Interior Design Secrets for Selling Houses
by Jeanette Joy Fisher
New Interior Design Psychology ideas help 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 home buyers 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 your property and then taking your chances, will net you more money, and
faster!
Best wishes for a profitable, quick sale.
Professor Jeanette Fisher, author of Sell Your Home for Top Dollar -- FAST!
Interior Design Psychology Secrets for Optimum Selling in ANY Market, 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.sellfast.info/