Category — For Sellers

It’s a topic discussed in most major lifestyle magazines and on your favorite home decorating shows—feng shui. While enjoying new found popularity on this half of the globe, feng shui is an ancient art that has been practiced for centuries in China. Meaning “wind” (feng) and “water” (shui), this ancient discipline is used by many to create a harmonious home environment, and its principles can be applied to almost any decorating style. In addition, using feng shui techniques can attract potential buyers by increasing the perceived value of your home. Below are a few tips on how to harness the energy and vitality of feng shui within your own home.

Reflecting disharmony. Remove or cover large mirrors in the bedroom if you don’t sleep well.

Room with a view. Place your bed to give you the widest view of the room. Your bed shouldn’t be in direct line with the door. Paint the bedroom walls in a color scheme that is both pleasant and inviting.

Calming sounds. Hang wind chimes outside your front door to create a soothing environment for occupants and guests.

Writing on the wall. Try to avoid having completely bare walls. Group together non-personal pictures or hang up interesting art pieces in a diagonal or staggered pattern.

Go with the flow. Place a blue or black doormat at your front door to encourage good things to flow in like water.

The color of love. Include the romance colors–white, pink and red–in your room. But don’t overdose with a red wall because too much red can trigger anger.

Plants for energy. Healthy plants generate positive energy. Avoid dried flowers because they have no energy left.

Look overhead. Move beds, couches and desks from under any overhead beams to keep energy flowing.

Less is more. When arranging furniture,less is better. Too much clutter can restrict the potential of a great room.

Create positive impressions. Keep counters clean, closets organized and clutter concealed in order to project an organized and stress-free environment for you and your guests.

Reprinted with permission from Buffini & Company.

Staging a home.
The idea of staging a home is to make it more attractive to buyers; however, it’s an applicable concept even when you’re not looking to sell. It’s really about making your home livable, attractive and a healthier “nest” for you and your family. Whether staging your home for yourself or for a potential buyer, the act of creating that powerful first impression can be done inexpensively. For a minimal investment, you can increase the perceived value of your home dramatically, which may result in a shorter selling time and a higher sales price. There are a few distinct differences between staging your home for life versus staging your home for a sale. Read on for a few tips, no matter what your situation is.

Your stuff.
Staging for life—Staging your home is about decorating with your tastes, reflecting your individual style.

Staging for sale—When putting your house on the market, it’s important to consider the buyer. What does the average buyer need to see in order to fall in love with your home? Try to avoid leaving personal items—such as toothbrushes on the bathroom counter—in plain sight. Keep it clean and simple, and focus on highlighting the best features your home has to offer.

First impressions.
Whether you’re staging for your own life or staging for a sale, you only have one chance to make a first impression on visitors. Potential buyers may only be in your home for three or four minutes, so you want those first moments to be positive. Don’t forget simple yet significant improvements to your home’s exterior like mowing the lawn and trimming dead branches (especially near windows and doors). Place some pots with colorful flowers on the porch. Give the front door a fresh coat of paint. Your home will now give visitors a warm welcome, whether they’re over for a personal visit or as a potential buyer.

Less is more.
Staging for life—Ask your real estate agent or a professional stager the single greatest improvement you can do to make your home more livable and they’ll tell you to get rid of the clutter. Having a bit of organization and eliminating unnecessary “stuff” in your home, including piles of junk mail and old magazines, will help to create a more open environment.

Staging for sale—When putting your home on the market, you want it to look lived in, but you don’t want home buyers focusing on your collection of ceramic cows instead of noticing the custom cabinets you had installed. Most professionals also advise putting personal pictures away. This helps home buyers imagine your home as their home, rather than getting distracted by your photos. Remember to clean out closets so they appear more spacious, and don’t forget to organize or clear out medicine cabinets, as potential buyers are likely to open those too.

A room with a use.
Staging for life—You may have specific uses for various rooms in your home (using a spare bedroom as a craft room, or setting up a treadmill and weight-lifting equipment in the garage), and this is exactly how it should be if you’re staging your home for your own life. Don’t feel bound by the limitations of a room’s label.

Staging for sale—On the flip side, it’s pivotal to let home buyers see rooms as they were originally intended. You may have decided to nix your formal living room to create an impromptu yoga studio, but for the sake of home shoppers, consider turning rooms back to their original state. Perform an inexpensive and quick makeover for these rooms by hanging sheer curtains to let in daylight and replacing aging light fixtures and switches.

Freshen up.
Staging for life—We all have our routine cleaning schedules, but consider doing little extras for yourself. Touch up the paint in your lived-in rooms, and treat yourself to a few house plants to liven up your living areas. Remember, a little can go a long way.

Staging for sale—Channel your inner cleaning lady and decorator. Steam-clean the carpets, touch up the paint and add emotional warmth with throw pillows, dramatic plants and candles. For that“Architectural Digest” look, clear off the counters in the kitchen and bathroom. An inexpensive way to add color is with a vase of vibrant flowers, neatly folded towels or a bowl of fruit.

Reprinted with permission from Buffini and Company

If you have had your home on the market for several months and haven’t seen much activity or any offers, chances are that one or more of the reasons below are to blame.

1) Your price is too high

No doubt about it, the most common reason for a home not selling is that the asking price has been set too high. The reasons for setting your price too high to begin with are many. Ranging from over enthusiastic listing agents to unrealistic seller expectations. Regardless of the reason though, if you’ve priced your home too high, you’ve set yourself up for a number of obstacles to selling your home. Even if you do get an offer for the overly high asking price, the deal may fall apart before closing because the buyer may have problems financing at too high a price. Look at other homes for sale, ones as similar and as close to yours as possible. If they are going for less than you are asking, you may be priced too high. The fact is, your home is competing against those other homes, and what buyers are willing to pay is what will determine final sales prices.

2) The condition of your home

There is a lot of competition out there to sell homes. Your home has to compete against other similar homes for sale, as well as competing against shiny brand new homes. The more you can do to make your home look appealing to a buyer, the better your chances for a quick sale. Look at your home with a critical eye – put yourself in the buyers position. A buyer doesn’t want to have to do anything except move in. Your best “bang for the buck” in improving the condition of your home are paint and flooring. Make sure that all of the paint is in great condition, both inside and out. Repainting doesn’t cost too much, and will usually make the biggest impact on buyers. Make sure all of the flooring looks good too. You may want to consider putting in new carpet. Again, it’s not that expensive but it sure does make an impact on buyers coming to look at your home.

3) Location, location, location

It’s the oldest cliché in the world, but it’s true. When it comes to real estate, it’s all about location! When it comes to homes, things like how good the schools are, crime rates, visual appeal of the neighborhood and noise or the smell of pollution can all effect how desirable the location is. If you’re in a bad location, a good real estate agent may help to minimize some of the impact by suggesting improvements to the house. But the only really reliable way to overcome a bad location is with a lower price. Simply put, an identical home in a bad location won’t sell for as much as the same home in a better location.

4) Your marketing campaign is out of steam

The best listing agents all use an aggressive marketing plan to market their listings. If your listing agent isn’t making sure your home can be found easily on the internet, isn’t actively touting his or her listings to other agents in the area, isn’t running ads in the local newspapers and real estate publications, then it might be time to change agents. The best agents might even run radio or television ads for their listings. If all your agent has done is put a sign in your front yard and add your home to the local MLS, then that agent isn’t coming close to doing all that can be done to effectively market your home.

5) The market is slow

You’ll hear it described as a slow market, or a buyers market, or maybe a cold market. But it all means the same thing. That home sales in the local area, or market, are slow. That there are too many homes for sale and not enough active buyers. There are several things you can do to combat a slow market. The most effective strategy is to sell at a lower price. Buyers are expecting to find bargains during a slow market. You can also help yourself by offering to pay some concessions to help a buyer that might not have a lot of cash. The ultimate way to beat a slow market is to simply wait it out. But that’s not always an option for many sellers.

6) Your home isn’t easily accessible

To get your home sold quickly, it’s important that other agents in the area show it to as many potential buyers as possible. When a busy agent is compiling a list of homes to show a buyer, the agent will naturally tend to show those houses that are easiest to gain access to first. Many homes on the market have “lock boxes” on them. The lock box is a device which holds a key to the home, that only qualified local agents can access. Homes that are listed as being “lock box, no appointment needed” will get shown more often than homes listed as “agent has key, call for appointment”. If at all possible, you should let your agent put a lock box on your home for easier showing. If not, you should do anything else you can to make it as convenient as possible for agents to show your home.

7) You have an agent nobody likes

Sounds almost silly, but it’s very true. If your listing agent isn’t liked or respected by other agents in your area, it could slow down the sale of your home. When an agent prepares to show properties to prospective buyers, the agent begins by talking to the buyer to find out what kind of home they are looking for. Then the agent searches the local MLS and other sources for homes that fit the buyer. If there are a number of good matches to choose from, and one of them has been listed by an agent that is hard to get along with, or arrogant, or has otherwise made himself unpopular, well… It’s just human nature to tend to skip over someone you don’t like.