Home-selling spells
So you think you’re desperate to get your home off the market? Andre Cooray takes a look at some of the weird and wonderful tactics home sellers in the US are resorting to
Whether it’s black magic or white magic, voodoo or hoodoo, Americans will try almost anything these days, if it means clinching the deal to sell their homes. At the very least, the sheer tenacity of these homeowners should be applauded; if there’s nothing more to lose, there’s no harm in trying, right? Decide for yourself what works and what’s crazy as we investigate the latest phenomenon to sweep across the US real-estate market.
If you happen to be in the States and see someone digging a hole in their backyard in the dead of night, check to see what they are burying before calling the police – it might be a statue rather than a dead body. Yes, an ancient Catholic ritual, which involves burying a statue of St Joseph upside down in the backyard of a home to bring luck to the homeowner, is experiencing a revival. People with no backyards, who hope to accelerate a property sale in this way, can bury St Joseph in a plant pot.
Those who believe in the power of voodoo are trying something similar. The voodoo doll is sprinkled with a special seed, doused in oil and buried, this time in the front yard. Anxious US homeowners are buying customised spells online, along with the dolls, to help speed up a home sale.
Another superstition enjoying a resurgence, is the Native American tradition of smudging – a sacred smoke blessing that is believed to ‘clean’ homes on a spiritual level. Practitioners burn special herbs in a ‘sacred’ bowl, and the smoke is said to attach itself to (and thereby dispel) any negative energy in the home. As the smoke disappears so too does the negative energy, thus making a sale more likely.
Professional ‘smudgers’ claim they can cleanse homes of unresolved issues (left behind by previous tenants, owners and visitors) that may be repelling potential buyers. The cleansing is also supposed to help potential buyers feel welcome, safe and eager to move in. On a practical level, of course, smudging is a great way to make rooms smell pleasant prior to a viewing.
Attracting the right flow of energy, known as chi, into one’s living space is something we in Hong Kong are familiar with, and now a growing number of Americans are turning to feng shui in the hope that it will help them sell their homes. Worried owners are advised to visually affirm the sale of their home by writing the word ‘sold’ across a photograph of the property. Inexpensive ways to improve a home’s saleability through feng shui include buying a plant or changing the colour of the paintwork.
So are Hong Kongers conjuring spells to help sell their homes? Are our feng shui experts being run off their feet? It doesn’t seem so. “Local Hong Kong people have always traditionally been influenced by feng shui, particularly when buying properties. In this economy, we haven’t found that sellers have been using these methods more than they would normally do. In fact, what we have found is that many sellers have withdrawn their properties from the market and are waiting for the market to recover before trying to sell again. Hong Kong homeowners are pretty shrewd and would rather wait for the up-cycle in the market rather than resort to more superstitious means,” says Sonia Cheng, marketing manager and negotiator at Sallmanns Residential Ltd, Hong Kong.
“Also in the current market, prospective purchasers are all looking for bargains, so one needs to be negotiable on the price,” Cheng notes, “even if it’s just to make them feel like they got a good deal.”
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