Everyone wants a Wii right now. A good measure to know your product is doing well is if all the parents and grandparents in the world know about the product because it’s on their to-buy list for presents for the kids. If the system isn’t, the games are. In the case of the Wii, most of those parents and grandparents want one for themselves as well.

So why not use it to sell other items? Like houses? Marjie O’Connor stumbled upon this obvious idea (hindsight is 20/20) and thinks it could be a very nice incentive for potential buyers.

Okay, here’s the rationalization (the first one): The Wii is very popular. Buying new houses is not — at least right now. With builders coming up with various incentives, such as plasma TVs or granite countertops, to help sell houses, I think a free Wii system would be a terrific bonus. It’s a lot cheaper than a plasma TV — or, for relatively little additional money, you can add a Wii to a TV incentive.

You could set up a Wii in your model home or at an open house; it’d keep the kids busy while the parents can take their time checking out the home. And you can tell them that if they buy the house, they get the Wii, too. (Think of the extra pressure from the kids to get Mom and Dad to close the sale!)

Some of the comments on the page say it wouldn’t quite sell houses so much as sweeten the deal. You know where something like this would surely work, though? Selling houses or renting apartments to college kids. I wonder if that’s been done.

HGTVPro