A Michigan home contains 1,568 square feet, four bedrooms and one spooky surprise.
The 25 listing photos on Realtor.com for 209 N. Chestnut St. in Lansing, Michigan, appear unexceptional at first — until a prospective home buyer clicks through and spies a masked figure clad in black in almost every frame.
Someone dressed as the “Scream” franchise’s villain Ghostface carves a pumpkin in the kitchen, hides behind the curtain in the living room wielding a knife, peers up from the dining room floor, hides in closets, infiltrates the bathroom and — scariest of all — lurks around a corner in the unfinished basement.
The culprit? Realtor James Pyle of Century 21 Looking Glass, who is marketing the home, loves Halloween.
“I wanted to do something a little fun for the … holiday season,” Pyle told Michigan Live.
The homeowner is a friend of Pyle’s and gave him permission to feature the character from the 1996 horror film in the listing photos. The costume is a nod to the Halloween costume party he throws each year.
The joke worked to drum up interest. The house, priced at $105,000, was listed five days ago and has already racked up more than 1.2 million views on Zillow.
Pyle described the attention as “insane” because typical listings get about 100 to 150 views over a couple of weeks. He is expecting offers this week.
This isn’t the only recent real estate listing to feature an out-of-place character. The listing for a two-bedroom, two-bath house in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, asking $185,500 contains multiple shots of someone clad in an inflatable dinosaur costume. The prehistoric creature invades in the living room, climbs up the stairs, hides in the shower, mows the lawn and takes out the trash.
Though the “Scream” listing got more attention, the dinosaur one still garnered nearly 35,000 views in 22 days, per Zillow.
At least these lighthearted stunts are intentional — unlike the time someone’s penis accidentally appeared in a Washington, DC, condo listing.