Real Estate Feng Shui: Houses with substantial outside stairs

Houses with substantial outside stairs make more work and create a problem for the buyer.

You want to make the approach as easy as possible, so these types of stairs need attention. If there is an intermediate landing, this is a great place to have the buyer pause. Place a small bench on the landing, ensuring that it does not actually block the walking area of the stairs. Even a pot of colorful flowers will catch the eye and create the "pause" feeling.

You can use welcoming statuary, such as waving bears and the like, to bring the welcome forward to greet the buyer. The concept here is to avoid the "work, work, work, and then we get to the front door" experience. Give the buyer something pleasant on the way up as a reward for the climb, and the climb will seem shorter.

Bring the welcome even closer by framing the base of the stairway with a Welcome mat at the bottom and a pair of potted trees or containers of flowers on either side.

Success Story

The one comment that came up repeatedly with prospective buyers was that there were too many outside stairs. This was also discouraging drive-by lookers and those seeing promotional photos. These were, indeed, formidable stairs with two landings before you arrived at the front door.

First, the window boxes on the front of the house and top of the stairs were filled with bright red flowers. Then, a round pot of the same flowers was placed on the first landing. On the second landing, a small bench was added. An ornamental, metal rooster was attached to the railing here - a motif that was already on the window shutters above. Two more pots of red flowers were set to frame the base of the stairs and a Welcome sign was staked into one of the pots, facing the street.

The arduous climb to the front door was transformed into a beautiful enhancement to curb appeal. Multiple offers were received and there were no more comments about too many stairs.

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