Showtime for your home

Not everyone in this real estate market is hurting.

Just take Showhomes. The Nashville, Tenn. company, which operates a nationwide franchise, has found a lucrative niche.

It will make your home look lived in, even if you are no longer actually living there. You can just imagine the possibilities, especially for banks trying to unload foreclosed homes.

A sweet spot in this market if there ever was one.

The company expects to double the number of franchises, from 40 now to more than 80 by the end of 2009.

Showhomes will fill that empty house with the kind of sterile and stylish furnishings you can find in any model unit in a new condo or apartment project.

Here’s the firm’s pitch: “If you present a vacant house, buyers are often unable to visualize the empty space as a home. Because the home is vacant, buyers expect a bargain – hoping to take advantage of an owner they think is desperate to sell.’’

That’s probably about right.

The firm has a bag of tricks that would make old Potemkin proud.

Showhomes brings in a “professional decorator’’ who transforms those silent rooms and echoing halls with “proven staging techniques.’’

But creating the illusion your house is lived in doesn’t stop there. The firm hires a “home manager’’ to set up camp until a buyer is found. There’s a whole other pitch to this crowd, who apparently range from kids just out of college to older couples in “transition.’’

“As a home manager, you profit by enjoying an enviable, yet eminently affordable lifestyle,’’ the company touts.

Apparently you have to pay rent as well as play homeowner. Slobs, pet owners and smokers need not apply.