The Hardest Working Agent In Real Estate!

The Hardest Working Agent In Real Estate!

For years I have used the Saint Joseph statue.  No I am not Catholic, but when the market died in 2008, nothing was selling.  So I said to myself why not. I can tell you it works.  I even did it during the good times as I would get the best ever multiple offers on the homes.

I also list a lot in the rural areas and luxury homes which are slower to sell.  This works!  I am a Believer (not the Monkees’s song, lol)!

St Joseph History:

The history behind the tradition to bury a statue of Saint Joseph is hundreds of years old (A.D. 1515 – 1582). It began in Europe with nuns at a Closter needed to expand their land, and after a prayer to St. Joseph they buried medals of him in the ground.

After a short time their prayers had been heard and they got more land. This old story has lived on until today but on the tradition has changed from burying medals to burying statues.

St. Joseph was the husband to Virgin Mary and the earthly father of Jesus of Nazareth.

We don’t know a lot about Joseph, except that he was a skilled craftsman and a good father. He became a Saint for workers and it is very common to pray to him to get his help with house sales and many other things.

The reason he was made a Patron Saint is that he taught Jesus the craftsman’s trade and made sure that Jesus always was well housed. That is the reason why he always helped people find a house they were looking for and in that way help the people who need to sell their homes.

History to Tradition:

Under the years the tradition of burying a medal went to bury a statue with certain directions. And today the tradition is huge with over 2 millions of people doing this for a better sale. See the testimonials and read about peoples own stories of how the used the tradition. Saint Joseph is one of the world’s most popular Saints over the world. St Joseph’s history has in many ways under the centuries kept to impress people. You can read more of his astonishing work in the book “The Underground Real Estate Agent”. We believe that faith in the home selling saint has proven to be a savior for many people. Have faith and pray to Saint Joseph.

Many realtors have their “Believe It or Not” stories.

Such was the case of a woman who moved from Maryland to Arizona.

After eight months of paying the mortgage on her unsold home in Baltimore, she sent her agent a statue and burial instructions.

Within two weeks, the house sold.

Another case involved a couple moving because of a new job. But their house, which was in a very active neighborhood, wasn’t doing anything, even with St. Joseph in the ground. But St. Joseph’s presumed inattention turned out to be for the better. The husband got a better job offer, and that’s when the house sold.

In 1995, Betsy Moyer was determined to sell her house on Lake Avenue in Baltimore at a premium. She listed it for $15,000 more than other sellers in the same neighborhood. After seven quiet months a friend recommended that Moyer plant St. Joseph.

The next week a group of nuns arrived to look at the house. Three months later, the house was sold at the highest price ever in that area, according to her agent.

Origins:   Those trying to sell a home often feel in need of a miracle when a quick sale fails to materialize. Folklore purports to have the remedy: Bury a plastic statue of St. Joseph in the yard, and a successful closing won’t be long in the offing. Realtors across the nation swear by this.

The reputed origins of the practice vary. Some say an order of European nuns in the Middle Ages buried a medal of St. Joseph while asking the saint to intercede in its quest for a convent. Others claim it may be connected to a practice of German carpenters who buried the statues in the foundations of houses they built and said a prayer to St. Joseph. Yet others trace the connection to a chapel building effort in Montreal in the late 1800s. Brother Andre Bessette wanted to buy some land on Mount Royal in Montreal to construct a small chapel called an oratory. When the landowners refused to sell, Bessette began planting medals of St. Joseph on the property. In 1896 the owners suddenly relented and sold, and Bessette was able to build his oratory.

But these theories may well be instances of retrofitting lore to a custom because mentions older than contemporary times have failed to materialize in standard folklore references. That the custom now has an interesting backstory does not mean its backstory is valid or even that old.

The practice of burying a plastic St. Joseph to help speed the sale of a home dates at least to 1979 in the U.S.A. In 1990 it seemingly became all the rage, with realtors buying plastic saints’ statues by the gross. The standard practice calls for the statue to be dug up once the property has sold and placed on the grateful seller’s mantel or in another place of honor. Some, however, who have trouble remembering where they interred their statues prefer to leave the buried saints where they’ve been placed to help protect the properties for the new owners. (Which may not work all that well — some believe leaving the statue underground will cause the land to continue changing hands.)

But why Joseph, you ask? Why not another saint — say, St. Jude, patron saint of lost causes?

Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father, is the patron saint of home and family in the Roman Catholic religion. According to one of the hottest new customs, the statues are buried upside down and facing the road in front of a house for sale.

Actually, different realtors quote different placements of the statue:

Upside down, near the ‘For Sale’ sign in the front yard. (An upside down St. Joseph is said to work extra hard to get out of the ground and onto someone’s mantel.)

Right side up.

In the rear yard, possibly in a flower bed.

Lying on its back and pointing towards the house “like an arrow.”

Three feet from the rear of the house.

Facing the house.

Facing away from the house. (One who tried this reported the house across the street sold, and it hadn’t even been up for sale.)

Exactly 12 inches deep.

The custom of burying St. Joseph has become so widespread that some retailers even offer a Home Sale Kit, which includes a plastic statue, a prayer card, and an introduction to the St. Joseph home sale practice.

Prudent realtors also recommend the following advice in addition to burying Joe: “For this practice to be fully effective, the seller must, of course, first do such practical yet all important chores as completing all necessary fix-ups, properly staging the home and finally, adjusting the price so as to exactly reflect market value.”

Many who have experienced difficulty selling their homes have reported seemingly miraculous sales shortly after burying a statue of St. Joseph on their property. Stephen Binz’s 2003 book, Saint Joseph, My Real Estate Agent, is replete with many such examples. However, one tale included in the book (which might well be apocryphal) indicates that everything doesn’t always go as planned. One impatient man moved his statue from the front yard to the backyard to the side of the house and finally threw it in the trash. A few days later the frustrated seller opened the newspaper and saw the headline “Local Dump Has Been Sold.”  TOO FUNNY!

Anyway when I bury Saint Joseph, I go with my gut feeling whether to bury him in the front yard or back yard.  NEVER USE THE SIDE YARD!  So Good Luck!