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Home buyers perusing New Hampshire real estate listings online may need to do a double-take when they come across a property with a T-Rex baking cookies in the kitchen—or a trio of dinosaurs playing baseball in the driveway.
Jonathan Benton, a real estate pro with East Key Realty in Bedford, N.H., hopes prospective buyers will find the $590,000 listing to be “dino-mite” and “roar-worthy” of a share on social media. After all, as Benton learned earlier this fall, T-Rexes can help sell homes.
He used the marketing tactic just last month to generate attention for another home in Nashua, N.H. As soon as he uploaded property images—which included an inflatable T-Rex mowing the lawn, doing yoga in an empty bedroom and playing boardgames in the den—buyer interest and showing requests for the Nashua home surged. The home sold at the end of September for $315,000, just $3,000 shy of its original list price when it first hit the market in July.
With the homeowners’ permission, Benton decided a T-Rex was exactly what his current listing in Londonderry, N.H., needed to ignite more online attention from prospective buyers.
“We needed to get more eyes on [the home], as any agent knows a property can get a little stale after the first 15 days,” Benton says. “I knew I wanted to have a zany character doing domestic activities at the property. And people like dinosaurs; they’re recognizable, non-polarizing. They’re imposing with the big head but oddly non-threatening with the tiny arms and goofy face.”
And who doesn’t appreciate a good laugh, too?
Check out these pictures of Benton’s home staging using a T-Rex.
Benton poked fun at the images in the listing description, detailing the property’s 1.91 “jawesome acres,” its “triceratops-sized” mudroom and a basement perfect for a “rock-tail party.” Even the bedroom’s vaulted ceilings would “make a pterodactyl jealous,” the listing description reads.
“Silly sells, and fun is contagious,” Benton says. “We could all do with a bit more fun and levity in our workday. And at best, [I figured] this would help my client reach more buyers.”
So far, the listing is generating media attention: Publications as far as Australia have been writing about the listing. But potential buyers closer to home are hearing about it, too. “I have had buyers and real estate agents from all over New England reaching out to me, saying they want to know more about the property—or at the very least to say that it was a hilarious idea and they’re sharing it with friends or potential buyers,” Benton says.
Over the years, Halloween has inspired many real estate agents to cast costumed characters in their listings, from giant pandas to Spider-Man and even horror-flick icon Freddy Krueger.
