Phiroum Svy, Covington, WA. Residential Homes, Associate Broker

Feng Shui is the art and science of living in harmony with nature. The word Feng Shui means "wind, water". Wind is the invisible force and water is the visible force.

This symbol is called the yin yang symbol. It is the two primal forces of nature: Hot & cold; dark & light; moon & sun; passive & active; feminine & masculine, heaven & earth. An example of a yin environment is a cozy cabin. A yang environment is light, open, airy, and bright such as in your business, work and the beach.

The goals of Feng Shui is to achieve harmony, unity, and balance in life by using the 5 elements. They are fire, earth, metal, water, and wood.

In a productive and balanced environment, fire creates earth, earth creates metal, metal produce water, water feeds on wood, wood fuel fire.

In Feng Shui, energy is called Chi. Ch'i is the central concept of good Feng Shui. The five elements interaction creates chi or the energy of quantum physics. The flow and accumulation of Chi is the top priority in Feng Shui. By applying Feng Shui one can hope to make a property more marketable, increase one's prosperity, enhances one's health, wealth, and good fortune.

Please join my new group "What is Feng Shui?".

Foxwood is one of the desirable neighborhoods in Covington which is walking distance to Kentwood High School and Suncrest Elementary. It is a desirable neighborhood in Covington, because of his easy access to HWY 18 and walking distance to downtown Covington. There are Khols, Walmart, Costco, Home Depot, Fred Meyer, Safeway, QFC, and so much more that it will take up a very long list. I am not kidding when I tell you that you can live in Covington and not have to go outside the City.

The round abouts have given Covington a unique feel and look.

Covington is a great small city to live in.

Everyone seems to be speculating when we are going to recovery from this market condition mess. Yesterday, I heard that we in Washington State are about 6 months behind whatever is happening in California regarding market conditions. So what is the market condition in California today?

Today I read an article in the Realtor® Magazine Online about Housing Recovery. To summarize it inshortly, it's not going to happen unitl the next decade-so they say. Have we bottomed out? The majority I've heard is that we have, but who knows.

It is always interesting to hear what everyone's opinion are about our market condition in the State of Washington as well as in our local cities.

There are three key things that you should remember when staging your home to sell.

• Odors
• Noise Control
• Lighting

Odors
Pet, unusual cooking spices, and smoking odors can take up to a month to eliminate. Smoke odors can be tough to erase. Give yourself the necessary time for the odors to dissipate. Clean your carpets or change it (don't forget changing the pads too), drapes, linesn, air filtes and clothing.

If it is cooking odors, you want to clean the cabinets, floors, and stove top to remove spice residue. Sometimes drapes need to be cleaned or replaces.

A fresh coat of paint is your best defense, but don't forget to wash the wall first if it is from cigarette smoke.

Avoid the musty smell of a vacant home by strategically placing a few plug-ins around the house. Make sure the scents coordinate and isn't too overpowering. I suggest vanilla.

Antiques and older furniture can give off odors. Remove it or try scented candles to top it off.

Noise Control
This one is difficult to mask, but try anyway. When a house is near a freeway of major road, it is difficult to sell in a soft market. Try a fountain by the front door and in the backyard to distract outside noise. When you are shoing the house, elevator or "easy listening" music should be playes.

Noisy neighbor? Close the windows.

Lighting
Light the place up! Energy saving bulbs make your house appear dull and drab. Change these if you are using them. Make sure all room have enough lamps. All lights should be turned on when people come to see your house, even during the daytime. Old dated, yellowed or dust ridden lamp shade should be replaced. Don't forget to remove the plastic shields off from the shades.

Mother earth gave us the best lighting of all. Pull the blinds and open the shades and let the sunshine in.

Well, this may sound like of a strange Title, I didn't know what else to call it except just that.

When putting a home on the market, this is the first thing you notice when entering a home. As a listing agent, I have dealt with pet odors, and very strong cooking odors. I usually recommend leaving carpet freshner in the carpet for 24 hrs, then vaccuum it up, and repeat process. This has worked for my clients always. On the other hand, smoking odors in a whole different entity by itself.

I am always hearing stories from other agents about smoking odors being the toughest one of all to get rid of. I just know that the carpet freshner isn't going to cut it.

First of all, if you are going to change carpets, don't forget to change the pads too. Second, if you are going to paint the walls, don't forget to wash the walls first. Third, remove all upholstery furnitures, and wash all window coverings.

What do you do when you did all of the above and you still are smelling cigarette smoke when the house is vacant and has been repainted, stripped, and cleaned, with new carpets? I don't know! Anyone out know of a solution out there?