Selling your home with Feng Shui

From determining pricing to having to keep a home “show ready,” marketing a house is always a challenge. And, just like inoculations, homeowners usually want to get the sale over as quickly as possible. Here’s nine feng shui tips to help your house move faster.

1. Engage the senses.
Prospective buyers must be engaged in every way possible. Use these ideas to engage the senses of buyers at your home.

Looks good: Use lots of horizontal space. Clear off all the tops of everything (dressers, counters, shelves, etc.). Draw the eye to the corner diagonal to the door to each room. This makes the room feel larger and makes buyers focus on a feng shui good luck area.

Feels good: Make sure all entries and rooms can be entered easily and comfortably, and that there are no mirrors opposite any door. Keep your home from being “dead still” by keeping something moving, such as ceiling fans.

Sounds good: Place a fountain close to the front of the house or keep music playing at all times, especially in the northwest corner of the house.

Smells good: According to feng shui, earthy scents are the most appealing to the widest range of people. So, opt for cinnamon and pine scents rather than floral or vanilla scents.

2. Sales are made by first impressions.
The front door is THE most important area of the house in feng shui. Keep it immaculate, with lights turned on in front at in the foyer, a new doormat, and have something flanking either side of the front door, such as two pots of lush, healthy plants and flowers.

3. Be ready to move.
To assist you over the mental hurdle of leaving, buy the new owners a small gift such as a new front door mat or crystal candy dish (filled with chocolates because chocolate is excellent feng shui).

Perhaps more importantly, start moving out. Yes, that's right. You want new energy (a buyer) to come into the house, right? Well, then give it (them) room to come in by putting a lot of the excess stuff you don't need into a rented storage unit.

Ask any Realtor -- they'll tell you that they wish ALL their sellers would do this! It makes more space -- and it gives you a jump start on packing. From a feng shui perspective, it symbolically creates room for another family to move in.

4. Correctly place your “for sale” sign.
Make sure the “for sale” sign is to the right of the front door as you look at it. This is the yang, or energetic, side of the house.

5. Make a “Welcome Vignette.”
Have a table in the foyer or front room of the house, on the right as you enter the front door, with business cards, literature, a bowl of chocolates or cinnamon candies, and small vase of fresh flowers. Put this on a red-colored cloth. Make sure business cards are in an acrylic holder so they are not “laying down” on the job.

6. Energize the helpful people sector.
The northwest corner of a home is considered the “helpful people” area – important for sales. Activate it with music playing here.

7. Focus on the kitchen.
In feng shui, kitchens are prosperity and health areas. Insist on clear counters, clean, organized pantry, and wastebaskets and knives out of sight. Place a small, lush plant and jar full of cookies on the counter.

8. Get growing.
Make sure there are no plants touching the house (this draws energy away from the house), no spindly plants (it makes the house seem like it’s dying, too), and no dead plants whatsoever. Give all the plants in and around your house a good sprucing up!

9. Insist that bathroom doors remain shut.
Buyers should never see a toilet when they enter a house or a room. Toilet lids should remain down and doors to bathrooms should always be closed.

Kathryn Weber is the publisher of the Red Lotus Letter feng shui e-zine and is dedicated to helping her readers develop successful, prosperous, and supportive environments with feng shui. To subscribe, logon to www.redlotusletter.com and receive this special report Free "16 Feng Shui Secrets for Greater Prosperity."