A four-leaf clover. A rabbit's foot. A worn horseshoe.
Those three items are highly coveted for a large swath of Americans because they're said to bring their owner good luck. But Jessica Fields of New York uses a different trinket to swing fortune her way — a disheveled (ahem, well-loved) stuffed ostrich.
Fields, a real estate agent at Compass who focuses on brownstones and apartments in Brooklyn, said the tiny ostrich toy she borrows from a local home staging company is her secret to quickly getting properties off the market. Fields first encountered the ostrich in December 2023 when selling the townhouse at 469 Sixth Ave. She partnered with a staging company, which placed the ostrich in the crib in one of the rooms.
Not long after that, a buyer purchased the home for above the asking price, Fields said.
"Did the ostrich sell it? No. Obviously, we sold it," Fields said in an interview. "But it's fun to have something as a good luck charm."
Some turn to candy, good luck charms, spirituality
The ostrich and its mythical selling powers are just the tip of the iceberg of luck for real estate agents. In some parts of the nation, the practices run the gamut from the practical, offering a fresh batch of fresh-baked, nice-smelling cookies to prospective buyers, to the purely spiritual — burying a statue of St. Joseph upside down in the yard in the belief the patron saint of workers and families helps lure a buyer to right him faster.
Scores of New York City agents also have unique lucky charms, Fields said.
"I know some agents who, for whatever reason, ... have to have Werther's Original candy sitting out in a bowl," she said.
All told, Fields said the ostrich has been in four of her listings thus far and, every time it's there, the home has sold in a few days and typically for at least 5% over the asking price.
Fields is selling property in a borough that's already teeming with eager homebuyers. The average sale price for a home in Brooklyn reached a record $1.28 million during the first quarter of 2025 partly because demand in New York City's second-largest borough continues to be strong, market reports show.
Newly built condominiums and luxury homes are pushing prices higher in Brooklyn, according to a first-quarter analysis from Douglas Elliman. Real estate agents sold 114 brownstones in Brooklyn in the first quarter, up from 100 in the fourth quarter of 2024, an Elliman report shows.
'It looked like it has been there and back.'
Officially, the ostrich belongs to Urban Staging — a firm in the Columbia Street Waterfront District neighborhood of Brooklyn. Gabrielle Hamill, the company's creative director, bought the ostrich online in 2022. Hamill said she was looking for a stuffed animal for a staging with Fields and went shopping for a toy that wasn't a typical teddy bear.
Hamill said she chose the ostrich because it looked vintage. The stuffed animal doesn't officially have a name, but employees at Urban Staging have nicknamed it Jess' Ostrich, Hamill said.
"It looked more interesting," Hamill said in an interview. "It just looked like it had been carried around by a kid. It looked like it has been there and back."
Fields said she continues to use the ostrich because it's "oddly adorable" and has proved itself "as a sign of success."
"It's a very quirky, funky stuffed animal," she said. "It's not your typical thing you would cuddle with as a kid."