Jessica Arnett has sold a lot of homes in her years as a real estate agent in Texas, so you could say she’s seen a thing or two.
But when her clients suggested she throw on a bear suit to help sell their home — referencing something they saw her jokingly post about on Facebook — she figured, why not?
Scott and Nadine Kapich bought the Springs, Texas, home seven years ago when it was brand new for $146,000.
They put the house on the market about a month ago for $199,990 but were not seeing any interest.
“I approached Jessica with the idea. She made a post on Facebook as a joke,” Scott said over email. “When it came time to re-list, I called her and said ‘Remember that Facebook post with the panda in the photos? Let’s do that!’ I never thought it would get much buzz.”
Although he said he originally suggested it just for the laugh, he really was looking for ways to get some eyes on the house, which had sat untouched for three weeks.
[Tweet “Pandas are not indigenous to the US, but this one wants to sell you a home in Springs, TX”]
At the behest of Scott, Arnett rented a panda suit from a local costume store. Although her original panda suit post on Facebook was a joke (she admitted to realtor.com that she wouldn’t do it again for fear of it becoming stupid if overused), the response from interested buyers surprised her.
“I don’t know if it’s drawing in people who are just crazy or if we’re getting real buyers, but so far it’s been good,” she told realtor.com
Scott said the photos garnered some attention and even turned into a couple showings of the property. He said an open house over the weekend was also successful.
It’s not uncommon marketing to put an animal on something in order to sell it, but most people are worried about room lighting and staging when it comes to listing photos of homes for sale.
If you’re not up for sporting a panda suit, there are a lot of free and for-sale photography apps available on your smartphone that can help create stunning listing photos.