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Courtney Orton reporting It's tough to sell a home in a slowing real estate market, but a service called "home tending" claims to be the best way to get the for-sale sign out of the front yard.
It's kind of like hiring a house-sitter, only it costs the homeowner nothing. Tenders move in and make the place look like a model home while they live there short-term.
"It's not something you're tied into long-term. It's nothing permanent, it's somewhere to keep your things," home tender Kasi Gentry said.
Gentry and her roommate, Shona Krekelberg, are the tenders of a $500,000 home in Sugar House. The two are flight attendants who moved in two months ago when they relocated to Salt Lake for their jobs.
"For somebody who doesn't have the desire to be nailed down to a contract, this actually works quite well," Krekelberg said.
Krekelberg and Gentry signed a 5-month lease with Designer Home Tending, a Boise-based company that moves renters into vacant homes.
"People don't buy houses, they buy homes. When they walk into the home and it smells good, feels good, and is warm, we've had people who've wanted to buy the home with the home tenders furniture because it just looks so great," explained Cathy Cardenas, owner and founder of Designer Home Tending.
The tenders pay a $500 fee to live in this house on Windsor Lane. They agree to furnish every square foot of the home, even if that means buying more furniture. That's in addition to keeping it in tip-top shape and paying utilities, which in this case is more than the rent.
"I've never had a home this size that I've had to cover the cost of utilities before, and that's not something that's labeled out very much when we stepped into the contract. Those are costs I didn't realize," Krekelberg said.
On the flip side, it's free for homeowners trying to get their homes off the market. "They get the security their house looks nice. They don't have to worry about it if there's big weeds. The home tenders pull the weeds. It's a peace of mind for them." Cardenas said.
Designer Home Tending currently has tenders in nine Wasatch Front homes. They say three of those homes got offers within the first few weeks. If the home sells, home tenders only have 10 days to get out.
For more information on home tending, click the related link.
