Saint in a Box

AOL Real Estate had an interesting article this week on “saint in a box.” It talked about using divine intervention to sell your home. (Hey, I’ll take all the help I can get!)

Years ago I was in one of the MetroTex Service Centers and ran across figurines of St. Joseph for sale alongside the open house signs, lockboxes, and other real estate related paraphernalia. I thought that was very curious.

I asked the lady working there if we were now selling religious artifacts on the side to make a little more money for the association. She said no, did you read the instructions on the box? Come to find out, according to legend, if you have your house for sale and bury a St. Joseph statue in the yard, head down, facing in the direction you want to move to, your home will sell quickly. You must bury it in the backyard and say the prayer that comes in the box.

Some conservative Catholics venerate St. Joseph as the saint who grants an easy death but he also is the Patron Saint of real estate matters and home sales. I don’t necessarily know how those two jobs works together but there it is.

Have your house for sale; just bury a St. Joseph and the underground real estate agent will go to work. You can still buy them at the MetroTex Service Centers, $7.95 and instructions are included. A real estate agent friend of mine, Nanci, tells the story about another divine intervention.

It's Haunted SignSeems Nanci had a house listed for sale that was haunted. This wasn’t one of your mean, scary ghosts; it was a little girl in a white christening dress. The neighbors confirmed that they had seen the little girl walking in the side yard between their house and the house for sale. The sellers had confided this information to Nanci who decided better to be safe than sorry and told the new buyers about the ghost.

I have personally done an unscientific study and determined that about 50% of home buyers will not buy a house if you tell them it’s haunted. Some of them will immediately run out of the house if they think it’s haunted!

Back to Nanci’s buyers. They still wanted to buy the house but wondered if it would be okay if their priest exorcised the ghost first. Nanci and the sellers agreed that would be no problem and the priest went to work. The buyers moved in and, I assume, lived happily ever after or, at least, ghost less.