Selling Houses: Flooring & Feelings

Buyers think they love Italian tile and other hard floor surfaces, but they actually feel happier when they're walking on softer surfaces such as padded carpeting and padded laminate. Even so, you'll want to give some serious thought to the floors in your home if you want to sell quickly, and for the highest profit.

Flooring Colors for Quick Sales

Choose neutral, light colors for floor surfaces, because they won't clash with a buyers' furnishings. Buyers can easily paint over colored walls, but changing floor surfaces is much more difficult and expensive. Therefore, the colors you bring into play when staging your home for resale is best left to areas other than flooring.

Hard Floor Surfaces and Marketing Psychology

Always weigh the cost vs. benefit ratio before making flooring decisions. For instance, tile floors in bathrooms increases property value and sales appeal, but learning to install tile floors takes time, and the cost can be prohibitive. However, many types of linoleum simulate tile surfaces, and your cash outlay for professional installation will be considerably less. Using carpet instead of hard flooring in bathrooms saves even more money and ties spaces together for a more spacious feeling, such as in a main bedroom suite.

Install kitchen flooring before you install new appliances. Usually, you save money by hiring the same installers to put in new hard flooring and carpeting. However, that can also be a balancing act, because you want to finish painting and construction prior to installing carpet.

Carpeting and Buyers

Before making the decision to replace stained wall-to-wall carpeting, try cleaning it first. I tested a trick suggested by my carpet company owner on the badly-spotted bedroom carpet in one of our investment properties. Following her advice, I sprayed Windex directly on the spots, scrubbed gently with a brush, and then wiped with a wet rag, and the spots disappeared!

Buyers love new carpeting, especially if they get the chance to pick it out. If the existing carpeting is truly awful, rip it out and clean the floors. Then, if the home doesn't look too terrible, some investors find it worthwhile to offer the house for sale at that point and offer a carpeting allowance. Personally, I think properties show much better with all flooring in place, so we always install it.

Earth Friendly Flooring

Upscale buyers love cork and bamboo flooring. They're environmentally-friendly choices, because both are easily renewable.

Cork oak trees aren't destroyed; the bark is harvested every nine years, and they can continue providing bark for 200 years! Buyers love cork's feeling of softness under their feet, and cork flooring provides a great sound barrier.

Bamboo is both sustainable and beautiful. It's actually a member of the grass family and is one of the fastest-growing plants on Earth, growing to full maturity within five or six years. Buyers love the distinctive look of bamboo. Natural bamboo colors range from light tan and caramel to honey browns, and the subtle grain patterns accent both linear and horizontal planes, adding visual depth and making rooms look larger.

Using the concepts of Design Psychology, you'll either choose simple or elegant flooring for your home, depending on your prospective buyer's income level, and employing Design Psychology strategies will help you create floors that buyers won't be able to wait to walk on barefoot!

(c) Copyright 2004, Jeanette J. Fisher. All rights reserved.

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, newsletters, and sales flyer template, see http://www.doghousetodollhouse fordollars.com/pages/5/index.htm

---

The Value of Foreclosed Property

The discount on a foreclosed property is not as great... Read More

Choosing An Estate Agent

With so many estate agencies vying for your business, choosing... Read More

Real Estate Business

Starting real estate business is not that simple. Multiple aspects... Read More

Do I Have To Buy Real Estate Through An Agent?

Sometimes when we are very busy professionals and very rich... Read More

An Estate Planning Primer

An estate plan can be designed by clients and their... Read More

Selling Your Home: The Power of a Great Sales Flyer

Even though its importance is often overlooked, a great sales... Read More

Home Selling: Making It Easy On Yourself!

It's a dream for many to buy and take ownership... Read More

Choosing a Reputable Real Estate Appraiser

When you are considering purchasing a property; either for investment... Read More

What Does It Take To Be A Donald Trump in Real Estate?

Since you are a business oriented person, you might be... Read More

Golf and Waterfront Living: Live, Play, Relax

With today's planned lifestyle communities, golf and boating enthusiasts have... Read More

Appraisal or Home Inspection?

People sometimes confuse a home inspection and an appraisal when... Read More

Buying Your First Investment Property

"Begin With The End In Mind"I first heard the phrase... Read More

Home Inspection Checklist - Home Inspectors

Although architectural details, wall and floor coverings, modern conveniences and... Read More

11 Different Ways to Participate in The New Millennium Real State Boom

Many parts of the country are going through a real... Read More

Where To Start In Looking For A Central Illinois Realtor

Central Illinois is an excellent location for families and businesses.... Read More

How To Get Started In Preconstruction Investing?

Through our website the most common question that we receive... Read More

Log Homes - What is the Log-Home Lifestyle?

Typical log home company advertisements in popular log home magazines... Read More

Tax Free Exchanges: Watch out for the New Residence Rules

On October 22, 2004, President Bush signed tax legislation that... Read More

Thinking About Selling Your Home?

Owning a home is the original American dream. It's the... Read More

Walnut Creek Real Estate

Looking to relocate to a Californian suburb with a low... Read More

How to Build a Real Estate Investing Power Team

As you continue to read about real estate investing, you... Read More

Escalation Clauses ? A Home Buyers Secret Weapon

Today we discuss escalation clauses because much of the country... Read More

Timing Clauses Stop Sellers From Inciting Bidding War

It is no secret that the current real estate market... Read More

How to Sell Your Own Home and Save Thousands of Dollars

Most people take the easy way out when selling their... Read More

Essential Buyer?s Guide for Overseas Real Estate

It's been said many a time that overseas real estate... Read More

Do You Have the Correct Home Buyer Mindset to be Buying a Home?

By learning what you need to know and preparing how... Read More

Interior Design Secrets for Selling Houses

New concepts in Interior Design Psychology are helping home sellers... Read More

Cutting Edge Real Estate: Is There Anything New? Part 1

The world of real estate has pretty much stayed the... Read More

Home Equity or Debt Trap?

Are you using the equity from your home to purchase... Read More

Investment Concerns for Selling Your Home

Besides the emotional upheaval of uprooting from your home, your... Read More

Real Estate Investing Is A Better Gamble Than The Lottery

Real estate investing begins when you move to the starting... Read More

Home Staging: How to Make Your Tract Home Stand Out in the Crowd

Home sellers who wish to market their property in development... Read More

Vegas: The New Frontier

Unless you have been living in Siberia, you know that... Read More