In Cooling Market, Sellers Turn To Patron Saint

As the real-estate market softens, some people are turning to faith - and a shovel - to sell their stagnant properties.

According to tradition, burying a statue of St. Joseph in the lawn - and praying to the patron saint of house sellers - will help a real-estate deal.

And with sales of existing single-family homes falling significantly in Central Florida and much of the country, it's a tradition that appeals to sellers such as Tricia Caldiero.

Caldiero's three-bedroom Deltona home, priced at $219,000, has been on the market for more than nine months.

"Nothing is happening. And I am desperate," Caldiero said. "I thought it would sell, piece of cake."

Caldiero, who recently adopted a baby and moved back to New York, is juggling two mortgages.

So she begged her real-estate agent to submerge the tiny St. Joseph statue in the lawn. Another is buried at Caldiero's New York home.

"Whichever (house) sells first, I'm just going to live in the other one," she said. "It's in God's hands now."

While home sales are slow, the sale of St. Joseph statues is anything but sluggish.

"It's gone absolutely bananas," said Ann DeMartino, owner of TWOS Sales, Inc., a St. Joseph statue wholesale company in Illinois. "It's hard to keep up with the amount of orders."

In a regular year, she usually sells 80,000 to 90,000 statue kits.

But this year, she already has sold more than 100,000.

"People just turn to faith and prayer," she said. "It shouldn't be your last resort, but a lot of times, that's what it is."

The key to the tradition, according to one Roman Catholic group, is devotion. Without prayer and faith, the burial is just plain superstition.

"The distinction is what the disposition of the individual is," said Mike Sullivan, vice president of Catholics United for the Faith.

The church itself has neither condoned nor condemned the practice, Sullivan said.

"It's never been encouraged or discouraged," he said. "But the practice of asking intercession from the saints is certainly encouraged."

Web sites that sell the statues said the tradition dates back hundreds of years, to European nuns looking for land for their convents. They buried medals of St. Joseph and asked for his blessing.

Phil Cates, owner of the Web site stjosephstatue.com, sells thousands of statues each month. Florida is his biggest market. Originally a skeptic, Cates latched onto the idea for its marketing value. But the thousands of testimonials he has heard have convinced him.

"When I started this thing back in 1990, I thought this thing was kind of a fluke, a novelty," he said. "With this much evidence in front of me, I'd be a fool not to be a believer."

Another St. Joseph entrepreneur, Ron Weissman, started an Internet business in June. The Delray Beach, Fla., man said he has been "flabbergasted" by the sales at goodfortuneonline.net.

"We expected hundreds, and we're selling thousands," Weissman said. "It's just amazing to me, and I guess you have to attribute it to the downturn."

The Internet isn't the only place to find the statues. The Abbey Catholic Book and Gift Store in Orlando has stocked the statues since before the new owners took over in 1989. It sells an average of one or two a day.

"They've always sold really well," owner Sandy Wilkinson said. "We have a lot of people who come back and tell us, yes, it did work."

According to Realtor Don Kiolbasa, the statues should be buried upside down, facing the road, in the front of the house. Once the house sells, the statue should be dug up.

"I can't tell you how many St. Josephs I've put in the ground," said Kiolbasa, of Watson Realty in Oviedo, Fla. "In this market, I've been putting them in all the listings."

His partner, Erika Szabo, has taken to the trend as well.

"I actually started doing it six months ago, when the market changed," she said. "The overabundance of inventory has made it (selling houses) more challenging."

Szabo said the tradition boosts the morale of sellers.

"I think it makes it a little more enjoyable for the customers, and families and the children," she said. But it's just a small part of the equation. "You have to put in 120 percent still."

Though the tradition may be familiar to some, homeowner Bob Konen hadn't heard of it. A lifelong Catholic, he was wary of putting a sacred figure headfirst in the dirt.

"I had to look it up myself to believe it," said Konen, whose home in Celebration, Fla., is listed for $979,000.

He hopes the statue will add a bit of faith - and some fun - to the home sale.

"We're just going to hope St. Joseph might bring us a blessing," Konen said.


Source: The Orlando Sentinel