Selling Investment Houses: Props & Profits

New Marketing and Design Psychology ideas help you stage homes for sale to motivate buyers and generate top dollar. Instead of leaving investment houses vacant, my husband and I add a few props to increase our profits.

Visit nearby model homes and examine the way the interior designers furnished the homes. Notice how the designers under furnished the model homes by using just enough accessories to make a superb presentation, but not too much to make the rooms seem crowded or small. Using a few props to dress up your house helps you sell for the maximum profit in several ways:

1. Props chosen with underlying psychological benefit supplement the emotional reactions desired, including the perceived room temperature.

2. Props add perspective with visual depth -- vacant rooms look flat.

3. Props help to keep property in the mind of buyers who view many houses.

4. Props are focal points for buyers to imagine their own furnishings in the home and get them thinking on living in the space.

Embellishments Equal Extra Dollars

Accessories which we use over and over to dress up different properties for sale include: lush green plants, paintings, mirrors, lightweight round tables with exquisite fabric skirts, and antique side chairs. We have an uncomfortable but great-looking antique sofa, upholstered in leopard print, which we move from dollhouse to dollhouse for visual appeal.

A sturdy table and chairs to sign contacts is invaluable to you. Don't let motivated buyers get away because it is too difficult to finalize the sale at the property. A simple card table with a striking fabric skirt adds soft texture to rooms with all hard surfaces and few furnishings. This helps counter the bleak emotional impact of hard surfaces and vacant spaces.

Borrow props from your home. This saves money and time spent shopping. Also, when you bring the item home again, it seems to show up more and have more importance.

Plan your interior plants and flowers for your selling season. Pick up vases and containers at yard sales. Take advantage of what you have growing either at your dollhouse, at home, or from friends. Freshly cut green tree branches add visual coolness in warm weather and autumn leaves add visual warmth in cool weather.

Don't go overboard with props. You don't want to overcrowd the space or even come close to furnishing it. Buyers like to visualize their own furnishings in your dollhouse.

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

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

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