Hi
According to the Chinese and Feng Shui to speed up or unstick the selling of your house. The owner or owners should take some soil from your garden put it in an envelope then go to the nearest river (stream) and throw it in. I taught and conducted consultations in Feng Shui all over the world for over 20 years and many of these ancient things have worked for people :)
waiting to hear about your move now...!!!
Well John...hubby and I took our little envelopes of earth to the river at St Foy on Sunday. We both privately said a little prayer...I threw mine far out into the fast flowing current...the wind picked it up and brought it back almost to my feet at the foot of the quay...where it got caught in some long waving weed and didn't budge. When hubby saw this he folded his envelope lengthwise...a few time and tossed his out into the current. It landed beautifully...and floated off down the river. We watched it until it passed under the first bridge in the far distance...then we lost sight of it. Mine just sat there...slowly sinking. We went back after our lunch in the restaurant...and it had gone...no sign of the envelope anywhere. We still wonder how far hubby's got before it sank...who knows maybe it made its way to Bordeaux. :-)
Lots of people like ourselves, living along the banks of a river, get the soil washed out of their gardens every time there are excessive rainfalls, so in theory our houses should sell in a flash :-) When we spent time living in the USA, we found that many people, of different religious persuasions, realtors and non-realtors alike, swear that the best way to sell property is to bury a St. Joseph statue on the grounds. St. Joseph was the husband of the Virgin Mary and the stepfather of Jesus. Because he provided them with a home he is considered the patron saint of the family and of home life, among other things.There is no one way to properly use a St. Joseph statue. Most people believe that if you want to sell your property, bury the statute upside down. If you want to buy a property, bury the statue right side up, though that does involve the slight complication of digging a hole on property you don't own. :) Both the houses we had for sale in the States went fairly quickly, and yes - in both cases, the Realtors buried Poor Old Joseph in our garden. They even have stores supplying them to the property people.
you could try a Saint Christopher - patron saint of travellers :)
And what about selling a car? Does it work as well?
I have a long hot summer to get my head around this...
Once again, useful tip...thank you Norman.
Carol, slightly away from this but hopefully still on main topic of flogging a house - I saw a sign for a company called 'proprietéprivé.com' Looks like one that could be useful for you as it seems to offer a listing for private owners. haven't really checked it out, but again maybe useful?
Pamela, at my age I have enough problems trying to stand on my own two feet!
Mind you SWMBO says a lot of that is down to my healing imbibing of a certain red fluid in bottles. Standing on my head that is - not the other one!
When I was 14 I borrowed a book from the library about the balance of Yin and Yang, it began a lifetimes interest in dietetics. Your diet should be in balance with the seasons, your bodys aim is to identify and equalize the engergetic qualities of all the foods you consume, which may be yin (cooling, moistening, expanding) or yang (warming, drying and contracting)....
lol Norman - have you tried standing on your head? :)
I think then that a part of my anatomy has too much Yin and not enough Yang. Any offers of help out there?
My feelings entirely (re...be out of the way when viewing taking place)...havent tried the Notaires...but will be back next week and will be doing that...thankyou. Will check out your other suggestion...we have now put our English flat and Languedoc apartment on the market.....gluttons for punishment!
Hi John, the principles as I understand them DO work for me, but not some of the other stuff I mentioned.
I was getting acupuncture and acupressure in the East before anyone had ever heard of it in the West, and of course this was always accompanied by the Yin and Yang bits, which for me were just window-dressing. All I knew was it worked.
Just for interest, and shows the power of the mind? I went once to see my acupuncturist in Hong Kong ( I used to have terrible back problems). I was in HK 2-3 times year and always went to see him. We went through the procedures, and I knew the routine, so waited for the needles to be removed, so was surprised when he told me to get up straight away. I did this very gingerly so as not to break any needles, so when he said 'you dress now' I was concerned and said 'what about the needles?' His reply was 'what needles? No needles' , Incredibly my mind was attuned to what usually happened, I 'felt' the needles going in and staying there. In fact nothing had happened at all, and apart from the odd twinge I have never had the problems again. He knew that the cure had been made. Amazing, and certainly removed any cynicism about Chinese arts. But I am pretty sure he didn't bury any religious saints to make it happen.(add a smiley here!)
I do think we should change the definition of common sense into something else, I find it a most 'uncommon' thing these days. Starting with our beloved 'leaders'. One of the things I learned in the East was 'cause and effect' which I am always stunned to find so few politicians have any clue about.
Mind you I have been known to do the odd stupid thing myself, as I am constantly reminded by SWMBO!
John, I think it better to say a lot of people 'believe' it has worked for them. Like any 'faith' it can move mountains, but it doesn't necessarily mean it is genuine or workable for all.
My understanding of Feng Shu iis different from yours, although I don't profess expertise in this or any relgious or quasi-religious beliefs, that is for the individual to make his or her mind up about. But I have spent a lot of time in the Far East and like most things there, commonsense is often covered by folk-lore and pictograms.
My belief about Feng Shui is it is a colorful descriptive about the 'physical' (as opposed to metaphysical') positioning of a house and content. The example I formerly spoke of in Budapest, had 'bad vibes' but if I analysed it further I could see why - the entry was drab, sad and never got any sunlight - in other words not very welcoming. This in turn affected the staff who didn't like the place and that affected the customers etc. Feng shui or a convenient way of describing the problem?
There was Supermarket in Lons, that was very big, wide aisles, and had large trollies, which made the purchases look less than they were and encouraged more. Good sound psychological stuff. So what did they do? crammed the aisles with island sites and promos, and found the caddies couldn't navigate as well. Result? Irritated customers. Feng Shui or common sense? Either way it was a 'use of space' thing which as I say has been always been my understanding of the principal of Feng Shui.
Making a place more welcoming is also not rocket science, and the number of places we visited where dirty laundry was left in sight and children's toys scattered was also defiling the 'space' and we usually left these places in a hurry. We did also realise in one place near to us that this was a deliberate ploy by a couple of teacher tenants who didn't want to move.
So for me chucking mud in a river or burying images of saints etc., does nothing for my understanding of a spatial condition. Ditto straight lines are less appealing to most people than meandering paths, that's hardly new is it?
So I remain convinced that Feng Shui is related to the position of a property as related to space and light, and if that is best promoted through some sort of belief process so be it. But that doesn't work for me.
Carol, have you tried the Notaire route? They are nationally linked, have their own magazine etc. We used them twice and although didn't finally sell through them, they did get people through the door.
We also finally sold through ' 4.5%' Agency in Lons-les-Saunier, and they were very good, but I am not sure if they are National or just regional.
I think you should be thinking of getting your place on Chateaux et Demeures Magazine and site. I think that is the name anyway. Quality physical magazine in the newsagents and a quality website, - and there are others
Reading your spec.it seems to me you are going down the wrong path and talking to the wrong people. As you say it IS a big property and is not for the average 'window-shopping 'holiday home buyer. I would also get these people to do an independent valuation, because sometimes reverse psychology comes into play - eg 'Why is this place so cheap?'
Good agents get YOU out of the way for house visits, and I was very politely told to 'bugger off' when I started expounding the virtues of our last place, which actually sold on the basis of having a large convertible garage area and wide driveway to enable the now-owner to park 8 Minis, which are his passion. So you never know! This was 4.5% incidentally who DID know.
Thank you John...will see if I can get a copy for my kindle...if not order from Amazon before I leave the UK.
Thank you John...I am going to start reading more about Feng Shui....its really interesting..
sounds good Heather and Jane....