He's thousands of years old, wears a long robe instead of a suit and calls upon God instead of a multiple listing book.
It is uncertain where the custom of burying St. Joseph statues originated, but those who follow it believe the saint will bring about a quicker sale of their property.
"It's one of the pecularities of certain traditions among the faithful," said the Rev. Kenneth Borowiak, spokesman for the Lincoln Diocese. "It certainly has no basis in Scripture. It belongs to the realm of pious traditions from the Middle Ages."
According to the U.S. Catholic Information Center in Washington, D.C., the tradition is traced back hundreds of years to Theresa of Avila, who prayed to St. Joseph when the convents needed more land and encouraged nuns to bury St. Joseph medals in the ground as a symbol of their devotion.
Mary Jane VanBerg decided to follow the custom after her sister in California, who had a friend trying to sell property, had buried a St. Joseph statue and sold the house within a week.
VanBerg put her summer cabin near Columbus on the market about two years ago, advertising it with a homemade sign. But it didn't sell.
"I just thought, if I could sell it, that'd be fine and I never got serious about it," she said.
Last summer VanBerg had a professional "For Sale" sign made. She also buried a St. Joseph statue.
"I sold my cabin within 24 hours. That statue didn't even get cold. I can't believe it. Everybody just giggled all over Duncan and Columbus. That was the topic, the conversation for months."
The buyer told VanBerg that something just told him to drive in, that there might be something available. He said he hadn't been at the lake for 20 years.
"We order them by the dozens," said Tim Franssen, manager of the family-owned Nebraska Church Goods, 1032 O Street, an ecumenical store that carries a large stock of Catholic supplies. He estimates the store sells from 400 to 500 St. Joseph statues a year.
Franssen has no idea if only Catholics are buying them.
"It could be anybody really. The people who come in here and ask for St. Joseph statues, I always say: `Well, are you selling a house?' And then they say, 'How did you know?'
"Somebody tells me you're supposed to bury them upside down, facing the house. And then I hear right side up, against the house."
Most sources say to bury the statue head first, with the feet pointing toward heaven.
To settle the confusion - and make a few bucks - a company out of Modesto, Calif., is marketing the saint in a kit, which contains a 3-1/2-inch-tall plastic statue, a bag to carry it in, instructions on how to bury it, and even a prayer:
"Oh, St. Joseph, guardian of household needs, we know you don't like to be upside down in the ground, but the sooner escrow closes, the sooner we will dig you up and put you in a place of honor in our new home. Please bring us an acceptable offer (or any offer!) and help sustain our faith in the real estate market."
Instructions also recommend a little reverence.
Custom dictates that once the house is sold, St. Joseph be dug up and put in a place of honor in the new home.
These "Underground Real Estate Agent" kits sell for $8 each.
Co-owner Karin Reenstierna said she first heard about the custom through a friend's mother, a Methodist, who buried a statue in her yard in Wisconsin. Her house sold after two weeks.
Reenstierna said the custom has been occurring for years on the East Coast.
"We just decided to put two and two together, and market the whole concept," said Reenstierna. She quit her personnel manager job to start this business with her husband, Phil Cates, who is in the mortgage business.
Reenstierna said the custom is not only practiced by Catholics, but that Lutherans, Methodists, even Jews, have tried it.
Jim Franssen, owner of Nebraska Church Goods, said perhaps people feel it shows a true commitment to selling their house. He realizes some view it as superstitious.
"It's a matter of faith, really," he said.
Another woman, who declined to use her name, said she buried the statue in her back yard near some rose bushes. Then when someone told her the saint needed to be buried head first, she went to dig him up. But she couldn't find him.
So she ended up buying a new statue.
And did it work? "Eventually," she said, adding that it took six months to sell the house.
The Roman Catholic Church encourages devotion to the saints, and does not mind appeals for divine intervention.
What the church does mind, however, are superstitions and sales gimmicks. "If it's a pious practice, of just a way of some devotion to Joseph, then it's fine," said Omaha Archbishop Daniel E. Sheehan.
"(But) if it's the kind of thing that is superstitious, that is, there's some kind of infallible result, then I think the church would frown on it. Because we don't look upon any kind of intercession with the saints or any kind of prayers as having those kind of infallible results."
The Rev. James Coen, head of the Catholic Information Center, in a New York Daily News article complained that real estate brokers "are turning this into a first-class sales gimmick."
According to the Dictionary of Saints by John J. Delaney, Joseph is a multifaceted saint. He is known as patron of the Universal Church, a model for fathers of families, a protector of workingmen and a patron for social justice.
There are two St. Joseph statues - St. Joseph the worker, who carries a water pitcher, a loaf of bread and an ax by his feet, and St. Joseph patron of the family, who is holding his foster son, the child Jesus.
Reenstierna's company is selling the worker. But Jim Franssen, whose store carries both kinds, says the patron of the family is the correct one to bury.
One Lincoln real estate agent, who asked that her name not be used, she has heard from a variety of sources about the custom, and has decided to try it.
She said that the custom is prevalent in the Chicago area and that her broker brought it up at a meeting, saying it was time to bury the saint.
Is she using the statue then?
"Well, we don't like to say that," she said, laughing. "Yes, I am. We're going to try anything at this point in time."
Jim Franssen said that one real estate agent came into his store, bought one, and it worked. So the agent came back and bought six more.
