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Selling Houses: Cutting Edge Design Tips for Selling

In this article, you're going to discover new techniques for marketing houses, and you'll find that these fresh, new interior design ideas will help sell your home faster, and for a higher price than the competition!

Buyers' physical senses respond to a home's design, and what a buyer feels is based upon their psychological reactions to sight, hearing, smell, touch, and even taste. Design Psychology employs new strategies in interior design to entice buyers.

What do buyers want? They want a home that meets their needs, and they'll eventually buy the home that makes them FEEL happy and will impress their friends, because they also want to be proud of the home they've chosen. Your choice of decorating colors, patterns, textures, and furnishings will influence the way a prospective buyer feels, and the buyer's feelings will impact their choice of housing.

Design Psychology, unlike traditional interior design, brings into play:

Color instead of bland white walls
Furnishings for feelings
Props to entice buyers

COLORS help you sell your home to your target market. Usually, highly-educated and wealthy buyers prefer complex muted colors, while buyers in the lower price range prefer pure primary or pastel colors. Also, your color choice depends upon the selling season. Use warm-color accents if selling in fall and winter and cool colors if selling during spring and summer.

One mistake many realtors make is to tell sellers to paint everything white. White may look clean, but it does little to make a buyer feel as if they "just can't live without the home." White walls also don't create cheerful feelings, and even worse, white walls don't make most people look good. Buyers will ultimately buy the home that makes them feel happy while making them look great at the same time.

As for FURNISHINGS, use cozy-snuggly pieces in cooler weather and fewer furnishings during hot, steamy months, in order to encourage a buyer's emotional response. When a buyer sees your home as a sanctuary from the hectic and harsh world, you'll sell that home.

PROPS include things such as paintings, to add depth and make the rooms feel bigger; flowers or plants, in the right emotional colors for the season; and the primary "prop," mirrors, which psychologically reinforce the buyer's presence in the home. Buyers literally get to see themselves in the home and become emotionally ready to live there.

Costs of Transforming Your Home into a Buyer's Dream House

Most home sellers can invest about $500 to spruce up their home for a quick sale, and a little paint and a little sweat will go a long way. To save some money, check out Restore, which is Habitat for Humanity's thrift store, for building supplies. They carry "oops paint" and lighting fixtures for next to nothing. If you decide to replace carpeting, appliances, and other big ticket items, transformation costs for completely going through a house can cost up to $8,000.

Using Marketing Psychology to Sell Faster for More Money

Always consider your target market and their emotional needs. First-time buyers want shelter and security, while moving-up buyers desire prestige and peace.

After you've cleaned and shined your home, set the stage. Add a few props, carefully selected to encourage a prospective buyer's desired emotions and paying special attention to happiness, joy, serenity, and security. Putting a little extra effort into the marketing your home will pay off with a faster sale and a bigger paycheck at closing.

(c) Copyright 2004, Jeanette J. Fisher. All rights reserved.

Jeanette Fisher, Design Psychology Professor, is the author of "Sell Your Home for Top Dollar-FAST! Interior Design Secrets for Optimum Selling in Any Market," and other real estate and interior design psychology books. For more articles, Jeanette's various newsletters, and help with "Creating a Sizzling Sales Flyer," visit http://www.sellfast.info