Homeseller Hires Actors To Pretend Neighborhood Occupied

The L.A. Daily News reports:

The scent of baking scones wafts through the house as children's feet pound the floors.

"Dad" rushes to get things ready as "Mom" lounges on the couch.

It's a birthday party for Camille Chen. "Husband" Jaason Simmons has breakfast in the oven and there's about to be a surprise: He and the kids remodeled the den into a game room and won't Mom, a notorious poker fiend, be pleased.

Except Chen and Simmons aren't married, the kids aren't theirs, they don't really live in the house and they're all Centex Homes marketing director Amanda Larson's employees.

They've been hired to lounge around a model home, read magazines and occasionally pretend like they're having breakfast.

Welcome to the new reality of real estate.

Dallas-based Centex built four model homes, filled them with furniture, then took things one bizarre step further. The company hired four actors to play the role of a family, in a role that's half improv, half sales demo.

Centex has 166 homes to sell in its Milestone development, starting at $507,500 and heading into the $600,000 range, and figured it needed just a little something extra to entice people to come check things out.

On Saturday, Home Life made its debut for a public audience, with more than 100 visitors streaming through the faux family tableau.

Some visitors seemed a little taken aback, but others joined right in with the birthday celebration. One family played along with the whole thing, asking how long Simmons and Chen had lived there, then turned chilly when asked questions by a reporter. Centex employees sat on the periphery, but no one seemed to question who they were or why they were there.

Great moments in real estate investing.What more can we say other than the top is here for some markets.