there’s about to be a surprise: He and the kids remodeled the den into a game room and won’t Mom, a notorious poker fiend, be pleased.
Except Chen and Simmons aren’t married, the kids aren’t theirs, they don’t really live in the house and they’re all Centex Homes marketing director Amanda Larson’s employees.
They’ve been hired to lounge around a model home, read magazines and occasionally pretend like they’re having breakfast.
Just how effective would this be? Do you think that the emotional connection is strong enough that people pretending to have a wonderful life in a house would increase the money paid for it? And how long till we see this technique put to work in Vancouver? Would you even spot it?
