House boasts proximity to KFC, gets sold within a week

FORGET about being close to a good school or in a quiet neighbourhood, if your house is in walking distance to KFC it could be sold within the week.

Being close to KFC helped to sell a New Zealand home.

The sign said the house was “Walking distance to KFC ... but that’s not all”, and the unique marketing ploy paid off — the Auckland property sold in one week.

The three-bedroom one-bathroom house on 633 sqm in Mangere East in the city’s southern suburbs languished on the market for 10 weeks until Pat Lapalapa, aka “Salesman Pat” was called in, the NZ Herald reports.

Lapalapa, a Samoan real estate agent with Harcourts Manukau, convinced the vendors to fork out for better marketing and got buy-in from them to use the walking distance to KFC angle.

The house was on the market for 10 weeks before they added that it was within walking distance to KFC. Photo: TradeMe

The campaign went “a little bit” viral on social media and Lapalapa had multiple offers for the 100 sqm renovated house on the first day.

However Lapalapa said not all the feedback was positive.

“People that I didn’t know, complained about obesity and stuff. It wasn’t PC [politically correct] enough for them.

“They were just random people in the community. I suppose you can’t blame KFC, it’s all in moderation really.”

And one week later the "Walking Distance To KFC" house is sold 😎

Happy Vendors, Happy Purchasers! Clients for life #salesmanpat pic.twitter.com/CHBpyUCi3H

— Salesman Pat (@Pat_Lapalapa) August 25, 2017

The 28-year-old, who has been selling real estate for two years, stuck with the ad, and when the house was sold to a couple in their 20s, they happily posed in front of the sold sticker with buckets of KFC.

“They’re stoked. They’re dying to move in. They thought I was joking but I turned up to take the picture of the sold sign and I pulled out KFC and they started laughing.”

The vendors were also happy Lapalapa said, after netting the original asking price.

This article was originally published by the NZ Herald and appears here with permission.