Actors play happy families to sell homes

The smell of freshly baked bread, coffee on the stove and a few props depicting a desirable lifestyle have become the stock-in-trade of the ambitious home seller. Now it seems that may not be enough.

Anxious that even the most gushing of descriptions may not market its wares hard enough, one property company has begun a trend that it thinks could catch on everywhere: hiring teams of actors to play "happy families" in its show homes.

Attractive film and stage actors are cast in the roles of cheerful-looking parents and their angelic children, recreating scenes of domestic bliss that they hope will impress prospective buyers.

The approach is being pioneered by Centex Homes in a development of 166 detached properties in Santa Clarita, California, 35 miles north of Los Angeles.