Home-staging firm Showhomes Tampa has taken a novel approach to selling high-end properties whose owners live elsewhere: It has brought in families as “human props” to live in the homes for a discount in exchange for keeping the home so clean it looks like they don’t live there at all, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
While that might seem paradoxical, the firms says when people live in a home, they imbue the home with an “energy” that helps the home sell faster and for more money.
The “home managers” must have the home ready to show at any moment with precise attention to detail. Every item (pillows, towels, toothbrushes, books) has a rule about what it must look like at showing, and rules are enforced by random, rigorous inspections.
“They have to live a very different, very difficult life,” Kim Magnuson, a Showhomes Tampa sales director told the paper. Franchise owner Linda Saavedra added, “The home managers act like human props … and (with buyers) it’s like magic. It works phenomenally well.”
Source: tampabay.com
