Selling Houses Fast: Basics of Design & Color Psychology

Fixing up houses to ready them for sale includes a design plan for needed changes. Save money on transformation costs by choosing design details right the first time. Make more money from your home sale by choosing design details that catch the attention of buyers in your price range.

Design Psychology helps you net more money, faster, in today's competitive real estate market. Your buyers won't even realize that you're using Design Psychology, but they'll want to buy your home, even if it costs more than similar houses.

Whether your target market is first-timers, move-uppers, empty nesters, or mover-downers, keep their needs and desires in mind when developing your sales and transformation plans, always keeping your bottom line in mind.

Budget Concerns

Weigh the cost of an upgrade against its ultimate benefit, and only spend money on those changes that improve your profit margin. Of all upgrades for selling houses, fresh paint is the best investment, dollar for dollar. New kitchen appliances, upgraded bathroom features, and updated lighting fixtures also provide a good return on your money, as a general rule.

Also consider the cost benefits of doing the work yourself vs. hiring professionals. The time saved and superior quality of workmanship often makes hiring pros a better option than doing repairs yourself.

Color Psychology for the Exterior

Choosing the right colors for your home's exterior makes a huge difference in your paycheck at closing. Look at the other homes near yours and choose complementary colors. It's worthwhile to use three, or even four, colors, to add visual interest or to emphasize interesting design details. Limiting your exterior colors to just two lessens the overall effect and may slow the process of selling your home.

If your goal is to attract up-scale, wealthy, or highly-educated buyers, you'll want to use muted, complex colors on the exterior of your home, while less-wealthy and less-educated buyers normally prefer simpler colors.

Color Psychology for the Interior

Don't be afraid to use color, rather than painting all your walls white. Most people actually look more attractive when surrounded by color, and colored walls make people feel happier, so if you want to make your buyers happy (and to choose your home as a result), use color on your interior walls.

Bring into play various shades of your exterior colors inside. This design detail makes your home feel harmonious, and you'll receive an added bonus: if your buyers like the exterior colors, they're also going to be happy with your choice for the interior.

Spending time targeting your market and then using the subtle techniques of Design Psychology will help sell your home more quickly, and for more money than your competition.

(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

More than 40 states signed onto a proposed $25-billion deal with major mortgage servicers over faulty foreclosure practices. New York, Nevada and Delaware joined California in holding out for better terms.

More than 40 states signed onto a proposed $25-billion settlement with major mortgage servicers over faulty foreclosure procedures, but California, New York and other key states were still not among them.

California has until Monday to share in a multi-state deal with banks to obtain mortgage relief and reforms. Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris, who walked away from talks last year, says the door remains open.

With a Monday deadline at hand, California officials have resumed direct talks with the Obama administration about joining a multibillion-dollar, multi-state mortgage settlement with the nation's largest banks, a source said Sunday.

The talk show host pays $12 million for the 4,088-square-foot house with four bedrooms and four bathrooms. The ocean-view home sits on 1.26 bluff-top acres with beach access.

In one of the more talked-about transactions in town, actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have sold their Malibu beach house to daytime host and comedian Ellen De Generes for $12 million.

The four-bedroom, five-bathroom house built in 1920 for industrialist James Wigmore lists for $2,875,000.

A decorative cast stone entrance opens to this restored Spanish Colonial Revival-style house in Pasadena's South Orange Grove area. Built in 1920 for industrialist James Wigmore, the house retains such original details as coffered wood ceilings and arched doorways.

They don't believe they can sell their property for what it's worth, so they're spending money on making their homes more comfortable.

Do you fit any of these descriptions?

A biennial research report by the National Assn. of Realtors indicates that a handful of real estate agents and brokers and their clients either don't know the law or don't care to follow it.

When it comes to lawsuits, real estate agents and brokers tangle mostly among themselves.

The president aims to help about 3.5 million people with good credit who are unable to refinance at historically low rates because their homes are worth less than their mortgages.

 

The White House hopes to help millions of homeowners lower their monthly mortgage bill with a $5 billion to $10 billion plan to set up a streamlined refinancing program for people who are current on their payments.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index of 20 large U.S. cities fell 1.3% in November from October as foreclosures continue to drag down the housing market.

Three straight months of home-price declines in the biggest U.S. cities showed that foreclosures remain a significant drag on a housing market that is entering its fifth year of deterioration.

L.A. Clipper Chris Paul may be quick down the court, but he moves pretty fast when it comes to buying multimillion-dollar real estate too.