You know the feeling. You walk into one of those new model homes with everything perfectly arranged and coordinated, look around, and just think, "Wow!" How can I ever make my house look like that?

It's exactly that kind of thinking that inspired Arlington, Virginia, broker Matt Shepard to look into something called Visual Coordination. Shepard spent a number of years in new home sales and saw plenty of people get that "wow" look on their faces. When he moved into housing resales, he began to wonder if there was a way for the average homeowner to give potential buyers that same enthusiastic feeling without spending a bundle of money.

In the mid-1990's, Shepard was introduced to a new interior design technique being taught by Carole Talbott. The idea behind her "Visual Coordination" formula is basically to rearrange what a homeowner already has to give people what she calls that "just-wanting-to-be-in-a-room" feeling. Her theory is based on finding the architectural focal point of a room, rearranging furniture to suit it, then layering on lighting, art and accessories.

Talbott has no formal training in interior design. In fact, she says if she had undergone that training her technique "never would have come about." She says she was just "born with the ability to see thing differently as far as placement." Her "knack" for helping people spruce up their homes grew from a service for family and friends into the international business she runs today. A guest shot on Oprah Winfrey's show brought her a windfall of publicity and made her realize she'd never analyzed her "knack." That appearance pushed her to create the "formula" she now teaches in a series of seminars each year.

Shepard took one of Talbott's seminars during a slow time in the real estate market. He liked the results enough that he encouraged fellow broker Pat Wilson to follow in his footsteps. Together, Shepard and Wilson have passed their know-how along to others in Weichert Realtors' Shepard-Wilson-Fleming Group and make visual coordination a standard part of their sales practice.

Even when the housing market in Northern Virginia started to boom, Wilson says their team continued the design work. As she explains, "we still think it brings in more money, increases value," and gives people a better idea of how good a home can look. In addition to the monetary benefits for the seller and the broker, Wilson says, "I think the sellers feel like we have more of a personal interest in the house." It helps people "feel good about their house" and helps it to "sell even faster."

Wilson says it's rare that someone is unhappy when the team is finished visually coordinating a home. In fact, she says some sellers have been so happy with the results they've asked the team to go to work on their new home.

Shepard says he warns people that there might be a sense of being "violated." He encourages sellers to leave the house while the team is at work, and he admits it can be hard for some folks to come home to a place that doesn't look like the home they left. Still, he agrees with Wilson that most people are quite happy with the results.

For some, visual coordination gives them a new way of looking at their own possessions. Shepard says most people collect things over time and just add the items wherever there's room for them to fit. By taking everything out of a room and starting from scratch, art and collectibles can be rearranged in a way that makes more sense and adds more interest.

Talbott says an increasing number of brokers are calling on visual coordinators for help, but it can still be a tough sell. She says many corporations that have to sell properties fast have been getting on the bandwagon ahead of brokers. Still, it's her belief that "every realty office in the country" should have a visual coordinator to call on to help sellers and buyers.

As Talbott says, "so many people have beautiful homes and don't enjoy them" because they're worrying about what to do with them. She says her formula answers all those questions. "The formula knows what it's doing."

Carol Ochs is a Washington-based reporter who covers new home trends.