September 2007 Donna Stellhorn

Selling Your Home Faster Using Feng Shui Principles

Feng Shui is the Chinese art of creating a comfortable, prosperous and harmonious environment, using a combination of interior design, environmental psychology, and personal coaching.  Using Feng Shui, your home can help you make a great first impression--and in this slow real estate market a first impression can count for a lot.

Staging your home to make it look its very best will help the home sell faster.  Because of all the real estate shows on television these days, potential buyers expect to see a staged home, free of clutter and free of personal items.  So pack up family photographs, store extra furniture, and when possible neutralize the color schemes used throughout the house. The more open and neutral the home, the easier time a potential buyer will have visualizing their own furniture in it.

Once the home is ready, it is time to welcome the potential buyers.  Whenever possible have people enter through main door, because that usually leads to the best overview of the interior of the house.  Even if you always enter through a side door or garage door, have potential buyers come through the main door.  And most importantly, don't let your potential buyer feel uncertain of which door to choose.  Clearly mark the path and the entrance door with potted plants, signs, or decorative touches.

Welcome potential buyers by having a clean and attractive welcome mat at the door; replace worn or inappropriate welcome mats.  As buyers approach the house, they are taking in a million little details, gathering and assimilating them together as they form their first impression of your home.  Things that fall below a person’s field of vision, such as a welcome mat, actually can affect them emotionally.  Having a pretty welcome mat sets the tone.  (Avoid mats that depict anything you wouldn't want to step on in real life, such as puppies, butterflies, or the American flag.)

As your potential buyer walks into your home from the outside, they take a moment to adjust to new surroundings and the change in lighting.  Most people stop and allow their eyes to adjust for a moment.  At this moment you have an opportunity to direct their eyes to the strongest selling feature of the house (at least the one they can see from the front door).  There are five things that direct someone's eye.  These are: shiny objects, moving objects, horizontal lines, things on fire, and bold bursts of color.

Things that are shiny attract our attention.  So, for instance, you could highlight a great wood floor in the living room by placing shiny objects on a low table.  This would direct people's eyes downward.  The shiny objects could be a brass vase, gold candlesticks, or a pretty pewter bowl.

Things that move always attract attention.  If you wanted to guide the person away from a living room into the kitchen you can place a moving object in the direction you want the person to go.  A fish tank or fountain placed at the door near the kitchen would draw the person toward the kitchen.

Our eyes naturally follow horizontal lines to the end of that line.  You can make any room seem larger by aligning objects horizontally.  Hang a series of pictures on a wall, all at the same height, or create horizontal lines with bold curtain rods.

Things on fire always attract attention.  If weather permits, you can call people's attention to a great fireplace by having a fire burning in it.  Or, if you wanted to highlight a granite countertop, you can place lit candles on it. That will draw your buyer's eye.

Bold bursts of color capture attention.  If the bedroom is architecturally uninteresting, use a bold color on the bed to focused attention on the bed and away from the plainness of the room. In contrast to this, if the view outside is quite spectacular, hang very neutral drapes or drapes in the same tone as the wall color. Then the colors outside will pop, drawing the view outside.

And finally, place a bowl of good chocolates in the kitchen.  Even if no one eats them, most people have a good association with chocolate; this helps to anchor positive emotional feelings about your house.

Donna Stellhorn has 17 years experience helping people with Feng Shui.  She offers a free monthly e-mail newsletter filled with tips and ideas you can use in your home and office.  To sign up for her newsletter go to her website at http://www.fengshuiform.com/.