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Flipping Fixers: Using Transformation Psychology for Top DollarSatisfying and lucrative real estate investment depends upon your correct assessment of profit potential, of course, but your ultimate success depends on your ability to transform a fixer into a dollhouse. The renovation process involves physical work and choosing the best supplies, in order to create maximum positive emotional effect and profits. By incorporating the psychology of residential design, you can make wise choices in transforming your fixer house by using colors, textures, building materials, and decorations that will assure a future speedy and cost-effective sale. The psychology of residential design addresses the entire home, inside and out, but the techniques of Transformation Psychology are a bit different, because your ultimate goal is different. The use of Design Psychology in your personal home is much more individualized, while renovating a doghouse into a dollhouse integrates more generalized design ideas to create a home that will be appealing to a broader spectrum of people. Using Transformation Psychology to increase your real estate profits means that you must learn how our human senses and emotions are affected by our decorating details and choices of materials. Buyers view a prospective home with their eyes, but their brains interpret what they see and feel according to subtle touches you have purposefully put into your house. Process of Transformation Psychology Your goal is to create a glorious home that buyers won't be able to live without, and that process begins with planning all the changes that will be necessary, from inception to realization, in order to accomplish a total makeover of the house. Color Psychology Determine your potential buyers' income level and your selling season. Use simple colors for less expensive houses and complex colors for upscale markets. Add in warm colors to attract buyers during cooler weather and cool colors to attract buyers during hot weather. Texture Psychology Many investors fix up houses to flip without considering how the vacant house will 'feel' to prospective buyers. This isn't a problem in hot selling markets, but selling a vacant house in a buyer's market means you need to outshine the competition instead of pricing your home lower. Vacant houses often feel cold with all hard surfaces. Avoid a boxy, hard feeling by adding soft textures. Window coverings, towels in the bathrooms, and a lightweight round table with a fabric tablecloth add texture to soothe the buyer's emotions. Buy Materials with Drama in Mind Instead of buying the cheapest lighting fixtures, cabinet hardware, and other building materials, look for additions which buyers fall in love with. This doesn't mean you need to spend more, just be selective. We found an awesome chandelier for only $25 at Restore (Habitat for Humanity's thrift store); I found matching wall scones at Lowe's (where the chandelier sold for $300). Paying $50 more for the wall scones than most investors would have meant little when the house sold for more than any other home previously sold for in the neighborhood. We love taking a dirty doghouse and turning it into a marvelous dollhouse, and we're willing to invest more time and money than the average investor in order to achieve a truly dramatic transformation. We usually spend about $12,000 for each renovation, which includes the cost of materials and outside help. Many investors spend much less, but they make less profit when the property sells. Real estate investing takes skill and planning, but using Transformation Psychology can give you a competitive edge, taking a doghouse and turning it into the kind of dollhouse that buyers will stand in line to bid on. (c) Copyright 2004, Jeanette J. Fisher. All rights reserved. Other articles by this author »
About Jeanette Joy Fisher
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, and newsletters, see http://www.doghousetodollhousefordollars.com/. Related
And here is another random article you might be interested in... What Your Employees Want You to Know (But You Might Be Afraid to Ask)This is a challenge for every company owner and manager. You have tremendous plans for growth and expect a lot of your employees. But do you know if the company is meeting your best employees' expectations? Are you providing the type of environment that supports high productivity and high quality? Do you really want to know? If you do, consider creating a Company Performance Review to find out what your company culture really is. Find out how employees feel about their environment and morale at your company. The Company Performance Review asks employees if they see certain behaviors occurring at your company â€" behaviors that could kill a company over time if left unchecked. It will help you determine if there are ethical issues you need to be concerned about in your company. This review must be completed anonymously, or employees won't be comfortable answering honestly. The object is to make all employees suddenly more aware that actions that are sometimes common in companies can do real and lasting damage. It takes effort to increase the recognition of ethical issues to make it easier to begin setting standards. For instance, here are some questions you might consider asking employees â€" but only if you are ready to deal with the answers in the whole culture (don't kill the messenger). Do employees...? Do managers or supervisors...? Does top management...? When you get the answers tabulated consider these thoughts: Are there ethical issues you uncovered with this survey that surprised and concerned you? Are you setting the right example for employees? Are you satisfied that the standards of behavior you have set are high enough? Are there items that should be added to this list that are unique to your company or industry? Do you have a policy and procedures manual or employee handbook that sets standards on these issues? Should some of these behaviors be cause for termination of employment? Honest feedback can be hard to hear. I suggest you work with an industrial psychologist or other professional to help you hear the positive message in the survey results and formulate a plan of action. The real reward will come later when you administer the survey a second time and the results have changed for the better. Other articles by this author »
About Jan B. King
Jan B. King is the former President & CEO of Merritt Publishing, a top 50 woman-owned and run business in Los Angeles and the author of Business Plans to Game Plans: A Practical System for Turning Strategies into Action (John Wiley & Sons, 2004). She has helped hundreds of businesses with her book and her ebooks, The Do-It-Yourself Business Plan Workbook, and The Do-It-Yourself Game Plan Workbook. See www.janbking.com for more information. You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the byline is included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated. Related
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