Real Estate Information

Sell Houses Fast & Top Dollar: Design Psychology


How would you like to start a bidding war for your home, ending with a sales price greater than the asking price -- all within your home's first three hours on the market? That's the kind of results you can expect when you prepare your home for marketing, using Design Psychology methods!

Design Psychology's innovative interior design strategies go well beyond normal cleaning, painting, and repairs, and have been proven to increase homeowner profit while shortening a home's market time. And best of all, you don't have to spend a lot of money to enjoy the benefits Design Psychology can provide!

Here are a few tips for maximizing your sales price, while minimizing the out-of-pocket cost of selling your home:

First, you must emotionally detach yourself from your home and begin to think of it as simply a piece of property that needs to be sold. In the end, your goal is to make your home feel like a well-appointed vacation property and to spur buyers' imaginations with dreams of enjoying a new life in your luxurious home -- soon, and at top dollar!

Imagine your home as a five-star hotel room with a kitchen. Set out your best china, crystal, and finest linens, and then start packing everything you won't need, including all personal items, such as family photos, memorabilia, and other clutter. Your aim is to create a luxurious feeling for prospective buyers -- because buyers will pay more for a home that makes them feel pampered and comfortable.

Once you've got the interior of the house feeling warm and inviting, it's time to take inventory around the rest of your property. Take a notebook, and make three columns on your notepad: "No Cost Changes," "Small Cost Changes," and "Dream List Changes." Then start at the street, pretending you're a home buyer, seeing the property for the first time. It may help to have a friend with you during this process, in order to be more objective.

Walk around the property, just as a potential buyer would, making notes about everything that could use improvement, such as landscaping and exterior paint, listing each change in the proper column. Then walk to the front door, enter the house, and then walk through, letting the natural flow of the layout guide you all the way to the backyard.

Keep a constant eye out for things that need attention, jotting them down on your notepad as you walk around the property. Notate everything you find that detracts from the serene, inviting feeling you're trying to create.

Once you've compiled your list, begin with tackling the items in the "No Cost Changes" column. They could be things like pulling weeds, moving plants from crowded garden areas and transplanting them elsewhere, or rearranging furniture, to show off your home's architectural features or to make rooms seem more spacious.

Always try to see your home as a prospective buyer would see it. Set up enticing vignettes throughout the house, such as an intimate breakfast table for two in the master bedroom or a book sitting on an end table in the reading nook.

Since under-furnished rooms allow buyers to imagine their own furnishings in a home, it'll be worthwhile to sell or place unnecessary furniture in storage. If you find that hard to do, compare the cost of moving a piece of furniture to the cost of replacing it, and then ask yourself if the piece is worth keeping.

For tackling the items on your list that will cost money to address, always make sure the expense will be worth the benefit.

Using new interior design ideas to prepare your home for sale can speed your sale and get you a bigger check at closing.
 
Copyright  c.2004 Jeanette Fisher  All rights reserved.

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, newsletters, and sales flyer template, see http://www.doghousetodollhousefordollars.com/pages/5/index.htm


MORE RESOURCES:

German Stocks Drop; Hypo Real Estate, Continental, E.ON Fall
Bloomberg - 48 minutes ago
Hypo Real Estate Holding AG and Continental AG dropped at least 2 percent after Deutsche Boerse AG said the companies’ shares will be removed from the ...
Salzgitter, Beiersdorf to join German DAX-30 Index The Associated Press
Salzgitter, Beiersdorf to join Germany's DAX index Forbes
German Stocks Erase Gains; Hypo Real Estate, Continental Drop Bloomberg
Bloomberg - Bloomberg
all 80 news articles


Four Industry Greats Form National Real Estate Consulting Firm ...
MarketWatch - 3 hours ago
NEW YORK, Dec 04, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Real estate industry giants Henry Gallin, Michael Glick, Frank Sullivan and Ray O'Keefe announced the formation of ...


Cousins Properties to Present at the 12th Annual Wachovia Global ...
MarketWatch - 1 hour ago
Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2008, Cousins Properties Incorporated is a leading diversified real estate company with extensive experience in ...


International Real Estate Federation (FIABCI) to Host European ...
MarketWatch - 13 hours ago
Austria has developed into a major European centre of real estate and financial transactions. It seemed most appropriate for FIABCI to hold its European ...


Reuters

China's CIC appoints real estate fund head -sources
Reuters - 12 hours ago
Besides real estate funds, Zhou's team is also responsible for CIC's direct investments and non-real estate private equity funds. ...
Israel stocks fall; Israel Corp., Discount in focus MarketWatch
Seabreeze's Kass favors US stocks over Treasuries Reuters
Developer Africa Israel posts steep loss in Q3 Reuters
Reuters - Reuters
all 1,847 news articles


ERA Pacesetter closes real estate business
Bizjournals.com, NC - 20 hours ago
One of Greater Nashville’s largest residential real estate firms — ERA Pacesetter Partners — is closing up shop, the latest casualty of tough economic times ...


Nokomis Real Estate Ventures LLC files bankruptcy petition
Bizjournals.com, NC - Dec 3, 2008
Nokomis Real Estate Ventures LLC filed a petition in Tampa federal court seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company does business as the Nokomis Inn ...


Neuberger Berman Real Estate Securities Income Fund Inc. Announces ...
MarketWatch - Dec 3, 2008
... in the markets for its portfolio securities, and in particular, common and preferred stocks issued by Real Estate Investment Trusts ("REITs"). ...
Marshall to raise $500m for Russian real estate PrivateEquityRealEstate.com
Marshall Capital Partners launches new $500 million fund for ... WebWire (press release)
all 9 news articles


ABC News

Keepin' It Real Estate: Treasury Tries to Re-Inflate Housing Bubble
Minyanville.com, New York - 3 hours ago
A protracted period of stabilization will ensue, during which time the opportunity to purchase high-quality residential real estate below its long-term ...
The real estate industry gets a favor from Bernanke Todays Financial News
New Treasury Plan May Lower Mortgage Rates Washington Post
Mortgage rates drop to lowest level since January The Associated Press
Boston Globe - MSNBC
all 561 news articles


guardian.co.uk

UPDATE 2-Sibir market value halves on real estate buy
Forbes, NY - Dec 3, 2008
Sibir had already outraged minority shareholders when it said in October it would buy some $157 million worth of real estate from its key owner, ...
UPDATE 1-Sibir shares sink 30 pct on real estate buy Reuters
Sibir Buys Tycoon's Assets Wall Street Journal
Sibir Energy to buy $340mln real estate assets from developer - 2 RIA Novosti
Bloomberg - Independent
all 95 news articles

Real-Estate - Google News

home | site map
© 2006