5 Fengshui Ways to increase Curb Appeal

Curb Appeal makes you stop the car. And, take a look at the house. On the path to the house, the buyer already knows if they want to buy the house in 30 seconds or less. Fengshui creates a positive energy, and welcome feel to your home. Ming Tong in Fengshui means bright place and refers to curb. The curb must be inviting and promoting to stay longer.

Stimulate emotions with colors

Colors play an important factor in our emotions and senses. The warm colors (reds, yellow, and orange) build fun, and excitement, while the cool colors stimulate peace, calm, and relaxation. To warm up the curb, you can add colorful flowers in the garden, varnish any wood around the house, and paint doors and window with red accent. Too cool up the curb, you can add more grass, shrubs, and trees.

Glossy means healthy

Look at the trees, plants, shrubs, and flowers if they have panoramic colors. You can tell the health by the shine, and color. Trimming the dead plants, leaves, and flowers, you promote the healthy lifestyle.

Fast Energy

A direct path to the doorway creates fast energy. On the other hand, the meandering path slows and relaxes any potential buyer. A water fountains, fish ponds, pathway lights, special step stones, and beautiful flower slow down the energy and builds interest. The buyer can stop, and admire for a while.

Obstacles and Clutter

Obstacles and Clutters decrease the welcome feel of the home. You may consider organizing the porch, cleaning the path, moving the garbage bin, and trimming the plants.

Feed the senses

Appeal to the senses by adding sound and fragrance. With healthy garden, wildlife comes to appreciate your garden. The birds serenade the buyer and guest. And, the flowers sends heavenly aroma.

Dennis Estrada is a webmaster of mortgage calculators which provide resources, and calculators for mortgage and real estate.

Real Estate Marketing with Feng Shui

One of a Realtor's challenges in listing a house is to persuade the sellers to "stage" it for presentation. Potential buyers are put off by cluttered counters and overflowing toy boxes - not to mention overflowing kitty litter boxes! Ideally, the house should look like no one lives there - or like the owners have full-time maid service.

All Realtors recommend getting rid of clutter to create a spacious feeling, keeping the drapes open to fill the rooms with light, and keeping everything clean and neat. But sometimes that doesn't quite do the trick.

Sometimes the cleanest, neatest house just doesn't "feel" good. And that's where feng shui comes in.

You may or may not believe in the power of color and placement to create good energy flow and bring all you desire into your life. You may not believe that energy flow makes a difference at all.

But you'll have to agree that some houses feel like homes, while others only feel like houses. They feel cold and uninviting.

By using the principles of feng shui, you can create warmth in a cold house. You can even make old and shabby look inviting. It's all about balance, and blending the colors of nature. With feng shui, every room has some earth tone, some red or purple, some black or blue, some yellow, and some white. Each room also has some sign of "life" in the form of flowers or green plants.

The idea is to either have or represent fire, water, earth, wood, and metal - and to be sure that no one of them overpowers the others. Think of rooms you've been in that were all glass and chrome - did you feel comfortable? Probably not, because it was out of balance.

The result of a feng shui slant to decorating is a room that feels good - a room where you might want to stay and chat a while.

I don't know why it works, and I don't care why. I just know that it does work, and that buyers are more drawn to a house that feels like a home. So if you're having a hard time selling a house that should sell quickly, look at it from the standpoint of feng shui. Then make some gentle decorating recommendations to the sellers.

Bookstores offer a large variety of books on the subject, but do take time to look through them before you buy. Some are complicated and some recommend buying all kinds of strange objects. My favorite is The Western Guide to Feng Shui. It's easy reading and shows how to use objects that most people already have.

Once you've convinced your sellers to make these small changes, you can advertise "This house feels like home," and you'll be telling the truth.

Marte Cliff is a Freelance Copywriter and former real estate broker.

Two of her e-books were written to help real estate buyers avoid the pitfalls she saw during her 19 year career - and during her 20+ years as chief bookkeeper for her husband's custom home building business. The newest addition is a collaboration with her husband - Home Building Simplified. It outlines the steps in home building and offers a "heads up" about all the decisions you'll need to make. Read about it at: http://www.yourhomebuildingsite.com.

Buying a New Car? Use Feng Shui to Select Your Success Color

With Septembers arrival comes the annual car buying season. But while selecting the type of car comes easily to most people, making a decision on the color of a car can be a stumbling block. Some people simply go with their favorite color, while others mull over color choices by considering factors such as climate, type of vehicle use, or the most practical choice, going with what is least likely to show dirt. But what if even that fails? Then try feng shui. Yes, feng shui, the Chinese guide used for arranging homes and offices, can also be used for selecting colors based on an individuals own personal feng shui.

According to personal feng shui, each person has an individual feng shui number that is based on gender and date of birth. This number, also called a kua number is associated with a color. By selecting the correct color for an individuals particular feng shui number, the driver will experience better luck over all because the color is harmonized with that individual.

Use personal feng shui to select a success color, which can be helpful when buying that luxury sedan. More into soccer practice than boardrooms? Choose a family color. Both colors are determined by the drivers kua number. To determine the drivers kua number, and subsequently the color of car that is appropriate, use the instructions below and then check the chart that follow for selecting a success or family color. Now, who should drive the Mary Kay pink Cadillacs? Anyone with a number 3 kua number!

The calculation is as follows:

-Take the year of birth, i.e., 1971

-Add the last two years together (7+1=8)

For men, subtract the number from 10 (10-8+2); 2 is the kua number

For women, add 5 to the number (5+8=13; 1+3= 4); 4 is the kua number

For years such as 1982 which have a double digit, be sure to reduce to one number

8+2=10 (1+0=1)

10-1=9 (Kua for men)

5+1=6 (Kua for women)

Kua Number

1

Money/Success Colors: Green, Purple

Family Colors: Red, Purple, Burgundy

2

Money/Success Colors: Yellow, Brown, Beige

Family Colors: Silver, Gold, White, Pearl

3

Money/Success Colors: Red, Pink, Burgundy

Family Color: Green

4

Money/Success Colors: Blue, Black, Purple

Family Colors: Dark Green, Brown

5

Money/Success Colors: Yellow, Brown, Beige

Family Colors:Gray, Silver, Gold, White

6

Money/Success Colors: Gray, Silver, White

Family Colors: Yellow, Brown, Beige

7

Money/Success Colors: Gold, Silver, White/Pearl

Family Colors: Yellow, Brown, Beige

8

Money/Success Colors: Yellow, Brown, Beige

Family Colors: Gold, Silver, Gray, White

9

Money/Success Colors: Color Dark Green, Brown

Family Colors: Blue, Black, Purple

KATHRYN WEBER is the publisher of The Red Lotus Letter (http://www.redlotusletter.com), the Web's largest weekly feng shui ezine. She is also a certified feng shui master practitioner whose been featured in Seventeen and Martial Arts Professional magazines, among others, and is sought after for her expertise with a witty, down-to-earth style.

kweber@redlotusconsulting.com