By Jeanette Joy Fisher

New concepts in Interior Design Psychology are helping home sellers net more money in today’s competitive real estate market. Therefore, it’s worthwhile to spend time planning the changes that will help your home sell for the highest price.

Develop a general design plan, keeping your target market and budget in mind. Your overall design plan really depends on supply and demand. How many houses are for sale in your area? How many houses sell each week? Is the selling season cold, warm, or hot? Is it a seller’s or buyer’s market?

If the market is moving fast and buyers are lining up to make offers for homes in your neighborhood, you can do less. But whatever your answers to the above questions, you’ll still need to do a few things to make your home stand out from the competition.

Know Your Target Buyers

Think about your neighborhood and the buyers purchasing homes near yours. Are they purchasing their first home or moving up? This will be important to your marketing and design plan, since the psychological needs of the two types of buyers differ considerably.

First-time homebuyers seek to control their own environment by owning, rather than renting. Their psychological needs include:

Safety and security
Sense of place or connection
Comfort
Self-control

Move-up buyers often enjoy those benefits, too, but they’re generally more interested in finding a larger home with more amenities for their comfort, self-esteem, and feelings of prestige.

Once you’ve determine your potential buyers, you can begin making improvements to your home that will attract them.

Budget Concerns

Spend money only on items that will make a difference in your sales price. Of all repairs, fresh paint is the best investment you can make. New kitchen appliances, upgraded bathroom features, and updated lighting fixtures will usually give a good return for your money, as well.

Sometimes, hiring professional help is worth the extra expense. Professional painters work faster and will often cost less than day laborers. Tile installers, carpet layers, and electricians also know their trades and will do a better job than most day laborers.

Contractors should have their own disability and liability insurance — ask for a copy with your contract. Get everything in writing — including work to be completed, costs, lists of specific materials to be used, time for completion, and payment schedule.

Exterior Design Psychology

Choosing the right colors to paint your home will make a huge difference in your paycheck at closing. Look at the other homes near yours and choose complementary colors.

Did you know that the exterior color of houses selling the most quickly is yellow, but the wrong tone or shade of yellow can kill a potential home sale? Avoid yellows with green undertones and bright yellows, and choose pale yellows with creamy or beige shades instead. Warning: colors look darker on huge exterior expanses than they do on the little
paint chips you see in the store.

Color Combinations

Paint stores offer many brochures, showing various combinations of exterior paint colors, but most of them also feature combinations include three colors. Limiting your paint selection to only two colors will limit your income potential.

Think fun colors for a fast sale. Think “Disneyland Main Street,” where every shop is painted in glorious multi-color. Using a third or fourth color on the exterior can add definition to your home’s details. Use gloss or semi-gloss paint on wood trim.

Psychology of Exterior Paint Colors

Take the ultimate sales price of your remodeled home into account. Certain colors, especially muted, complex shades, will attract wealthy or highly-educated buyers, whereas buyers with less income or less education will generally prefer simple colors.

A complex color contains tints of gray or brown, and usually requires more than one word to describe, such as sage green or forest brown, while simple colors are straightforward and pure. Generally, houses in the lower price range will sell faster and for more money when painted in simple tones like yellow and tan with white, blue, or green trim.

Interior Design Plans and Secrets

Create a list of work and materials you’ll need for each room and then estimate the time you think it will take for each task. The more planning you do before you begin, the more time and money you’ll save.

Psychology of Interior Paint Colors

Daring to use color instead of bland white walls will increase your profit potential. Did you know that Lynette Jennings tested people’s perception of room size and color? A room that was painted white appeared larger to only a few people in the survey, compared to an identical room painted with a color, and the perceived difference was only about six inches! Because most people look better surrounded by color, a colored wall also makes them feel happier, and buyers will choose to buy the house that makes them feel happiest.

Entryways should bring the exterior colors of the home inside. Repeat variations of the exterior shades all the way through your home, which will make the entire home seem to be in harmony. As an added bonus, if buyers love the exterior colors, they’re going to like the interior colors, as well.

Spending time planning your home’s sale, rather than just listing it and then taking your chances, will net you more money, and faster!

Best wishes for a profitable, quick sale.

About the Author:
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

You’re getting ready to sell your home and preparing for your potential buyers. You have a beautiful painting that you purchased some time ago that you thought would look wonderful in the living room. So you bought, brought it home and hammered a nail into the wall above the couch and hooked the painting over it.

Pleased with your purchase you stood back. You tipped your head to one side and then the other. Then you squinted at the picture. Something was definitely not right but you could’t put your finger on it. You said, “oh well,” and it’s been there ever since.

Now that it’s time to prep your home to get the most money you can out of it’s sale, it may be time for you to go back and figure out how to make your picutures look right. If you’re finding that you’re dissatisfied with the appearance of the art or family photos on your walls you’re not alone. Many people make the same common mistakes that the eye can read as awkward but the individual does not know how to fix. Here are some guidelines to keep in mind when arranging art on a wall:

LARGE ART:

Large artwork will be a focal point so you should be careful to place it in an appropriate area. Where does large artwork look best? Try over a couch, behind the dining set, over a fireplace or on a feature wall. A feature wall is where the placement of furniture or the layout of the home naturally guides the eye to a wall - a great place to feature art.

SMALL ART:

Try to group small pieces if possible. Using similar or matching frames and matting make this look more pleasing. Otherwise anchor the small piece visually by hanging it low and close to furnishings so it doesn’t appear to be floating on the wall.

GROUPING ART:

Whether you’re creating a grid of equal sized frames or composing a collection of various sizes the rule of spacing is the same. Try to have them spaced approximately 3 inches apart. Try positioning them on the floor or a table to get a pleasing arrangement before placing the nails and measure carefully before making any holes.

HEIGHT:

Artwork should be hung with the center of the picture at eye level. That means the center should be about 60 to 66 inches from the floor. If you’ve visited a gallery you will see that the frames are not lined up by their top or bottom edges but that the pictures are all centered at the same height.

If the artwork is usually going to be viewed sitting down (as at a dining table or when viewed beside a couch) you would hang them at the sitter’s eye level instead.

Artwork behind a couch should be no more than 8 to 10 inches above the back of the couch.

With these easy tips you should have no problem creating wonderful arrangements that will have designer appeal.

By: Jeanette Joy Fisher

Home sellers who wish to market their property in development neighborhoods face tough challenges. All the houses look similar. All the houses sell for amounts in the same price range. The market — whether it’s a hot sellers’ market or a cool buyers’ market — largely determines the price, purchase terms, and length of time to sell.

How do you make your home stand out from the crowd? How can you turn your property into a “hot” sale, even if the market’s lukewarm? Remember the “Three M’s” and apply these Design Psychology strategies as you stage your home for sale:

1. Magnetism. Because most buyers won’t even get out of their car unless a home shows promise, create an exciting exterior that draws prospective buyers to your home. Place an interesting focal point in your front yard, such as a water fountain, a large urn, or a beautiful tree. Enhance your walkway with enticing plants or light fixtures that clearly mark the path to the front door. Use color psychology to either paint your front door or its framework a happy, inviting color, such as Sherwin William’s Torchlight (golden wheat) or Rose Tan.

2. Mystery. Most home searchers only spend three to four minutes looking at the average home. Enchant with mystery as soon as the prospects enter your home. Make the buyer take a second look by using Design Psychology lighting tricks. Place a palm tree so that it partially blocks the view of the hallway. Uplight the palm tree with a canister light that casts captivating shadows on the walls and ceiling.

3. Memory. Home shoppers look at many houses in a row. Your goal is to get the buyers to remember your home above all others. Design psychology can help you do this. Think about your buyers’ dream: they want a lifestyle –not just a house. Make your buyers believe that if they choose your home, they will have the privilege and right to take a nap in that “fantastic garden hammock,” read a great book in your private reading nook, or cook a delicious meal in your gourmet kitchen.

Turn heads with your enticing home. Turn viewers into buyers. Turn your typical tract house into a buyers’ dream home using home staging methods that create a lifestyle delight.

About the Author:
Jeanette Fisher, author of Joy to the Home Journal, Sell Your Home for Top Dollar–FAST! , and Home Staging for Top-Dollar Sales teaches design psychology college courses and professional real estate investing seminars. For home selling tips see http://www.sellfast.info For home staging strategies see http://www.homestaging.us

By: Jeanette Joy Fisher

Money spent updating your kitchen rewards you better than money spent on any other upgrades to your home. When it comes to kitchens, buyers continue to demand improvement in efficiency and style, and they love remodeled kitchens and new appliances.

Even if you home costs less than the newer homes in your area, buyers view the model homes and hold the ideal in mind while home shopping.

Newer homes place kitchens open to the family room and often have wide views of the outside. Newer homes also boast larger kitchens with more than one preparation area because cooking has become a social activity, and new homes often include a bar or buffet for entertaining. Cooks want to be in the middle of family activities so they can enjoy companionship.

Buyers look for a kitchen with large open areas that allow guests enough room to mingle, along with workspace for kids doing homework or even a small kitchen workspace for paying bills or making phone calls.

Present your kitchen as an organized, clutter-free, versatile space that will help your buyers feel they could be productive and happy working and interacting in the heart of their new home.

You don’t need to completely makeover your kitchen to sell your home. Packing and storing extra kitchen pots, pans, and utensils generates a more spacious presentation. You may also wish to invest in an attractive portable kitchen island to use as a prop for a kitchen with an open center and insufficient counter space.

Consider easy, low-cost changes that instantly upgrade a kitchen without major remodeling. These include the following ideas:

1.) Replace your faucet with a fancier model.
2.) Change your cabinet hardware.
3.) Paint cabinet faces.
4.) Replace or paint ugly laminate countertops. (Use Marine-grade paint.)
5.) Add warmth during cold seasons with a gorgeous rug next to the sink counter.

No matter your makeover budget, prepare your home for sale with little changes like clearing the countertops and adding new dish towels and a bowl of fruit can make your kitchen entice a buyer to say, “This is my new home.”

About the Author:
Jeanette Fisher teaches home sellers five ways to sell their homes for top dollar - fast. For free home selling Teleseminar, ebook, and information on home staging with Design Psychology visit http://sellfast.info

By: Jeanette Joy Fisher

If you’re selling your home in a cooling real estate market, here are some steps that you can take to prepare your home for a quick sale without lowering your price.

1. Profile your perfect home buyer or “Target Market.” Don’t market your home to an investor if you want to get top dollar! Think about the people who own homes and live in your neighborhood. Are they ordinary folks or doctors and lawyers? Are the new home owners, first-time home buyers or move-up buyers?

2. Get to know your competition. Go look at other homes nearby to see what the competition offers. Make yourself a spreadsheet to list features and comparables to your home.

3. Make a plan of action to sell your home. List changes that need to be made to compete with the other homes and then add changes that will make your home stand out. You need to learn how to use colors and building material that will attract your target buyer. For instance, if you’re selling to first-time home buyers, they’re not as picky and generally prefer primary colors. More sophisticated buyers expect perfection and prefer complex colors.

4. Use Design Psychology strategies to sell. Learn how to get the designer look on a dime. Don’t spend money on improvements that won’t pay you back. For instance, you don’t have to completely remodel your kitchen but a fresh coat of paint, which costs about $20, and a new faucet for under $100 can add thousands to your sale.

5. Set your price to compete with the other homes your buyers will choose from. Don’t let real estate agents pressure you to lower your sales price. It only takes one buyer to fall in love with your home.

6. Make a sales flyer that really works. (Click Here to see article about how to do this.) Don’t be generic with the number one sales tool. Marketing Psychology helps you copy Internet marketers proven strategies. List the benefits to the home buyer, not your home’s features.

7. Use home staging methods to show your home. Go beyond the typical home staging and create a buyer’s fantasy. Stage you home with activities that connect to your target buyers.

No matter what the real estate market does this year, you must protect your equity. Don’t just put up the “for sale” sign and hope for the best. Prepare your home for a top-dollar sale.

About the Author:
Read about “Target Market” and FREE ebook “Design Psychology for Selling Houses” Redesign your home with Design Psychology so buyers compete with each other for your home! Free Home Sellers Teleseminar http://sellfast.info

Today I’m going to start a series of articles by Jeanette Joy Fisher about Selling Your Home. Professor Fisher is the author of several real estate and interior design books. She also teaches design psychology college courses and professional real estate investing seminars. She has appeared on national television and radio shows as an historic house and downtown redevelopment expert.

Jeanette has a relaxed writing style that is easy to read and understand, I’m sure you’ll enjoy this series. Below I’ve made a list of the books she published.

The following article is by my dear friend Jeanette Fisher. She is THE EXPERT when it comes to staging your home to sell. She has also written a darned good book about how to buy fixer-uppers to resell for big bucks - Doghouse To Dollhouse for Dollars.

I hope you enjoy the following article, and if you do, be sure to check back, soon I’m going to run an entire series of articles by Jeanette. Enjoy!

By: Jeanette Fisher

Did you know that the sales flyer is the most important tool in selling a house?

Even if your home is listed with an agent, check the flyer that your agent has created, to see if you can jazz it up. Examine it closely, to make sure that all your amenities are listed. For instance, a real estate agent made up a flyer for our home and forgot to list “waterfront property!”

Most real estate agents use a standard format for making their flyers. They list features, amenities, price, and contact information (usually with a big photo of themselves). But buyers don’t care how beautiful your agent is! They want to know why your home is better than every other house in the neighborhood.

The one sales technique that most real estate agents fail to use effectively when they make flyers is listing BENEFITS. Like the sales letters you see on websites, a powerful selling flyer will concentrate on a home’s benefits to the buyer.

Here’s a sampling of possible benefits:

1. Enjoy your private park-like garden
2. Get the space you need to spread out
3. Live in a romantic hideaway
4. Sleep without traffic noise
5. Walk to schools, parks, and shopping
6. Seller will help pay your closing costs
7. Buy with no money down
8. Move in without having to paint or fix a thing
9. Swim in your own private lagoon
10. Enjoy your own personal luxury spa

Do you see the pattern? Each of the above examples features an action verb, followed by a benefit.

Don’t underestimate the power of a strong sales flyer. Creating sizzling sales flyers that concentrate on benefits to the buyer will go a long way toward selling your home quickly, and for more money.

Cheers to your successful sale!

(c) Copyright 2004, Jeanette J. Fisher. All rights reserved.
The following article is by my dear friend Jeanette Fisher. She is an EXPERT when it comes to staging your house to sell and she has a great book about buying fixer-uppers and reselling them for big bucks - Doghouse To Dollhouse for Dollars.

I plan to post a series of her articles soon, so if you enjoy this one, stay tuned.

Jeanette Joy Fisher - EzineArticles Expert Author

About the Author:
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

Wow! Time flies! I can’t believe I haven’t kept you updated ~ WE SOLD THE HOUSE!! Yes, we now have a contract and today starts the 10 day option period. We negotiated back and forth, back and forth, back and forth all last week and finally agreed last Saturday on a price, repairs and closing cost help. Whew! I’m beat.

We’re scheduled to close at the end of July, I’ll tell you more about the financial stuff after we close. For some reason I’m just scared to discuss it here. Funny, huh?

So, now, the way I understand it is the buyer has 10 days to back out for any reason. Actually, they paid us $100 for that option. It was nice to get the $100 because today I had to go to the homeowner’s association and request a Certificate of Compliance, and yes, you guessed it, they charged $75. Can you believe it, $75 to drive-by your house within the next five business days, fill out a form and mail it to you. What a joke. Oh well, it had to be done, but ~ they better not find ANYTHING that’s out of compliance (we’re definitely going to keep the trash cans in the garage for the next 5 business days ).

Anyway, now an inspector will be coming through. Brent and I can’t think of anything that will come up in inspection but we’re keeping our fingers crossed. We already got the pool heater fixed, although the pilot light still won’t stay lit. We called the pool guy and he said he’d come back and put a generator on it, yeah, that’s what he called it. Then he never showed up. Two days later we finally got in touch with him and he said he was acid washing a pool (that’s what they do when they drain and want to clean the plaster surface) and fell down and broke several of his toes. Wow! He had been off his feet…well, I guess so!! Anyway, he’s coming tomorrow morning to fix that, then everything will work perfectly.

As for us finding another place to live…well…we’re looking. It’s really hard. We looked at 16 houses last Wednesday and was able to narrow it down to three that we could live in IF we had to. That’s just not good, huh? Anyway, we started looking at new homes, although you’re probably thinking, “that was a mistake!”, I don’t think so, they are really quite the value. I’m going to make a couple more posts explaining our adventures in house-hunting and I’ll explain my theory in a little more detail.

I’ll also tell you a little about my discussions with the mortgage brokers. If you remember, I told you in one of my first posts that we had a business go under a couple years ago and had to file bankruptcy. Trying to get qualified now is going to be an interesting proposition, keep reading future posts for just how that goes. I’ll also tell you who we’re dealing with and just how easy or tough they are to deal with.

Also, I got the book, “From Doghouses to Dollhouses for Dollars”. The author, Jeanette Fisher sent it to me to review. I’ve been so busy I haven’t even looked at it but I am going to give it a couple hours tonight. I’ll be giving you a detailed review as I read. I just know I’m going to love it. Only thing is, I just don’t think we have enough money to move into a doghouse, I’m so scared it will eat us alive and with Brittany going off to college, it’s scary. Anyway, I’ll be writing more in the next few days.

Be sure to add this blog to your RSS Feeder if you want to stay updated. The link is in the left-hand column.

Yep! I told you! We got an offer Saturday, YEA!! It’s pretty awesome, the house was only on the market for 2 weeks. Now the negotiation starts. I don’t think I’m going to cover the details of the sale here, it would be “not so smart” to start revealing everything in such a public forum, maybe after we close I can go back and cover the details if I can remember them (yeah, I’m having trouble remembering from phone call to phone call what I told the realtor to offer, there’s so many details). But as it stands, you can know, we got an offer two weeks and one day after we “put up the for sale sign”!

Yeah, I told you the lady liked the house, didn’t I? Well, about 11:00 a.m. today I got a call from Centralized Showings and they said the realtor that came by day before yesterday was coming by for a second showing between 12:00 & 1:00. YEA!! I thought maybe the lady ws bringing her husband back.

I immediately started to straighten up. Well, I really didn’t have much to do, I’ve gotten in the habit of straightening up each morning and opening all the blinds on the windows. We’ve been very good about making our beds too, even Brittany. So all I really needed to do was vacuum a little, especially in the entryway. Lots of stuff gets tracked in, dead leaves and stuff.

After I got the floor swept, I ran around and turned on EVERY light in the house. It looked like a model home! About 11:50, I left. I called my older daughter, Steph, and we went and had lunch together.

Around 1:00 I got home and they were gone but I could tell they had been there. As I was going around the house shutting off the lights, I noticed some had already been turned off. Also, they had gone up into the attic as there was some dirt in the hallway under the attic stairs. I know it was clean before I left because I swept the hallway and stairs right before I left. I don’t think a lady would have gone in the attic, maybe she brought her husband with her, I hope so.

Now, I wonder what they’re thinking? Are they going to make an offer? How long do you think it will take if they do make an offer? Oh, the suspense. I tell you what I’m hoping that realtor said to her client was, “You better make an offer before the weekend because there will be a lot of people through this house this weekend and you may lose it if you wait.” Hmmm…do you think she told them that?

Yesterday we got home from running a bunch of errands and going to Sam’s Club and the first thing I did was check my business messages. There was an order that had to go out that day, so as Brent was putting away groceries, I prepped the order. We were running around doing our best to get that order out and didn’t even notice that there was message on our “personal” answering machine.

Well, about 5:00, Brent had gone to run the order up to the UPS Store, all the groceries were put away, Brittany was upstairs in her room on AIM, and I had just sat down to drink a Coke and watch some TV, when the doorbell rang. Much to my surprise, it was a realtor and a lady there to see the house! Yea! But, oh my, I wasn’t expecting them, thank heavens the groceries were put away.

I told her I was sorry but I didn’t know she was coming but I’d be more than happy to let her see the house. I ran upstairs, turned on all the lights and told Brit to “come on, we’ve gotta get outta here!”. Again, thank heavens the house was in order.

So, Brit and I went outside. Brent came home and we just stayed outside and talked. The realtor and the lady were in there quite some time, longer than any of the other “lookers” had stayed. Then they came out and asked if she could snap some photos so she could email them to her husband that was out of town. I said, “Of course, feel free.”

They were in there a long time. When they came out they stopped and talked for a little while asking some questions, and as always, questions about the pool. She also asked about the traffic behind the house, you see, our back fence sits on a busy street, but it was between 5 & 6 o’clock, the heaviest time of day.

You could just tell that the lady liked the house. I don’t know, it was a look on her face. Yea!! So then they left…well, they went to their cars and we went inside. The realtor and the lady stayed outside in front of house for about 10 minutes and the the realtor came up and asked for the Seller’s Disclosure, we grabbed it and gave it to her. They went back out to there cars and talked for about 20 more minutes. We kept looking!

So, maybe something will happen soon?? I don’t know but Brent and I got so excited we got online last night and started to try to find a house. It would be great to sell so quickly but I know I can’t get my hopes up. Gosh, what if we did have to move within the next month? How would we pull that off? I guess we’d find a way, huh?

Sunday was the busiest. The house listed in the MLS on Friday and no one came by on Saturday. Sunday morning was quiet as well, but then about 1:00 we got a call and the caller ID said Central Showing! Yea!! They said some realtor was coming between 3:00 & 4:00. Hmmm…well that changed all our plans.

We were just getting ready to take a twin bed we had stored in our guest room over to our daughter’s storage room, then we were going to come home to shower and go to church at 5:00. Well, that wouldn’t work…we’d be showering between 3:00 and 4:00. So, we went ahead and got dressed, cleaned up the house a little and then left at 3:00.

We noticed as we left that the house that’s for sale just three houses down from us just put up an Open House sign. Ahh, that’s probably good for us, those signs will bring people who are looking right by our house too.

Before Brent got in the shower, he was still outside cleaning up our landscaping mess and a couple stopped to get one of the flyers that’s on the For Sale sign. The man came up and talked to Brent and asked why we were moving and a little about the area. He said he’d come back. Well, he kept his word, he and his wife came by on Monday afternoon, very nice people.

Oh, when we got home, there was a message on the machine that said another person was coming by between 4:45 & 5:45. I guess they came. We got locked out of the house because they locked the door knob lock instead of the dead bolt. We don’t have a key to the door knob lock! We were able to go through the garage however.

I also noticed that whoever it was that came by, decided he needed to walk all over the new bed I just worked on. There were boot prints all in it. Thank heavens I hadn’t put the top soil down and planted my flowers yet!!