News 8
'Stuffed houses' offer new products without the overhead 
09:18 PM CDT on Saturday, October 31, 2009
DALLAS — Almost one month after an online craigslist ad invited buyers to a Dallas home where "like-new" furniture was being "sacrified" for $700, the items were still available.
Angeleque Parsiyar responded to the ad after searching for moving sales and estate sales. A table being offered was of interest to her by a woman at the house.
"She tells us that she is getting a divorce and moving to New Jersey, so she's just pricing everything super cheap so she can just get rid of it," Parsiyar said.
The sympathy pitch worked; Parsiyar bought the table and paid for delivery.
"They delivered it the next day and it's in a new box," Parsiyar said. "We thought that was kind of odd."
After doing a little homework, she found that the phone numbers in the craigslist ad match up with employees of a furniture retailer's Web site.
Even the photos in the craiglist ad are the same as the retailer's.
Jeannette Kopko with the Better Business Bureau of Greater Dallas says Angeleque Parsiyar made a purchase from a "stuffed house."
"They're posing as an idividual sale, not a business sale, so they're not going to collect sales tax, or pay it, or do any of the other things a business has to do," Kopko explained. "In a way, it's unfair competition against the real furniture stores selling in a straightforward way."
Parsiyar agrees. "It's deceptive; its fradulent; it's just not right," she said.
Kopko said "stuffed homes" are often operated out of properties being staged, rented, or minded for weeks on end.
In Parsiyar's case, the furniture company employees were renting and staging the home for sale.
News 8 asked the ladies inside the house for their side of the story. They said me there were moving out the next day.
But the homeowner had a different story: The furniture merchants were evicted.
The realtor said she was tipped off that something was up when open houses were full of people wanting to buy the same furniture.
"We go there to confront her; she doesn't remember us," Parsiyar said. "She says, 'You're here to buy the table?' And we're like, 'We just bought the table.'"
The BBB says "stuffed houses" cut down on upfront business costs, which is why more people are going under the radar.
"It's hard to keep track of how many 'stuffed house' sales there may be, because you can't just look at the ad or the house and tell where it is," Kopko said.
After News 8's visit to the furniture merchants, their craigslist ad was "deleted by the author."
Furniture dealers are permitted to post items for sale on criaglist, but according to the rules, have to disclose they are a dealer.
E-mail sslater@wfaa.com
