Culture

This Absolutely Bonkers Real Estate Ad Is Going Viral And You Simply Must Watch It

The real estate has now been forced to apologise.

by Amanda Yeo  17 April 2019
LJ Hooker Padstow real estate ad

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A real estate video displaying a home in Padstow in Sydney is going viral due to the unconventional decision to shoot it like an R&B music video, complete with a luxury car and inexplicable dancing. Now, LJ Hooker is apparently apologising for it.

The LJ Hooker real estate listing for 42 Chamberlain Road, Padstow appears fairly normal at first glance. Photographs of the clean, contemporary four-bedroom home are accompanied by a list of desirable features, such as its “striking marble flooring and chandelier entry” and “glistening L-shaped saltwater swimming pool”.

It’s all typical stuff — until you get to the video.

Produced by Sydney photography studio Opticool Studios, the almost two and a half minute clip begins with sweeping exterior shots of the south-western Sydney home, cut to a thudding R&B beat. A man in a white Jaguar drives past the bus stop and school zone sign across the road, parking on the footpath in front of the driveway, because Jaguar-drivers dgaf.

He swaggers up the path toward the cedar timber front door, which a smiling woman opens before he even arrives. He puts his hands on her waist and lifts her into the air. Then, they dance. Oh, how they dance.

It isn’t uncommon for real estate agencies to include video tours in their listings. However, these are usually simple walkthroughs of the empty home, perhaps with agents discussing the property’s finer points. A full on music video with luxury cars and stalking across tabletops is not something a homebuyer typically expects.

Speaking to 10 Daily, LJ Hooker real estate agent Sam Nader indicated that this was his intent. “In this property market you need something different to make it stand out.”

The video certainly did that.

Nader further elaborated on the video’s creation to Guardian Australia, “I just wanted to do something different in the industry, and it really, really worked.”

“Video gets attraction to the property, and the whole point of real estate is to get as many eyes as possible on the property. It was supposed to be funny. Whether it’s funny, it’s rude or its sexy, every video I do is different.”

Nader said he has used this method before, and initially told Guardian Australia he intends to use it again. However, Nader subsequently declined to comment to Junkee, and the video has since been taken down from the property listing.

10 Daily‘s Josh Butler reports LJ Hooker is now apologising for the clip, saying it “missed the mark” and was “taken out of context by some”.

LJ Hooker may have erased the clip from the home’s real estate listing, but it has already spread across social media, and been re-uploaded by several people. Like Footloose, nobody can truly stop the dance.

42 Chamberlain Road, Padstow is scheduled to go up for auction on May 11. Dancers are unlikely to be in attendance.