Real Estate Information
Home Find a topic Links Guest Book
Welcome

Selling Houses with Curb Appeal and Design Psychology


Curb appeal is the most important challenge you'll face when selling your home. You must make home shoppers feel like getting out of their car to see what's behind the front door. Imagine prospective buyers driving up and examining your property for the first time. Your goal is to have them exclaim, "What a darling home!" Or, "What a splendid house."

Curb appeal has grown up, and using innovative Design Psychology techniques for marketing homes puts curb allure to work, enticing buyers to come inside your home. One way to make your home outshine the others on the market, upgrading your exterior, doesn't have to cost you a lot of money.

Restore, the outlet store for Habitat for Humanity, resells donated home building materials. They sell light fixtures, window hardware, paint, house numbers, and even white picket fencing. Restore also lets you bargain on merchandise, which means that the tagged price isn't always the final price. You can even sign up for Restore's mailing list and receive notices of half-price sales. We found a great exterior light fixture at Restore for one of our fixers for only $25. The same fixture, available at our local home building supply outlet, sells for $99.

Suppliers and Exquisite Details

To sell your home for the highest profit, you need to spend less for improvements to make more; yet spending a little extra can yield significantly more return on your money. Adding exquisite details can add dollars to your bank account. For instance, if you don't find what you're looking for at a bargain price, visit an upscale retailer and look for similar items on sale.

If you use ugly, cheap, or tacky fixtures, you'll actually make it harder to sell your home by lowering your home's curb appeal. Think of it this way: spending $100 more for a quality light fixture will save you at least one, and possibly more, mortgage payment. That means that your $100 fixture was really an investment, rather than an expense.

Curb Appeal: Create Inviting Access to Your Home

An alluring home setting begins with the access to your home. A problem with many newer homes is that developers don't provide a separate walkway to the front door. You don't want to make buyers walk around cars and trip over driveway edges to navigate to your front door. If you have no dedicated walkway to the front door, add a simple pathway. A wandering pathway to the front door psychologically feels more inviting than a straight-shot walkway.

If you have a plain, straight concrete walkway, create undulating flower beds on either side to encourage a relaxed, friendly feeling. Adding a water feature near your entry walk also enhances the ambiance because moving water relaxes the body and mind and refreshes the spirit. You want to create a feeling of balance and harmony, like that found in nature.

Welcome Buyers with Friendly Accessories:

  • Wind chimes add pleasure to your buyers' sense of hearing.
  • Potted plants, such as flowers or soft ferns, are friendly, but avoid spiked plants with thorns near the doorway.
  • Floral baskets with bright yellow and white flowers show up best day and night.
  • A pair of rocking chairs, a double glider, or a porch swing will convey a friendly neighborhood and invite potential buyers to sit and chat.
  • A welcome mat also adds a homey touch.

Avoid Unwelcoming Attributes

  • Repair cracks in the driveway with cement epoxy.
  • Clean spider webs off eaves, windows and porch.
  • Repair or replace broken doorbells.
  • Clean or replace dirty or burnt out exterior lights.

Buyers forgive little inadequacies in your home if they love it from the first time they see it. So go a few extra steps beyond curb appeal and lure your prospective buyers inside with Design Psychology methods. Take a little extra time and spend just a bit more money, to sell your home fast, and for more money.

Copyright © 2005 Jeanette J. Fisher - All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

Jeanette Fisher helps home owners create homes for glorious living and top-dollar sales. She teaches Design Psychology and real estate investing. Jeanette is the author of many books including "Sell Your Home for Top Dollar--Fast!" and "Credit Help! Get the Credit You Need to Buy Real Estate." For more information on Design Psychology, see http://designpsych.com/ Free Design Psychology for Selling Houses report http://sellfast.info/ "Credit Tips for Mortgage Financing" http://recredithelp.com/


MORE RESOURCES:

Times Online

German officials move to save Hypo Real Estate
MarketWatch - Oct 5, 2008
By Polya Lesova & Tom Bemis, MarketWatch NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- The German government moved Sunday night to save Hypo Real Estate with a 50 billion euro ...
Video: Wall St.'s worst week in 7 years ReutersVideo
Germany faces shoring up its banking system Financial Times (subscription)
Deepening financial crisis fears rattle global markets AFP
Bloomberg - BusinessWeek
all 1,061 news articles


BBC News

German Stocks Fall Most Since January; Hypo Real Estate Slumps
Bloomberg - 13 hours ago
Hypo Real Estate, the nation's second-biggest commercial- property lender, tumbled 37 percent as the government and the country's banks and insurers agreed ...
German Govt rescues Hypo Real Estate in a Euro 50 bn package Hindu
Hypo Real Estate tripped by funding strategy MarketWatch
Germany Rescues Hypo Real Estate Deutsche Welle
Daily Mail - Reuters
all 1,042 news articles


Real estate roundup: BPA leases Vancouver space
Bizjournals.com, NC - 12 hours ago
New & Neville Real Estate Services represented Cricket. •Foam Street Investments LLC purchased The Parkview Apartments, a 104-unit complex at 7808 NE 12th ...
Real estate deals Sarasota Herald-Tribune
all 4 news articles


Agnew Launches Translation Task Force to Help Financial, Banking ...
MarketWatch - 6 hours ago
There are even some that still believe that the real estate professional's commission is paid by homeowners rather than by the seller, and do not know that ...


McCombs, other Texas businessmen form new real estate venture
Bizjournals.com, NC - 6 hours ago
A group of Texas real estate and business veterans are launching a new development company. Dually based in San Diego and Austin, The Flagship Group is ...
Development and Business Veterans Announce The Flagship Group MarketWatch
all 13 news articles


CB Richard Ellis Realty Trust & Duke acquire real estate portfolio
Bizjournals.com, NC - 7 hours ago
As part of a joint-venture agreement, CB Richard Ellis Realty Trust and Duke Realty Corp. have acquired four fully leased properties for $139.1 million. ...
Duke Joint Venture Acquires Four Properties Inside INdiana Business (press release)
CB Richard Ellis, Duke Realty purchase 4 industrial properties Dallas Morning News
all 9 news articles


Real estate wrap: Rowan opens first building at technology park
Bizjournals.com, NC - 12 hours ago
BPG Properties Ltd., a private equity real estate fund manager, bought two apartment complexes in Connecticut, making its first acquisition in that state. ...


Alico Restructures Real Estate Contract, Receives $2.5 Million
MarketWatch - 9 hours ago
The West and Crockett parcels appear to be ideally situated for future growth when the real estate market rebounds." Alico, Inc., a land management company ...


DWS RREEF World Real Estate & Tactical Strategies Fund, Inc. (DRP ...
MarketWatch - 7 hours ago
NEW YORK, Oct 06, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- DWS RREEF World Real Estate & Tactical Strategies Fund, Inc. (DRP: , , ) declared a distribution of $0.08 per ...


Blumberg Capital Partners Completes Two-Year Real Estate ...
International Business Times, NY - 12 hours ago
based investment fund manager, today announced it has completed atwo-year strategy to dispose of its major commercial real estate holdingsnationally, ...
Westshore sale marks turning point in Blumberg Capital strategy Bizjournals.com
all 10 news articles

Real-Estate - Google News

Home | Guest Book |Site Map | Recommended Resources | Search

Powered By: TJTMEDIA

© 2006
Google