Where, Oh Where, Did St. Joseph Go?

By Bill Primavera

There was a time when the real estate industry always paid some kind of homage to St. Joseph in the sale or purchase of a property, but as a realtor and in a booming market I haven’t heard him mentioned for some time.

Where, oh where, did he go?

How well I remember those halcyon days when we all turned to St. Joseph (who happens to be my patron saint) for help and guidance in marketing our properties.  Some time ago, at one well-attended open house for agents, I remember that it was the main topic of conversation.

One agent wondered aloud whether more of us were asking seller clients to bury a statue of St. Joseph in their yards, a custom which many, regardless of their religion, believe helps to sell homes. There were a couple of giggles in response, but one by one, each agent related his or her personal story about the practice.

“I’m Jewish,” said one woman agent, “but there have been times when I’ve told my clients that I hear that there just may be something to this St. Joseph belief, and that it can’t hurt to try it.”

A husband-and-wife team of realtors, who are Catholics, was most familiar with the practice, and even knew the right and wrong ways to bury the statue.

“You have to bury him upside down facing the house,” said the husband, “and you have to dig him up once the house is sold and place him in an honored place in your new home, like the mantel.”

One no-nonsense female realtor who would not seem like someone prone to suggesting hocus pocus to market a property, nonetheless said, “I give a statue of St. Joseph to those clients where it seems appropriate. After all, this is a religious thing, and you must feel that your seller would be receptive. But, it’s amazing how many coincidences have happened where people believe that St. Joseph helped them out.”

One real estate office manager disclosed without hesitation that he has given a St. Joseph statue to nearly all of his clients.

“I even suggested the idea to an audience of 300 agents at a real estate marketing seminar, and it was amazing that so many in the audience were already doing it,” he volunteered.

Not all realtors are on board with the practice. One agent, a self-described devout Catholic, rolled her eyes when asked about the St. Joseph thing.

“Statues are meant to honor the saints they represent,” she said with conviction. “Considering that St. Joseph was the earthly father of Jesus and the protector of his mother, Mary, why would anyone show such a lack of respect as to bury him in the ground, and upside down at that?”

I learned that at that time the Orange County Association of Realtors sold St. Joseph statues to its members. I checked and found that they were available for sale in their offices in West Nyack and Goshen. When I e-mailed its president asking for a comment about the service, how long it had been offered and her personal feelings about it, I received no response.

I also called two Catholic parishes in our area leaving messages for a monsignor at one and a priest at the other, asking what they would advise if a parishioner asked for the Church’s position on this practice. Neither returned my call. Were they embarrassed by such a suggestion?

As with most folklore, especially those involving religion or superstition, it’s hard to track down the roots of the custom.

Some real estate bloggers report that it originated in the Middle Ages when an order of European nuns buried a medal of St. Joseph asking that the saint intercede in a quest for a convent. Others say that it is connected to carpenters in Germany who buried medals of St. Joseph in the foundations of houses they built.

Some suggest that the practice may have originated as recently as the early 1970s by realtors in a down market, or it may have been re-popularized at that time.

There are some amusing anecdotes one finds in blogs about the proper way to bury the statue. It is reported that one homeowner mistakenly faced the statue away from his house, rather than toward it, and the house across the street sold without even being on the market!

Another story is about a man who couldn’t figure out the right location for the statue to work. In frustration, he threw it out with the trash, only to read soon after in his local newspaper that the city’s garbage dump had been sold!

There are websites capitalizing on the tradition. In selling the statue, one of them advises that the practice works most effectively “if the homeowner completes all the necessary fix-ups in the home, has it staged and, finally, adjusts the sales price to reflect market value.” Well, duh!

Bill Primavera is a realtor associated with William Raveis Real Estate and founder of Primavera Public Relations, Inc. (www.PrimaveraPR.com). To engage the services of The Home Guru to market your home for sale, call 914-522-2076.