davidd's A DOLL A DAY 2024

[davidd]

I wish someone would help me with MY projects.

You need a Smart Doll or two!  

---

8 August - A Doll A Day 2024:
.

Mythic Real Estate Pull

.

Behold the Mythic Amazingness of St. Joseph!

Or, specifically, a miniature plastic statue of St. Joseph.

There is a legend, of relatively recent origin as far as legends go, suggesting that a small statue of St. Joseph can be helpful in selling a home or property.

Many sources suggest burying the statue in the yard of the property that is for sale. Others say that placing the statue in a place of prominence and offering a prayer or request is sufficient.

My eksperience, to keep things succinct: it works.

1. Incident One: when I decided to leave Hawaii nine years ago, three separate real estate agents looked over the house I would be selling and estimated a selling price within a particular range, a range that was far too low to make selling the house worthwhile. Although the house had some peculiarities, as well as some condition issues, my online research suggested a listing price significantly higher than what the "professional agents" were saying. Ultimately, I "self-listed" the house through a help-you-sell type agency (Congress Real Estate). I had heard the St. Joseph legend somewhere, so it occurred to me that Ol' Joe might be helpful in moving a property that had some quirks. I purchased the small statue online and buried it in the sand in front of the house shortly after the listing went public. The sale wasn't immediate -- it took about three months to get a solid offer -- but ultimately the house closed for $210,000 more than the professional agents suggested as a starting price. (I ex-cavated St. Joseph from his cozy resting place in the warm Hawaii sand and brought him with me to the barren arid wasteland in which I dwell today.)

2. A relative has been trying to sell his vacation home for about nine months. Despite lowering the asking price several times, he had no offers and no significant interest. Last month we were talking about his house, and I said, "this might sound silly to you, and I can't guarantee results, but..." and ex-plained about the St. Joseph statue. While we were on the phone, he said, "here it is, I see it on Amazon, eight bucks! Okay, it's on the way!" The statue arrived the next day through Amazon Prime. He set it up where he was living, intending to take it to the vacation home later, and read through the prayer included on the handy instruction sheet a couple of times. Three days later he had a cash offer and his house was under contract.

3. Three days was pretty impressive! But it gets better! A while back I received an unsolicited offer in the mail to purchase my vacation bungalow in Florida. The Florida house needs some ex-pensive work (the air conditioning system conked out last fall - $8k to fix it), so I'd been considering selling it. The unsolicited offer was from an investment company who claimed to buy houses "as is," but after making a very generous offer, upon a final inspection "the investors" decided to back out of the deal. That was a disappointment, but it started me thinking more seriously about maybe selling the Florida house. I conducted some internet research, and made the mistake of filling out an online form which resulted in my being deluged with calls from potential listing agents. Some of the agents were extremely pushy and some were mellow. I returned one of the calls, and after some back and forth I got a market estimate from an agent willing to take on the property. The agent seemed straightforward and offered a lot of caveats: sales in that neighborhood had been brisk but had slowed; prices were softening slightly; time on market was up; and the a/c problem was a BIG issue in Florida, as was the age of the roof and an unsightly berm in the back yard related to a previous septic tank installation. We agreed on a listing price with the understanding that the house might not sell or might not sell for a long time because of the issues.

During the ten days or so of getting ready -- filling out paperwork, having a neighbor do a quick cleaning, waiting for photos, etcetera -- I started "chatting" with St. Joseph from Hawaii, who had been sitting on a bookshelf, every day; not saying a prayer, but casual-kine conversation: how ya doin' today, you think this is a good idea selling the Florida place, good job on that friend's house, thanks for helping him with that.

On Friday afternoon the real estate agent from Florida called and said the listing was live. After I got off the phone, I said to St. Joe, "Okay, Joe, if this is the right thing to do, then let's see if we can make this happen. How many showings can we have over the weekend? At that point I also turned the statue slightly to face to the southeast, toward Florida.

An hour later the agent called back. "I can't believe it, I already have a showing scheduled." By Friday night there were six or eight showings scheduled for Saturday.

By 2pm Saturday afternoon there were two cash offers with no contingencies and no inspections. The real estate agent was floored. "I cannot impress upon you enough how rare a 'no inspections' offer is," he said. Both offers were a little low, but not unduly so. And some "wiggle room" had been built in to the price. Counter-offer, counter-proposal, and by 4pm the house was under contract. I'm not making a profit, but once the dust settles I'll pocket exactly what I paid three years ago, without having to invest thirty- to forty-thousand dollars to upgrade the roof, the septic, the electrical panel, and replacing the a/c system.

So... the Legend of St. Joseph; am I a believer?

Yes.

The St. Joseph pictured here, with two sales under his belt (a +$200k over estimate sale and a less-than-24-hour cash sale), is this one:
https://www.amazon.com/St-Joseph-Home-Se...000WMH1CQ/

The St. Joseph who helped the relative with his moribund listing is this one:
https://www.amazon.com/Religious-Gifts-J...007XG6B2K/

Further reading:

Snopes Fact Check:
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/property-rites/

HomeLight Real Estate:
https://www.homelight.com/blog/st-joseph...ell-house/

SimpleMost Lifestyle Blog:
https://www.simplemost.com/the-story-beh...our-house/

I Sold My House website:
https://www.isoldmyhouse.com/saint-joseph-statue/

---

P.S.: yes, the rainbow in the background is real. The "barren arid wasteland" has a few redeeming charms.