REAL ESTATE : Showhomes Adds Lived-In Look to Vacant Houses

As the pace of home sales in Southern California slows, the number of vacant properties on the market swells, creating security problems and, as most realtors know, making the homes even harder to sell.

Professional home sitters are one way to fill an empty house, but typically they charge the seller a daily or weekly fee.

Now comes Showhomes of America, which places professional “home managers” in vacant properties at no cost to the seller.

The 2 1/2-year-old Dallas firm opened up its first West Coast office in Newport Beach earlier this month. It has 12 other offices in seven states. In its pitch to brokers and corporate relocation firms, Showhomes stresses that its program--from the seller’s standpoint--is pretty simple.

Showhomes contracts to put a qualified home manager in the vacant house. The sellers continue paying the mortgage--which they’d have to do anyhow--but have no other costs.

The company makes its money renting the home to the managers--at a rate well below market.

Many of its home managers come from the ranks of professional people being transferred into the area, said Louis Turner, head of the Orange County office.

In return for living, say, in a 3,000-square-foot home in San Clemente for $500 a month, the manager signs a contract promising to keep the house and landscaping in top shape, pay the utilities, take care of any pool or spa, handle minor repairs and furnish and decorate the place with appropriate taste. Typically, said Turner, the managers get three to six months’ residency in each place.

Turner said he already has almost 100 homes in Orange County in his inventory.