On this episode of Secrets to Real Estate Investing Holly is joined by guest Janet Woods. Holly and Janet discuss tips on how to use Feng Shui to help maximize the price of your flips. Janet was originally in the corporate world working for Xerox for 15 years where she actually discovered Feng Shui. In the early 1990’s Janet started studying Feng Shui and she left the corporate world to help people to utilize Feng Shui in their lives to get what they want. Janet is also a doctor of Asian Metaphysics and she has been practicing for 18 years.  She has been helping people all over and from all walks of life on how to use Feng Shui. Janet explains that Feng Shui is the art of placement that originated in China, and in the corporate world Feng Shui is referred to as space planning. Feng Shui is about creating an environment that nurtures, motivates, and inspires a person into action to have a better life.  Holly recalls that she was surprised when she learned about Feng Shui how simple it was because it deals with placement and color. Janet advises that when you use Feng Shui in a home you are trying to sell you need to use energy and placement to make the buyer feel like the home is already thiers. Holly reminds us that buyers will purchase a home, whether they realize it or not, based on emotion and have been known to turn down what would have been a perfect home because something about it felt off to them. One of the first experiences that Holly had with Janet was with a home that had been on the market for 5 months and Janet came in and spent 20-30 minutes to make some changes to the home and the first couple who walked into the home ended up buying it that same day.  Dr. Janet has prepared a download for listeners with extensive information on how to use Feng Shui in your homes.  Dr. Janet advises that we want to see the home through the buyer’s eyes. Holly asks Dr. Janet to share with listeners how to give their homes curb appeal because it is the first impression that a buyer will get when they see the home. Dr. Janet says that when talking about curb appeal buyers want to feel safe and you want to draw people to the front door.  To do this you need to plant flowers in purple, red, or white. Holly asks why those colors - Dr. Janet says that those colors are linked to safety. It is also vitally important to have a welcome mat, you should also remove things that are dead or unattractive, and remove any personal items that you may have in the home. Also keeping the home as clean as possible is important because once again this is the first impression to a buyer.  Holly asks when staging a living room what are some steps that should be taken. Dr. Janet says to remove anything person that has a special meaning to you because it may not have the same meaning for a potential buyer. When placing decorative items Dr. Janet says to keep items in groups of 1, 3, or 5. Keeping the space minimal allows for a buyer to visualize the house with their personal items in them. By keeping the space open and minimal allows for it to feel like there is more square footage. Removing unnecessary furniture and rugs will add to the look of more square footage.  Dr. Janet advises for people on a budget to go to Home Depot or Ikea to purchase black folding trays that you would use to watch TV on and use them as end tables because they are easily stored and portable. You can use these trays as well to display flyers of the home you are staging. In the dining area some important principles are that the area is inviting and that once again people see themselves in this area - you want to make sure that you have 2 or 4 chairs at the table and not more than that unless the home is over 3,000 square feet in which case you can use 6 chairs. Another tip Dr. Janet discusses is that when you have a dining table to pull out the chairs a little bit almost as if the chairs are inviting the buyer to sit down. Holly asks D