Can Sexy Models Help Sell a House?

Nov 26, 2018

Single-family homes and condos sold for a new record high median price of $270,000 in the third quarter

A real estate broker in Texas came up with a scintillating solution for getting buyer interest in a house that has been on the market for too long: Use barely-clothed fitness models in the online listings.

According to a Washington Post report, real estate broker Kristin Gyldenege was having difficulty selling a $230,000 three-bedroom house in Conroe, Texas. The problem wasn’t the property, but its location: Conroe is 40 miles north of Houston and the community saw the destruction of several homes during Hurricane Harvey in 2017. After 40 days on the market, Gyldenege decided to spice up the property listing on the Houston Association of Realtors’ Website with some barely-clad models.

The new listing photographs featured a tanned, blonde woman clad in knee socks, black panties and an open-backed t-shirt and a shirtless muscular man. The models appeared separately showing off the rooms of the house (and, of course, themselves), and they posed together with the man giving the woman a massage (she is face down and shirtless, while he hovers over her).

"I didn't want anything slutty," Gyldenege said. "I wanted to represent a young couple who was on top of their game all the way around and who had just moved into this great house."

However, the marketing plan was a bit too risqué for its own good. Gyldenege removed the photos from the online listing following 100 complaints filed with the Houston Association of Realtors. Gyldenege stated that less than 1,000 people viewed the listing during the first 40 days, but 20,000 clicked on the listing once the fitness models turned up and six people toured the home in a single day.

"In the end, that's what matters—doing what's best for my client," she said.

The property is still on the market—the fitness models, however, have yet to turn up in any other listing.

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Phil Hall

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Nov 26, 2018

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