Ontario Real Estate Agent Makes ‘Sexy Video’ to Sell Home, Sets Women Back 40 Years

An Ontario real estate agent has released a new video to sell a home – and it’s raising a few eyebrows.

Durham-based realtor Vanessa Shelley wanted a creative way to sell an ordinary three-bedroom, three-bathroom bungalow in Courtice, Ontario. The newly renovated home was sitting vacant of furniture, so she felt the need to do something unique to showcase the property.

And something that would cost a lot less than staging a home.

The solution was a “lifestyle video” narrated in Robin Leach “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” style. “It’s like a how-to video, how to enjoy the house” she said, according to CityNews.

The thing is, it showcases more of Shelley in all her ‘hair did, nails did, everything did’ glory than the actual home. In it, she sips coffee in a short, hot pink robe on the deck in an evening gown crouched in a store space, “baking” store-bought cookies (and removing them from the oven without oven mitts), frolicking and cartwheeling her way through the backyard in short-shorts like a high school cheerleader. She also soaks in the tub while kissing a rubber ducky.

Basically, the tongue-and-cheek video makes it look more like a sorority recruitment video than a professional business marketing tool.

“It was supposed to be a cheeky, funny thing to get attention for the house,” Shelley told the Star.“It’s just a different perspective on how to sell something. Sort of how a beer commercial does things. They don’t really talk about the flavour of their beer but they talk about (how) if you drink this beer, you’re going to have fun and be in the sun and have beautiful people around you.”

Not surprisingly, the video is getting a lot of attention. While not all of it has been positive, Shelley has said that “there’s no such thing as bad publicity.” Though the video clearly leans more toward “sexy” than “professional,” it is also quite quirky and creative. I wonder whether the divided reaction to the video would be different if she wasn’t attractive, with her long, platinum blonde hair and a face full of makeup.

According to Shelley, lifestyle videos have become a trend in the real estate world in recent years. Indeed, last year the Ontario Real Estate Association suggested the use of lifestyle videos to sell homes as an added bonus to online content. But is this the future of real estate, or is it plain unprofessional? Other ‘lifestyle videos’ in recent years have included things like drone footage, scenes with actors, and music.

According to Real Estate Marketing Blog, however, Shelley’s video fits the criteria of what makes an effective real estate video: its’ funny, creative, short, provocative, and memorable. Whether it does her any justice professionally (and effectively sells the home) is another story.

Professionalism aside, some may argue that it’s also rather unprogressive to females, however creative it may be. Shelley is using her looks rather than her skills to sell the house at a time when we should be celebrating women for their brains, especially in a professional context. Not to mention, Shelley’s tactic can be dangerous. The video could very well attract the attention of men who are not in the market for real estate at all, but to meet an attractive blonde like Shelley. Not to get too morbid, but there have been cases of real estate agents being attacked and murdered during open houses. And no, we don’t mean to ‘victim shame’ her either. Sadly, it’s a legitimate concern. She is free to do what she wants and wear what she want (we do), but there is no denying that this isn’t helping women in the industry.

Sure, the video definitely has people talking – but it’s Shelley they’re discussing, not the home and whether they could see themselves living there.

In the meantime, if you are in the market for a house in Courtice, the home is currently listed at $438,900.

And yes, there are actual shots of the home on 360 Tours.

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