Can't shift your home? Time to try 'extreme house selling'

With the property market slowing and buyers cautious about the future, it's starting to get harder to sell your home in a hurry.

However, some adventurous vendors are looking at alternatives to traditional estate agents and trying out some weird and wacky techniques to market their homes.

See also: Yours for a fiver? Owner raffles off home

See also: Homeowner mows 'for sale' into lawn to tempt high-flying buyers

Nick Marr, co-founder of TheHouseShop.com, says he's encouraged a number of clients to use 'extreme selling' techniques - with quite some success.

"A private seller using our website TheHouseShop.com listed her home with us and also created a Facebook advert offering a referral reward of £1,000 to anyone who shared her Facebook post with
the eventual buyer of the property," he says.

"She generated 6,000 views and eight enquiries in just 48 hours."

Meanwhile, Andrew Kyriacou, managing director of Xsell Property, says he's had great success with extreme house selling in Australia. His amusing YouTube videos sell houses in an average of less than three weeks.

"My approach to house selling is about being a human being, not a robotic agent," he says.

"The videos I create show the viewers that we are indeed real people and by making them laugh during the process of house selling, it helps to build a rapport far quicker."

Extreme selling techniques

Roller-coaster tours
You could always try installing a roller-coaster to give buyers a quick and fun tour of your home - like the owners of one house in the Netherlands.

Paint a giant sign

We recently reported on the Silverstone homeowner who came up with a novel technique to generate interest in his home - mowing a giant 'for sale' sign into his laswn. He was hopping to attract the interest of the rich and famous flying in to watch the motor racing nearby.

Set it to music
Andrew Kyriacou from Australia's MichaelKris Real Estate created a music video to sell this house - and while it may make you cringe, it did the trick.

Bake a cake
Everyone loves cupcakes - which is why Roger Bailey had a couple of thousand baked, complete with a picture of his home iced on top. Your only problem will be handing them out before they go stale.

Hold a raffle
This one has been becoming popular over the last couple of years, with vendors of cottages and stately homes alike selling tickets with a chance to win their home. Just make sure you don't fall foul of the gambling laws.

Go back to basics
Back in 2011, desperate vendor Tim Mason took a simple approach to selling his home - walking round the streets of Bristol wearing a sandwich board reading 'Buy my house!'.