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We’ve all rented apartments, storage lockers and cars – but what about farm animals? Swiss farmer Albert Breitenmoser of Eggerstanden, is offering three of his finest specimens for hire.

Breitenmoser said, “The pressure on us farmers is big these days. Every farmer is looking for something special to make some extra cash.” Breitenmoser is right – in the last decade, over a quarter of Switzerland’s family farms have gone bust.

Breitenmoser’s cows, Maxime, Wanda and Lynn can be hired for around $160 a month. For your monthly rent, you’re entitled to pop on over to Eggerstanden and visit the cows as often as you want. Once you’ve made your way to the Swiss countryside, you can milk your cows and even obtain a few souvenir pictures. During your stay, you’ll receive a generous discount on bread and cheese products sold by Breitenmoser’s farm. If you visit during the summer months, you can even stay in an Alpine chalet by the lake where your cows will be put out to grass.

Though Breitenmoser’s scheme is innovative, he’s not the first Swiss farmer to offer cows for rent. In 2003, farmer Paul Wyler of Brienz offered a similar scheme, renting his cows for about $315 over the summer. Similarly, farmers in the Bernese Oberlands will rent you a cow for a shade under $1,500 – you can arrange to visit anytime between July and mid-September, and are entitled to over 130lbs of delectable Swiss Alpine cheese for your investment.

With national reports coming in left, right and center telling us the property market is in the dumper, anyone trying to sell their home is aware of the importance of staging. Bake some brownies to give your place a homey smell, keep curtains open to provide natural light, eliminate any clutter – the list of recommendations goes on and on. And just as home owners know they need to set the stage to win a sale, home buyers are learning to look beyond the surface.

One couple from Wisconsin, however, got a nasty surprise on a recent viewing in Janesville. Justin and Colleen McKeen arranged to visit a local home with their agent, Linda Chabucos-Galow on Monday. They arrived at the home, nothing was amiss – but they did notice a bit of a smell, but this was quickly attributed to the stack of dishes in the sink.

A few short minutes later, Chabucos-Galow was waiting patiently in the dining room when she heart Mrs McKeen scream. Chabucos-Galow went to find the couple, standing in the doorway of the bedroom. “I thought, ‘What’s wrong?’ Maybe it was a dead mouse or something,” she said.

Turns out the home’s owner, Linda L O’Leary, was lying dead on the floor. The McKeens and their agent notified the authorities and left straight away. Officials noted that O’Leary had been dead for approximately two weeks and recorded the death as sudden, but not suspicious.