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Selling Home Faster
by Jeanette Fisher
Selling your home? Here are some tips to help you sell yours
for more than your next door neighbor's, and faster! Most
buyers will know within 15 SECONDS after crossing the
threshold if they want your home. But first, you need to
attract them inside!
11 home staging steps to take to sell your home for top dollar:
1. Start at the street. The buyer's first glimpse of your
home must entice them inside. Design Psychology goes further
than mere curb appeal. Here are some easy additions you can
make to help your home outshine the competition:
Add a couple of BIG plants, either in hanging baskets or
pots, to the porch, which will lead buyers' eyes to the
entrance.
The first color our eyes process is yellow, so place yellow
flowers near the front door.
Plant white flowering annuals, since they look clean and show
up better at night--when many home shoppers look.
2. Get rid of brown or dead leaves and bare spots in the
yard. Add mulch to cover bare dirt near the house. Bright
flowers hold the eye and "fill" empty areas, but you don't
need to add plants to every space. Just make sure that
everything looks neat.
3. Paint your front door a happy color. Yellow-gold (amber),
red (blue-based), sage, apple, or forest green, depending on
the other colors of your home, will attract the eye and
create happy feelings. Buyers won't notice the color
psychology you take advantage of, but they'll love the result.
4. Once buyers step inside the front door, they usually make
their minds up within 15 SECONDS, so first impressions are
vitally important. Focus your attention on the first wall
buyers will see, and then hang a mirror on that wall large
enough to reflect the buyer's image. It will psychologically
reinforce the buyer's presence in the home when they see
themselves in the mirror, causing them to imagine living in
your home.
5. Go beyond just clearing clutter, and remove furnishings
that don't add to the setting. Also clear bathroom and
kitchen countertops. Under-furnished homes let the buyer's
imagination fill rooms with their own belongings. Once they
visualize their favorite chair in a particular spot, you have
a sale.
6. Pack away your personal photographs, trophies, diplomas,
and small accessories and stack them neatly in the garage or
a separate storage space. That will also protect you from
having strangers view your personal life.
7. If your home looks too bare, replace your personal
treasures with house plants or cuttings from the garden.
Be creative; you don't need to spend money.
- Use tree branches and fresh flowers to bring nature indoors.
- Fill vases and glass jars with fresh cuttings and set them
in baskets.
- Add green house plants in winter, spring, and fall.
- During hot selling seasons, use green, silver and gray
foliage to help keep your home visually cool.
8. Lighting affects your buyers' emotions and is a crucial design
element for happiness, so turn on the lights when showing your
home. Day-like light bulbs enhance happiness. Amber and pink
light bulbs warm, while blue light cools.
9. Air the house out. You get used to odors, but buyers
shouldn't smell anything other than natural pleasing scents
like wood burning in the fireplace or fresh lemon in the
summer. Cut up a grapefruit and run sections through the
garbage disposal. It's both refreshing and clean smelling.
10. Buyers like temperatures around 70 degrees in the winter
and 67 degrees in the summer, so turn up the thermostat in
the winter and turn it down in the summer.
11. Park your car out of the way and encourage buyers to park
in a space where their car won't block the view from the
inside.
Remember, you've only got 15 seconds to sell your home, but
by using Design Psychology techniques, you can convert
lookers into buyers and get top dollar for your home.
Professor Jeanette Fisher, author of Doghouse to Dollhouse
for Dollars, Joy to the Home, and other books teaches Real
Estate Investing and Design Psychology. For more articles,
tips, reports, and newsletters, see http://www.doghousetodollhousefordollars.com/
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