Flipping Fixers: Using Transformation Psychology for Top Dollar

Satisfying 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.

About The Author

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/.

---

How to Find and Buy a Bargain House with Little or No-Money Down

Real estate investors know how to make money buying distressed... 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

Home Sellers Warning for Young Families

If you're thinking about selling your home and moving up,... Read More

Selling Houses: Design Psychology Works!

I've taught the concepts of Design Psychology for many years,... Read More

Are You Tired of Tenants, Toilets, and Trash?

Wouldn't you rather go to Tahiti? Are you a landlord... Read More

I Already Have an MLS Listing, Why Do I Need an Internet Ad?

In today's real estate market, astute buyers are also looking... Read More

Looking into Buying Mobile Homes?

To own a home is one of the dreams every... Read More

Home Not Selling In Todays Hot Market? Tips and Ideas to Help You Sell

So, your selling your home. Prepare yourself both physically and... Read More

Customer Service ? The Real Estate Revolution

Traditionally, real estate has been viewed as a sales industry.... Read More

Real Estate Investing - The Marvel Of Home Depot And Lowes

Repairing a rental home (or your own home) use to... Read More

10 Important Tips to Successful Real Estate Investing

When it comes to investing, everybody has certain goals and... Read More

Tenants in Common (TIC)

Tenants in Common is a way of sharing ownership of... Read More

Why Commercial Real Estate is the Hottest Retirement Asset

For small business owners, commercial real estate investment is the... Read More

Property Investing Secrets 1

When property investing, pay the seller their asking price but... Read More

What is a Loft Apartment?

What is a loft apartment? At the most basic level... Read More

5 Rock-Solid Real Estate Investment Strategies

Investing in real estate is more complex than simply buying... Read More

What Makes Fractional Shares Different from Owning Other Kinds of Vacation Properties?

Fractional shares ("fractionals") are sometimes confused with other vacation property... Read More

Home Appraisal Values Are Critical

To most, owning a home is a necessity, but sometimes... Read More

Buying a Home in Westminster

The city of Westminster is centrally located in the Denver... Read More

Making a First Impression When Selling Your Home

So you've decided to take advantage of the booming real... Read More

Real Estate Web Design - 3 Items You Must Include on Your Site

Real estate web design requires you to do things a... Read More

Real Estate Investing: America Rents

Most people in America rent a personal dwelling!Just think how... Read More

Atlanta Georgia Real Estate - Marietta - East Cobb, Roswell, and Alpharetta

Whether you're a "move up" home buyer, downsizing, or relocating... Read More

Is 100% Annual Return On Investments Possible With Low Risk Land Investments?

In last week's article, we discussed how substantial profits could... Read More

Real Estate Investing: Beware of Subject To Promises

Another real estate writer's mini course, full of promises and... Read More

Real Estate Lease Option Danger

Why are real estate investors having so much success offering... Read More

Forclosure And The Durrett Rule

It's probably happened to you...Folks learn that you know something... Read More

The Many Ways To Profit From O.P.P.s Multiple Cash Streams

In a previous article we introduced you to the concept... Read More

What Should You Do If Your Home Isn?t Selling?

It can be very frustrating to put your home on... Read More

How Real Estate Investors Use Mortgage Note To Purchase Properties

Many of you may not be aware of the various... Read More

Do Bankers, Bubble, Discounters, & Justice Department Cloud Real Estate Industry?

Once relegated to the classified advertising section of the local... Read More

Good Tenants - Learn Twelve Ways Landlords Keep Them

Happy, Long-term Good Tenants Paying On Time How to Create... Read More

Finding, Fixing, Financing, and Flipping - The Short Course

Most people get involved in Real Estate investing to make... Read More