Five Simple Tips for Selling your Home with Feng Shui
Each week I receive multiple questions, and inquiries from sellers, stagers, and real estate agents looking for guidance to help sell a property or home. Using Feng Shui as a tool to improve your home for resale is becoming increasingly mainstream. I decided to create this list to help those looking for basic information on how to get started using Feng Shui, to prepare a home for the real estate market. It is important to note: Feng Shui is a technical and complex practice, and for properties with unique challenges and issues, engaging the services of a qualified Feng Shui consultant may be necessary. The five tips below are simple and universal; a starting point for good Feng Shui common sense. Each home and property is unique, some requiring extra attention and adjustments, these five points are by no means a definitive list, but will provide a good start.
The front door: what is the experience? Energy or chi (qi) is at the center of the practice of Feng Shui. This unseen energy, or life force, flows all around the home and surrounding environment. It is important that chi can flow smoothly and without obstruction to the front door. As you walk up to the front door you should observe how you move and what you see. Is the experience a pleasant one? Or is it rather uninspiring? Watch for: straight lines, abrupt turns, and uneven walkways. Create several small areas of interest along the way to the front door; for example, outdoor lighting, rock gardens, planters, and seating. Make sure the front door is visible and freshly painted. See the chart below for the Feng Shui meaning behind front door colours.
First sight: What do you see when you walk in? You are going from the gut on this one. Clear your head (maybe go out for a walk), then enter the home with awareness and observation. What is the first thing your eye is drawn to? Is it a beautiful piece art or furniture that is pleasing to the eye? Or is it instead an energetically loaded item: something that is meaningful to the owners, but stands out to a potential buyer as different, and note-worthy (and not in a good way). You don’t want potential buyers to remember ‘that one odd thing’ about the home, rather you want them to have an overall feeling of space, colour, and positive energy. Saying that first impressions are important might sound trite, but getting past a bad one can be difficult.
Using landscaping to correct: inauspicious roads and surroundings. Dealing with roadways, waterways, and the surrounding environment can be challenging and requires a certain level of expertise. Overall, a well-landscaped home can correct many issues, such as, dissipating fast-moving chi from oncoming traffic, or adjusting the chi on a cul-de sac. Additional cures and corrections may be needed, but addressing them on a basic level with well-placed shrubs, boulders, and outdoor lighting is a great start, and creates a sense of security and safety for the home.
Balancing the five elements: what is the energy of the home telling potential buyers. The five elements in Feng Shui are part of an ancient, and deeply rooted energetic system. The colours, shapes, textures and materials in a home tell story. They can project an energetic message to potential buyers about the home. Too much of one element, or too little of another, can hold a home back, or can make a home seem uncomfortable. To learn more about the five elements and the types of energy they project see my blog post here.
Releasing the house: cutting energetic ties. This last point is about mindset, and the invisible connection we have with our home. This is especially true in a home where a family has lived for a long time, and experienced many milestones, and important life events. It is difficult to part ways with a house that holds so many great memories. Writing a letter to the home, having a big farewell party for the home, are good ways to prepare the home for new owners. Practice setting an intention, and visualizing the home with new, happy owners; you are opening the chi of the home to others. In more challenging cases, a trained Feng Shui practitioner can do space clearings, and other transcendental cures that cut ties on a deeper energetic level.