Widely tauted as perhaps the most over-the-top sales scheme to sell a house (at least this summer) is Deven Traboscia’s marketing strategy to sell her own 4 bedroom Florida house. Auctioning off her Palm Beach Gardens home on e-Bay and Craigslist, the 42 year-old single mom and licensed Realtor added herself to the pot, to sweeten the deal.
Bids opened at 99 cents. That, for a house, might seem too good to pass up for most homes, let alone one that included a “hot mamma”. This particular house-for-sale had one tiny little catch though: a whopping $500,000 for shipping charges. Actually, it had another catch (for better or worse): a wife … included in the sale. Trabosh was selling her South Florida house… and… looking for the fairytale ending.
Struggling to sell property in a semi-stagnant Florida real estate market… she came up with a plan to combine love and real estate. Two for the price of one is catchy in America, where ‘more’ is better, and supersizing it is the order of the day. While many Realtors rummage through the more traditional ways to make a lisitng stand out: spiffing up the interiors, and sparking up the ‘curb appeal’, and designing colorful and descriptive marketing pieces, Deven Traboscia literally just grabbed the media. Overnight, hers became a household name.
Did the house sell? “No” … But… She gave it a shot. e-Bay pulled her ad: their guidelines and regulations “prohibiting the sale of human beings… or body parts“. Her auction ground to a halt, before a sale could be finalized.
ABC covered the story. CBS chimed in. NBC did a piece.
Each interviewed, quoted, photographed, and plastered her name and her story on TV and through the internet.
Newpapers across Florida, across the continent, and around the globe gave her instant notariety.
Her house may not have sold, but she took full advantage of the media. Before her ads were pulled from eBay, Deven Traboscia got her money’s worth… and a nibble: An Italian gentleman expressed interest in flying over for a “viewing” …wanting apparently a “CASA A MIAMI” because somehow Miami was suggested as the location for that viewing. Miami is a tad distant from Palm Beach Gardens , and I usually recommend that my clients see the actual house before buying…but… amazing things are possible on the internet! Visual tours, and Google Earth give us tools that aid in visualizing a property, and the Palm Beach Gardens house was a package deal afterall. I have to hand it to her for being creative. Hers is now literally a household name…for better or worse: ‘Home for sale includes Wife“… Catchy, isn’t it? We all need to be creative in a tough market! And using technology, and media coverage, works!
