James Cross
The housing market has made headlines in recent years due to the huge upswings and challenges that buyers and sellers alike have seen. Rising interest rates, low inventory, and companies buying out single-family homes to rent have all made headlines in various ways. A house listing out of Wisconsin, though, has made headlines for very different reasons.
Flipping Homes As A Couple
Lauren Hegenbarth and her husband began flipping homes in 2013 after he sold his truck. House flippers are individuals who buy a home in order to renovate it, and then sell it for a profit to someone who can make it their forever home.
Lauren loves flipping homes, and the most recent listing that she and her husband have put up is a stunning four-bedroom home in rural Wisconsin. The house is going viral for a very different reason than its property value or square footage, though.
A Crafty Person At Heart
See, in addition to flipping homes, Lauren also enjoys making homemade signs. She’s the proud owner of a cricut machine, and likes to go to craft stores like Hobby Lobby where she can buy blank signs and design them to her liking.
Lauren always liked creating DIY home decor, and in 2015 even went so far as to start selling her designs. She started a group on Facebook called Sleepless Beauty Designs, where she sold not only signs, but homemade wreaths as well.
An Idea From Browsing the Internet
She made signs for personal use as well as business sales, and one such sign has become the focus on the internet’s fascination. The idea came to her while her husband was on a 60-day work deployment to New Orleans, where she saw an interesting sign while browsing Facebook groups.
The sign read “Welcome to Poundtown,” which immediately caught Lauren’s interest. She knew that it was something that her husband would like, fitting his personality to a T. She decided that she wanted to make her own sign saying the same thing, and surprised her husband with it when he got back from his deployment.
Family Got In on the Joke
Lauren set to work making the sign, reassuring interviewers later that even though the sign was a little inappropriate, she was perfectly comfortable making it with their kids around. Two of the three can’t read, and when the oldest asked her what the sign meant, Lauren deflected by telling her that it was a funny quote from a movie.
The question didn’t come up again, as Lauren’s children are clearly used to the different signs all around their home. The rest of her family loved it, too. Lauren’s sister even placed an order for a sign of her very own after seeing it, finding it just as funny as her sister did.
A Perfect Gift for her Husband
Lauren reminisced in an interview later that her sense of humor is half sarcasm, half raunchy humor, and that her husband is exactly the same way. She posted a picture of her husband and their dog lying on the bed in their bedroom later, revealing the sign to the internet.
Her Facebook friends loved it, and the general interest led Lauren to starting a second Facebook group to sell signs that were a little less appropriate for the public. She wanted to ensure that her usual buyers wouldn’t get offended, so she called the second group Sleepless Beauty Designs After Dark VIP.
The Sign Gone Viral
The Facebook post wasn’t the last the internet saw of the sign, though. Early in 2022, when Lauren and her husband finally finished flipping their home and put it up for sale, she was surprised to see pictures of the home show up on one of her favorite Twitter accounts.
Photos of the master bedroom with its infamous “Poundtown” sign ended up on Zillow Gone Wild. It’s a massive account with 1.4 million followers on Instagram, and 167,000 followers on Twitter, which broadcasts some of the more unique and interesting listings on Zillow.
Social Media Launching The House Into The Public Eye
The Twitter post that launched the house listing and its raunchy sign into publicity stated that the sign is “what happens when your Michael’s obsession goes too far.” Of course, the post had photos of other rooms of the beautiful home as well, including other signs that Lauren had made and used to decorate the house.
The Poundtown sign is the one that captured the attention of the internet, though. People were fascinated and amused in equal measure. Some of the comments on Instagram stated, “this house talks too much” and “Live, Laugh, Love in Poundtown,” betraying the amusement of the audience.
Staying True to Herself, and True to the House
Lauren and her husband were equally shocked and amused by the attention that the house was getting on social media. Lauren stated in an interview that she had never even considered taking the sign down when she took the photos for the Zillow listing.
Outside of the business that, at least in part, allowed her and her husband to live the life that they wanted, the sign was also a part of hers and her husband’s personalities. Lauren was proud of the home that they had created for themselves, and didn’t want to do anything that might dilute that.
A Moment of Brightness in a Frustrating Present
Quirky house listings like Lauren’s give the internet a laugh during the moment of fame, but they do more than just amuse us. They give us a glimpse into the joyous parts of other people’s life, their love and their happiness.
It can sometimes be frustrating to look at the housing market and know that there are many factors that are out of our control. Stories like Lauren’s let us laugh a little at things that seem like they’re spiraling, and give us a moment of happiness to enjoy while we make our way through an increasingly chaotic world.
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