Professional Feng Shui consultants from around the world shared some of their favorite tips and suggestions to help guide clients who are trying to sell their home.  You have heard of curl appeal, now we are introducing you to Feng Shui appeal.  What a space not only looks good but feels good too, it is bound to sell faster.

1.  Clutter Clearing

• Nearly all agree, clutter clearing is one of the most important things you can do for your space.  As one stated, “clear clutter, clear clutter, clear clutter!”
• De-personalize the space, remove family photos, clear off the refrigerator, and put away extra electronics and cords.
• Don’t forget to clean the basement (or lower level), as everything in the basement anchors a homeowner and can keep them locked in the current home.

2.  Curb Appeal and Front Door

• Manicure the yard and put welcoming plants in red, yellow or lush green at both sides of the front door.
• Put a wind chime at the entrance to create good chi keep the positive energy in the home.
• A water element (mirrors work well) combined with plants and good lighting enhance the WOW factor of a good feeling as you enter the home.
• A new door mat creates a new energy at the front door.
• Keep the front stoop clean and well lit.
• Cut back any shrubs that overhang the path to the front door – the front door should be easy to see and access.
• Make sure the house number is easy to see and read.

3.  Support Helpful People and your Intention

To attract a new homeowner, it’s important to support and encourage helpful people to guide you along the way.  This includes the right agent, home stager, landscaper, cleaner, painter, handyman and others.

Several Helpful People tips include:

• Create a metal ‘Helpful People’ box and place it in the Northwest section of the home or in the area to the right of the front door.
• Place the real estate agent’s card, the price you desire for the home, and a welcome greeting for the potential buyer in the box.
• Tie the keys in the lock box with 9 inches of red ribbon.
• Write an intention of the amount needed to make a successful sale.
• Determine five of current homeowners most treasured possessions, pack them up and seal them in a moving box as a sign of being “ready, willing, and able” to move.
• Place the “for sale” sign to the right of the property, and display the sales materials in upright racks rather than flat on the table where they are symbolically “lying down on the job. ”

4.  Staging

Staging incorporates some factors of de-cluttering, but it is also important to make sure the furniture fits the space and function.

• Make sure furniture is placed in the Command Position, especially in the living room and bedroom, and home office if there is one.  When potential buyers walk in and see/feel that they will be able to be “in charge of their lives” in this home, they feel more comfortable immediately.
• Make sure that each room has a singular purpose. So if the seller had a room set up as a guest room and office, decide which is needed more to sell the home, a guest room or an office and make it that.
• Remove excess furniture and accessories; it’s important to make the home feel open and spacious so the potential buyers can envision themselves in it.  You have to literally make space for them!
• If home is occupied, have live healthy plants in every room; if the home is unoccupied, use silk plants.
• Wash the windows, inside and out.  Windows are the eyes of the home, make them sparkle!
• Repair dripping faucets, stuck doors, and anything in broken or in disrepair.
• Replace any burned out light bulbs.

5.  Kitchens and Bathrooms

Realtors know: bathrooms and kitchens sell homes.

• Keep them clean and tidy.
• Put away all unnecessary appliances and knick-knacks.
• Clear counters, move as much as possible into the cabinets.
• Remove all items from the front and sides of the refrigerator.
• Close toilet seats and drains as to not suck money and positive energy down the drain.
• Give all bathrooms the spa treatment, add plants and plush towels to offset the strong water and metal elements usually found in bathrooms.

6.  Celebration, Ceremony, and Energy

Many consultants encourage their clients to perform or participate in a gratitude, releasing or blessing ceremony of some kind.  These ceremonies can be helpful in creating the energy that welcomes the potential new buyer while gently releasing the home and current homeowner from one another.

• “Spend some time in each room sharing beautiful memories, then write on slips of paper things the clients are grateful for about the home. At the end, ceremoniously burn the slips of paper and release the home to its new owners. It’s usually a very beautiful and touching experience.”
  Space clearing is important to release the old energy while supporting the energy that attracts a buyer.
• “As a Christian practitioner, so when doing a “cure,” I use Christian prayers to activate it! Jesus Mary and Joseph is a lot faster than all of the mantras that I learned in Feng Shui training. It is all about INTENTION!”  Wherever blessings are used, they must be comfortable for the homeowner/client.
• Locate the areas that are anchored in the structure and release them and activate other directional points so the sale moves to an interested and realistic buyer.
• Make sure there is an energetic UNITY with marketing materials, physical environment, and staging.  You are selling the “lifestyle” of the home, not just the house!
• Tie a red ribbon around the doorknob, walk 9 feet away while holding the loose end of the ribbon, turn and cut the ribbon.  This symbolically cuts the energetic cord connecting the homeowner and the home.

In addition to the above, many general suggestions can and should be incorporated to preparing a space for sale:

• Place live ‘lucky’ bamboo in the wealth corner of the home.
• Address “scent” as an important element.
• Paint to freshen and enliven a space – make it feel new.  Fresh paint is the easiest cure for bad wallpaper or a low energy space.
• Activate the Wealth Star in the house with a beautiful fountain with moving water.
• Have the seller write their intention on beautiful stationery and then place it in the soil of a plant that is in the Abundance area of the home.
• Each time the plant is watered, the client is “feeding” their intention.

In summary, most potential buyers will decide within the first 8 seconds whether they like or dislike a property. Incorporating Feng Shui into your pre-sale preparation will make the home feel so warm and inviting the potential buyer will want to move right in!

Special Thanks to Contributors:  Suzi Ball, Laurie Bornstein, Matthew Chapman, Ann Bingley Gallops, Catherine Hilker, Teresa Hwang, Mary Jane Kasliner, Joan Law, Carol Olmstead, Bridget Saraka, Nicolette Vajtay, Gwynne Warner