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 The following is excerpted from Sustainable Housing and Building Green (Dearborn, 2008) by Marie S. Spodek and Ken Deshaies.
Audits in the Real Estate Transaction
Energy audits are an excellent source of additional information to help sellers, builders, and buyers make quantifiable decisions when buying new appliances or a new home. Tenants also benefit because energy audits allow them to choose energy-efficient rentals. (VIDEO: Watch an energy audit in action.)
Role of the Real Estate Licensee
Essentially, licensees should be the “source of the resource, not the source of the information.” Real estate licensees should not hold themselves out as experts, and they should not promise savings or results from an energy audit. To avoid any hint of impropriety, agents should never accept a “referral fee” from any of these companies or sell any of the products without fully disclosing any relationship to the company. Even with full disclosure, licensees should avoid
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Feng Shui consultant Christine Ayres, co-author of Sell Your Home With Feng Shui: A Complete Guide to Staging Homes for Quick Sale in Any Market (AuthorHouse, 2007), responds to your questions.
Q: How can feng shui help you to sell a home faster than using other design principles?
A: The intention of staging with feng shui makes all the difference. The focus is on the buyer. We make the home more welcoming to the buyer walking in and through the space, rather than creating an environment that is necessarily comfortable for the seller. The emphasis is on form — not function — and we do not create any overwhelming décor. Another point of difference is that in using feng shui we also enhance important life areas that give the sale a boost such as wealth, career, and the fame/reputation guas of the house. We look at the house as an energetic container for a sale and stage accordingly.
Q: The National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents recently released a survey that found the majority of real estate practitioners say staging can distract buyers from seeing the defects and important aspects of a home. Do you think staging a home could be harmful to buyers?
A: I believe that proper staging emphasizes the selling points of the home. And it is important to remember that we are not selling furniture here, we are selling space. I think the “distraction” you mention can come when the house has been over-staged — that is too many pieces of décor and too many pieces of furniture. Then, we totally miss the dimensions, layout, and quality of the space as we are too busy looking at the décor.
Q: In following the bagua map, how can you best activate the buyer/wealth part of homes?
A: For the buyer gua, hang a wind chime up under the eaves on the front right corner of the house or place a flag on this corner of the home (especially good for cul-de-sac homes). If this front right corner happens to be the garage, a chime up inside the garage will also stir the energy to call in the buyer. For the wealth gua, think abundance. Expensive art, china, crystal,
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 Quick Skim
Can’t sell a property? Maybe the home’s chi — or energy — is out of whack. In the new book Sell Your Home With Feng Shui (AuthorHouse, 2007), authors Christine Ayres and Cindy Coverdale teach you how to use this ancient Chinese technique of placement to generate buzz about your listings. Follow the book’s bagua — that is, an energy map of space — and you’ll be able to start staging warm, welcoming homes that help give buyers the energy to make an offer. The 87-page book is full of photos and sales success stories to show you how it’s done.
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From the Book: 5 Feng Shui Staging Tips
Lure potential buyers with these feng shui style tips from the authors:
1. Curb buyers’ impression. Curb appeal is critical. Clear any trees or bushes that are blocking any windows or the front of the house. When buyers see the property, they’ll lift their gaze to see a clear, inviting path leading them inside the house. Also, use a welcome mat that is fit to proportion with the door and frame the doorway with matching pots of red flowers or evergreen trees on both sides for extra attention.
3. Enhance the bagua areas. Remember, bagua is an energy map of space that’s used in feng shui. For real estate, you’ll want to activate the career, buyer, fame, and wealth and abundance areas of the house. For example, for the buyer area — located in the front area of the inside and outside of the property — hang wind chimes that call buyers in. To activate fame chi — the center rear of the house — add a fire element like moving a fire pit or barbeque grill to the outside center of the house, or have a bowl of fiery, red apples in the kitchen.
2. Brighten it up. The color palette can help make a home more welcoming to buyers. If the interior of the home is painted in neutral colors, add bright pillows on sofas and chairs for bold accents. Use a vase of bright red flowers to liven up rooms. Also, paint the home’s outside trim
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Sid Davis, author of Home Makeovers That Sell (AMACOM, 2007), responds to your staging questions.
Q: What do you suggest [in terms of staging] for a house that is vacant?
A: If a vacant home is freshly painted, clean, and smells good it should sell. Buyers also won’t have a problem imagining where their stuff is going to go, and a quicker closing can be a plus. I don’t think it's necessary to leave furniture or move some in to make a home look “lived in.” Many times I’ve had a home sell soon after the owners moved out and had the home professionally cleaned. Personally, I would rather have a vacant home listing than one with owners cluttering it up.
Q: While I agree with all your suggestions, there are instances where the home owner cannot afford to make improvements or repairs. What is your suggestion for this instance?
A: Can a home owner afford not to do the repairs? If a home won’t appraise because of problems or the owner is uncooperative, I would rather walk away from the listing. If there’s equity, the owner should be able to find a short terms loan. Government agencies, church groups, and other sources often have programs to help people fix up their homes who can’t qualify for financing. You may have to do some digging, but they’re out there.
Q: Besides the two obvious things — decluttering and cleaning — what do you think is the single most important thing to do before putting a home on the market?
Continue reading "AUTHOR Q&A: Sid Davis Answers Your Questions" »
 Quick Skim
Too many sellers let thousands of dollars slip through their fingers by failing to get their house in tip-top shape, author Sid Davis writes. In his latest book, he offers staging tips, cleaning worksheets, and fix-it checklists (but not many photos) to help sellers spruce up every room of their home — including the garage. Beyond the expected advice, Davis doles out helpful pointers on CMAs, replacing appliances, and tax benefits of moving up.
Buy This Book
Tips from the Book: 5 Ways to Sell a Home Faster
In Home Makeovers That Sell (AMACOM, 2007), Davis offers these tips for beautifying a home before it hits the market:
1. Don’t sell “as is.” Selling a home without doing some prep work before is the easy way out, and you'll likely only attract bargain hunters. Accept the fact that painting, cleaning, decluttering, and various fix-its will be needed before you sell.
2. Get a storage unit. Excess furniture, such as a king-size bed squeezed in a guest bedroom, will make rooms look smaller. Rooms can double in size simply by getting rid of the big pieces. Also prime for off-site storage: knickknacks, photos, trophies, and everything else that will distract buyers from seeing themselves in the home.
3. Hire a home inspector upfront. Before putting the home on the market, fix any problems the inspector finds. You’ll eliminate surprises that can hold up a sale. An added bonus: A clean
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Welcome to an online book club created especially for you, a busy real estate professional. Each blog entry is designed to give you a weekly dish on book news in five minutes or less. Read more >
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