How can you improve your chances of a quick sale? It’s about shifting your home’s spiritual energy

After months of being at home, many are looking to move out and sell their homes, but it's not always easy. Christine Manby speaks to Ruthie Phillips, a feng shui practitioner helping cleanse bad energies and spirits and improving sale chances

(Illustration by Tom Ford)

How does the saying go? An Englishman’s home is his castle? Never has that felt truer than during lockdown. And, it seems, never have so many of us input the search term “house with an actual moat” into estate agents’ websites before. Or if not a moat, then at least a proper garden rather than a strip of paving slabs just big enough for the wheelie bin.

Within 24 hours of the government lifting restrictions on the property market back in May, Rightmove recorded more than 5 million visits and many of those were by people hoping to escape the city for the country, having spent lockdown in urban hell. That rush of interest in the country life was great news for people hoping to offload a small dark cottage with a view of open fields and a leaking septic tank but it was bad news for city dwellers hoping for a bucolic bargain.

In pre-Covid times, every Londoner living in a rabbit hutch could console themselves that when they retired, they’d be able to sell the flat and buy a small village outside the M25. Not anymore. House price growth in the country has been outstripping urban performance in a big way. And unless you’re renting, you’ve got to be able to convince someone that your hell hutch is their dream home before you can afford to escape the city anyway. Post-pandemic, it’s going to take more than an estate agent proficient with a fish-eye lens to shift your city pied-a-terre. Should you be turning to a more spiritual approach to selling your house?

Clairvoyant medium Ruthie Phillips believes so. Phillips is well known to television viewers in Australia where she’s a regular on programmes such as Sensing Murder and Scream Test. In addition to her work as a medium, Phillips is also an advanced aura-soma colour therapist, a spiritual healer and a feng shui practitioner. It’s in her capacity as the latter that she’s helped dozens of people sell homes that were proving difficult to shift.

Many of the people who logged on to Rightmove back in May were probably, like me, just doing some property perving rather than seriously hoping to move so I first asked Phillips how those of us who’ve become bored with our perfectly nice homes in lockdown can fall back in love with them.

“Have a massive spring clean. Get rid of all the junk. Really sort through and chuck out. Put coats and shoes away. Wash everything that needs washing. Energy is cluttered by too much stuff which leaves no room for light.” So far, so Marie Kondo. But Phillips goes further. “Reenergise by opening windows, use a smudge stick or sage spray. Clap in the corners or ring Tibetan bells to move stuck energy.” She also advises that as soon as you get in from work (or a busy day queueing at the post office to return your online shopping), you take a shower so you don’t spread bad energy about your home. It’s advice that seems pretty practical while there’s a virus on the loose.

To further enhance the energy in a home, Phillips uses a grid system of “creative energy placements”. She doesn’t adhere to the strict compass-point mapping of feng shui. Instead, she imagines standing with her back to the front door and takes it from there. According to her system, the far left-hand corner of the house represents wealth, abundance and prosperity. That’s where I have a leaky boiler. Phillips prescribes citrine to counteract that bad juju. The far-right hand corner represents relationships and marriage. That’s where I have my kitchen sink and ancient dishwasher. Phillips recommends I put some rose quartz there. I tried that at once, having been sent some rose quartz with a review copy of a book on moon energy. A fortnight later, my partner persists with the idiosyncratic method of washing up that may eventually tear us apart.

Phillips says that often when a house is renovated, the energy of the builders remains in the walls, particularly if they didn’t enjoy the job

The energy centre of any home, according to Phillips, is the place that feels like the centre to you. It doesn’t have to be the literal centre. For me, it’s the kitchen table. Philips suggests putting fresh fruit and flowers and clear quartz on the table to lift the vibration but, in keeping with her philosophy of “feng shui without the tassels”, she suggests that if you don’t want your house to look like a new age stall, you can bury the crystals in plant pots. Or you could do as Philips herself has done and incorporate them in the actual design of your home. During lockdown, Phillips overhauled her garden, creating a “gin and tonic” patio with energising crystals embedded in the steps.

But what if, even after giving your house a bit of love, you’ve decided you still want to move? How can you improve your chances of a quick sale? Again, it’s about shifting energy. Phillips says that when a house isn’t selling, it’s often because someone in the family isn’t ready to go. She suggests a ritual. “When you decide you want to move, you have to get the whole family on board. Everyone who lives there has to release the house. Gather in the centre of the house and thank it for the love and shelter you’ve experienced while living there. Thank it for the companionship and good times. Let it know that it’s been an honour to be its custodian and that you’re going to find the perfect people at the perfect moment to be its custodians next. Ask the house to shine its light.”

However it may not be your family members or housemates who are blocking a sale. Phillips recalls a problem house in Sydney. Her estate agent friend told her that every time the house’s owner went into her new walk-in wardrobe to choose clothes for the day, she’d find herself falling headfirst into it, as though she’d been pushed. Philips sensed that the owner had changed the layout of the house and that the previous occupant, an elderly Italian man – deceased – objected to the changes. After a conversation with Phillips, the ghost was happy to move on and the house was soon under offer.

It’s not just the spirits of the dead that can cause a problem. Phillips says that often when a house is renovated, the energy of the builders remains in the walls, particularly if they didn’t enjoy the job. I immediately think of the two guys who did some repairs in my own house just prior to lockdown. Had they left a curse? The bathroom definitely needed smudging with a sage stick after they’d been in there.

Phillips recently helped the owners of a manor house in Wiltshire that had been on the market for over a year. It held not one but four trapped spirits, including that of a young girl who left footprints in the ash by the fire. The house also had a library, which was decorated with more than 100 framed photos of the family and an attic room full of old mattresses. Once Phillips had spoken to the spirits and advised the family to get a skip for their junk, it sold within two weeks.

Warm and practical, like your favourite teacher, Phillips describes herself as having her “head in heaven” but her “feet on earth”. Whether you believe in spirit energy or not, perhaps the most important piece of advice Phillips offers is to tidy like crazy. Without your clutter, it’s easier for a buyer to imagine themselves moving in. And if you haven’t got the time to tidy, “Buy some flowers,’ Phillips says. “People will assume that if you’ve had time to arrange flowers, you’ve had time to dust.” And finally, “Spray pledge on radiators. As the heat rises, it will smell like you’ve been polishing.” I shall definitely be using that trick next time my mum comes round.