Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

Adventures in real estate….



As many of you know I’m selling my house. I currently live in South Florida, which our friends in the press have called “Ground Zero for the real estate crisis”.

Great.

I want to move back to Southern California (Which I guess would be the “1st floor” of the real estate “crisis” if South Florida is “Ground Zero”?)

I digess.

About the only thing I have going for me, beside a nice house, is that I bought back in 2003, not 2005.

Anyway, my house was listed exactly 1 month ago. So far I’ve had 19 showings, so I’m pretty happy with the traffic. Today we had 3 showings. Tomorrow we have 2 other showings plus a “second showing” (meaning someone is coming back to see it again). Cross your fingers (mine are raw).

I thought I share with you my little “showing secret”.

I have a pretty decent AV setup. I’ve got a 52″ Samsung LCD TV that is mounted to the wall. I’ve also got DirecTV and an AppleTV setup. When we leave the house for a showing I switch to the AppleTV source, the screen saver for it is great. It shows Album covers floating across the screen. Very clean, very cool and it really pops on the 52″.

This weekend I had an idea. I made a Playlist called “Home Selling Mix”
Here are the songs on the Playlist:

Home
Michael Bublé

Long Way Home
Norah Jones

Home Life
John Mayer

A House is not a home
Luther Vandross

Home
Daughtry

Home
Foo Fighters


Beautiful Homes
Chris Isaak

Happy Home
Paula Cole

***For some reason I didn’t have Motley Crue’s “Home Sweet Home” on my Mac.****

Now when I leave the house for the showing I have music playing at a lower volume, so just slightly in the background as the REALTOR takes the buyers around the house they hear the word “home…home….home..home…home”

File this under “Subliminal Showing Techniques” or SST as I’m going to call it.

Love to hear anyone’s suggestions for adding to my Playlist or you can tell me just to go bake chocolate chip cookies like everyone else.

  1. How could you leave off Motley Crue’s “Home Sweet Home”? Are you discriminating against the hair bands? Or will it make the home feel like a party house?

  2. So….last week we had a “2nd Showing” and played this background music, made sure the house sparkled, and we even baked chocolate chip cookies. Upon returning home, I found that only 1 cookie had been eaten. Hmmmm…..maybe cookies aren’t the answer.
    Today we had an appointment for another 2nd showing. In following Greg’s suggestion, I set up the TV and had the “home” music playing in the background. Greg REALLY wanted me to make cookies again but after the last round I thought maybe cookies weren’t the way to go after all, and I decided to try something different. So….I baked a loaf of fresh banana bread. I had 4 slices cut and left a knife “just in case”. The house smelled great, everything sparkled, and the music was on. Upon my return home I found that all of the slices of bread had been eaten and more had been cut. SO…my advice is to forget the cookies and go for the banana bread.
    Now let’s see if we actually get an offer….Keep your fingers crossed!

  3. This Must be the Place, Talking Heads from their album Speaking in Tongues.

    This song was prominent in the home decorating scenes from Wall Street, 25 years ago. That movie marks the high point of Charlie Sheen’s acting career and the last time that I thought Daryl Hannah looked kinda hot.

    Hope it helps get you into escrow.

  4. Couldn’t resist a few more:

    Our House / Crosby, Stills, Nash And Young
    Take The Long Way Home / Supertramp
    Take Me Home, Country Roads (Reggae) / Toots and the Maytals
    Can’t Find My Way Home / eric clapton-blind faith
    Home At Last / Steely Dan
    Brick House / Commodores
    The House I Live In / Frank Sinatra
    Homegrown Tomatoes / Guy Clark
    Heading Home / Donavon Frankenreiter
    Baby, Let’s Play House / Elvis Presley
    Homecoming King / Guster
    Back Home Again / John Denver
    Medley- Bring It On Home To Me – Send Me Some Lovin’ / John Lennon
    Homestead On The Farm / Lester Flatt
    Let Me Come On Home / Otis Redding
    Homeward Bound / Paul Simon & George Harrison
    Home / Sheryl Crow
    Slip Inside This House / 13th Floor Elevators
    Step Inside This House / Lyle Lovett & Robert Earl Keen
    Ain’t Nobody Home / B.B. King/D’Angelo
    Come on Home / Boz Scaggs
    I’ll Be Home for Christmas / The Carpenters
    I’ll Be Home for Christmas / Elvis Presley
    Daddy’s Home / Jermaine Jackson
    London Homesick Blues / Jerry Jeff Walker
    Heart Without a Home / John Wesley Harding
    We’re In Da House / Kris Kross
    Nobody Home / Pink Floyd
    I’m Comin’ Home / Robert Earl Keen
    Bring It On Home / Sonny Boy Williamson
    In This House That I Call Home / X

  5. It was a iTunes search on “House” and “Home” and I editted the list down to get just the real gems. I did get Homeward Bound but I prefer the live version with George Harrison.

    I find this much more amusing than going outside to board up my windows.

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