The housing market must really be down.
An Illinois homeowner has tried to sweeten the deal on her stagnant house sale with a free-booze offer at the local bar. Melanie Gravdal has promised $1,000 worth of food and drink at Grandpa’s Place, the bar across the street from her three-bedroom townhouse in the Chicago suburb Glenview.
(VIDEO: Destroying Homes to Save the Housing Market)
The unusual offer comes after the family — which includes Gravdal’s husband and two-year-old daughter — have struggled to attract serious interest in the property since it went on the market in June. They are planning to move back to California.
“We weren’t getting very much traffic because there was so much competition in the market,” said Gravdal, of Glenview, which sits 18 miles north of Chicago. “We live in a place where restaurants and bars come within walking distance so we thought this was a way to cross-promote the neighborhood and our homes.”
And Gravdal insists the move is starting to pay off since its Labor Day introduction.
“Before the promotion we had two showings in seven weeks,” she told NBC Chicago. “Since the promotion … we’ve had nine. It used to be that sellers would make cookies for buyers to show them that they were good. Now the onus is on the seller to sweeten the deal.”
MORE: Why a Housing Double Dip Could Kill the Recovery
Joe Jackson is a contributor at TIME. Find him on Twitter at @joejackson. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.