Michigan ? Like many homeowners around the country, Gerry and Cindy Mann have struggled to sell their house in the past year.

So they decided to use a more creative sales approach: Buy a miniature replica of the home for $169,000 and get the real thing thrown in for free.

“After a year I was thinking, ‘I don’t know, I have this dollhouse sitting in my basement; let me see if I can do some creative marketing,”‘ said Gerry Mann, 60. The Manns, who are planning to retire to Brighton, Mich., are caught in the national housing slump.

Cindy Mann’s father, the late Ron Caldwell, fashioned the dollhouse to resemble the home. Using a scale of 1 foot to 1 inch, he built the model about 15 years ago.

“I’ve seen funny signs, like, ‘Hey, honey, stop the car,’ but I haven’t seen anything like this,” said Matt Davis, president of the Battle Creek Area Association of Realtors’ Board of Directors. “I mean, it’s a pretty creative idea, and God bless ’em if it works.”