Desperate Homeowners Look to Cast Their Mansions in Film

The ‘Father of the Bride’ house, from seeingstars.com

As houses sit on the market longer, owners of multimillion-dollars homes are looking or a new way to insulate themselves from the housing market downturn by casting their houses in movies and TV, writes Rebecca Ascher-Walsh for Reuters/Hollywood Reporter.

Such homeowners hope to recoup at least some of the financial losses they may face in today’s slow real-estate market. Owners who let their homes be used for shoots receive compensation ranging from a few thousand dollars to as much as $100,000 some of which may be tax free, Ms. Ascher-Walsh writes.

Another plus for home sellers, homes that do land in TV or film, such as the “Father of the Bride” house in Pasadena, Calif., gain their own celebrity.This could earn residual income for the home if it continues to be filmed, as well as some cachet with home buyers, Ms. Ascher-Walsh says.

Owners of luxury homes of this stature once scoffed at the idea of leasing out their homes for movies, says one executive at a Los Angeles-based film location service. But now, calls from this segment of the marketplace are up, and his company recently booked a $17 million contemporary beach house in Malibu, Calif., for the upcoming “Sex and the City: The Movie,” he says.

“Literally no one — and I mean no one — would allow their homes to be used for locations when they went on the market because they expected a lot of activity and quick sales,” he says. “Then, all of a sudden, we started getting calls from the Realtors — the same ones who would never return our calls.”

Lest all sellers rush to book their homes in the movies, Ms. Ascher-Walsh warns that it’s not for everyone. Not every house has what it takes — movie scouts are looking for “unique” homes, she writes, and it takes a substantial commitment. The companies that book the homes require the houses to be available for at least a year, she says. — Lauren Baier Kim