Highly-customized homes are a harder sell

Back in real estate's heyday, when we took equity loans on our houses to finance our free-wheeling ways, one of the most self-indulgent means of besting the Joneses was to customize your home to your wildest dreams come true.

The problem now is that not everyone is in the market for a house with a guitar-shaped pool or a master suite ceiling that retracts, exposing you to the night stars and the occasional unexpected drizzle. Probably not even Bravo's "9 By Design" team could work its magic and give some of these unusual properties mass market appeal.

Highly-customized homes were designed for one person in mind, and trying to sell them to the general population at large can be a yeoman's task, agents say. In some cases, the seller just needs to be told that what worked for him isn't working for anyone else. Agents have advised sellers to pave over the moat-like water feature that required stepping stones to get from the car to the front door, paint over the murals appearing on every wall, and perhaps think about getting a blueprint drawn up in advance to show buyers how best to add some more sleeping room to your one-bedroom mansion.