Deluxe vacant-home tour: executives are the newest squatters

Sure, it’s no secret that the Twin Cities metro area is suffering from a serious glut of homes for sale, most of which are seeing a price drop of 10 percent this year. But did you know that, according to the most recent research from the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors, there’s a 15.9-month supply of homes worth more than $500,000 just sitting alone and gathering dust? That’s nearly twice the 8.7-month supply of those in the median-home-price range of $190,000-$200,000. And did you know that homes worth more than a million bucks are growing the stalest of them all, totally stripped of their copper furnishings and artwork and forced to wait out the 24.3-month supply of those just as opulent as they are?

So what’s a poor, expensive vacant home to do with all that time? Become a haven for a “home manager”!

A company called Showhomes, whose slogan is “from vacant house to valued home,” is making a killing furnishing, decorating, and managing the increasing number of high-end vacant homes for sale nationwide. In fact, if you want to live in the land of make-believe, you can use your own furnishings to dress up and live in the five-bedroom Hennepin County stunner pictured above for only $1,800 a month. Of course, you need to have pristine furnishings to qualify as a manager, and enough first-rate goods to fill up this mansion listed at $1.4 million.

Showhomes provides service to areas like Minnetonka Beach and Edina Country Club. In South Minneapolis, Lake Nokomis is the only neighborhood to make the sweet prestige cut. And the only “north” they know is North St. Paul.

But we’re wondering what a company like this can do with the more than 1,000 vacant homes in Minneapolis, nearly 800 of which are on the North Side. Perhaps the RNC can rent out one of these 72 foreclosed homes on the North Side that are selling for under $30,000. With some decorative painting on those boarded windows (elephants, perhaps?) and a little Ikea furniture, they could become exec-worthy in no time.