Financial & Travel Musings

With the housing market in the doldrums, it takes something special to really attract a buyer at the moment and that’s where using more unique pieces in your home can make all the difference.

Obviously you need the place to be clean and tidy both inside and out. However, beyond that where you can really score is through using settings that make your place stand out from the crowd. Clearly you don’t want to be spending a fortune on these but you don’t need to. For example, vessel sinks come in around the $500 mark but are something that will really make your vanity unit stand out from the sameness of most store bought installations.

Outside you should look towards more durable pieces. For example, whilst the plastic chairs might be cheap and work well, it’s much more appealing to get something in a wrought iron style.

These little improvements won’t cost a lot but can make the difference in being able to sell your home.

Popularity: 22% [?]

The key part of your engine is one of the very smallest, namely the bearings.

These tiny little things come as part and parcel of just about every piece of machinery that we use these days so the things are produced by the million right around the world and oodles of different sizes too of course. Although seemingly trivial these little items are naturally essential to keep the various moving parts actually moving: you definitely notice them if they’ve rusted up for sure.

And, of course, they’re used in those neat little puzzles for the kids.

Popularity: 28% [?]

Perhaps the best (worst?) example of this is in the area of promotional products where just a little bit of thought can bring substantial improvements to the effectiveness of the marketing spend.

How many times have we all received products that bear no relation to the product of the company? OK, it’s not always easy to think of a completely relevant promotional item but what’s very common is to come out with some really cute item which goes straight into the hands of people who have absolutely no say whatsoever in the purchasing decision for the products of that company.

In some ways the tired old standby of a pen with a name and phone number is better than many of the more expensive items that you see these days. At least, if it’s a relatively ordinary pen then it might not be scooped up by the serial trade show attenders and perhaps some of them will find their way to those with the purchasing authority in the company of your customers. For the less appropriate and more expensive items though that’s pretty much sure not to happen as we all know.

So, put a little bit of extra thought into what you’re going to give away to potential customers and make sure that if it’s at the more expensive end of the scale that it’s something likely to end up in the hands of those with the purchase decision power.

Popularity: 25% [?]