Effect of empty house vs. furnished house when selling house? (investment, sale)

[alise007]

I for one normally find other people's stuff distracting. When we sold our last home 2 realtors were vying for our business. 1 said needed furniture the other one said move out. We did stage it nicely and had those pictures avail online/brochure because we sold the house AFTER we moved.

Can you take PICTURES of the staged rooms to leave on a brochure for potential buyers before you leave town? You could even move the bed around and use diff. bedding in each bedroom.

I figure most people trying to sell houses are hoping to do it quickly regardless of empty or not. Who wants to keep a place showroom ready constantly? In my hood it could be 9 mos-1 yr. OR longer.

I can still remember all the giant wedding portraits of all the blonde brides in MOST of the homes we toured in Pittsburgh 10 yrs ago!!! We bought the house that was 1/2 empty and had the homeowner's private porno tape collection still on his closet shelves in the MBR.

[GrainOfSalt]

Originally Posted by Koale

When we bought, we told our agent that we didn't want to have to look around or behand any furnishings and hope that something wasn't being hidden under a throw rug...empty it out. We wanted to see exactly what we were considering buying, not a bunch of 'staged' furniture that didn't come w/the purchase anyway. She just didn't quite understand that logic and, unfortunately, it came down to us having to tell her that if we were shown one more piece of furniture we would be changing agents.
Koale

Exactly!!

My husband and I just bought a place totally empty and I felt the same way, the way I see it, staging IS fake, I want to see what I am getting, period.

Now as a seller -- we've already cleared a lot of stuff out, and are still making some minor repairs, had some painting done, etc and my focus is to show the house is structurally sound. We still live here so there will be some essentials, but not much.

To be honest I am surprised some agents expect buyers to invest money in "staging". Let's face it if you don't already own a bunch of stage worthy stuff, then it is a huge expense and A LOT of work. I wouldn't even consider buying items for stage only. More stuff to then have to get rid of!

I'm going to assume that whoever considers this house will have the intelligence/ability to picture their OWN stuff here, with their own ideas.

[GrainOfSalt]

Originally Posted by alise007

I can still remember all the giant wedding portraits of all the blonde brides in MOST of the homes we toured in Pittsburgh 10 yrs ago!!! We bought the house that was 1/2 empty and had the homeowner's private porno tape collection still on his closet shelves in the MBR.

LOL @ the porno tapes.

Your experience kind of proves my point though..... most people are smart enough to look past staging, and see staging for what it is, FAKE.

[manderly6]

Trying to understand some people's logic.

1. Why on earth can't everyone imagine an empty space with their stuff in it.
2. No one wants to see a house with other people's stuff in it.

Why can't the people with the great imagination and vision just picture their stuff in the house even if it is not empty?

[CarolVa1977]

Originally Posted by chet everett

If you do decide to empty it put be sure to empty EVERYTHING and do an extra good job making it super clean. The last thing you want is some half hearted effort making it look like the place is distress and you will take any low ball offer that comes along.

Please do this. Please do it. I went to see properties this weekend and some of them were SO GROSS... even if they were fixable I would never even consider buying them.

[manderly6]

Why do builders have a furnished model when you go to look at new construction? I have to assume they somewhat know what they are doing in selling homes.

[NCN]

Originally Posted by Lovehound

60 year old 3BR 1BA house, fresh paint inside, new wall-wall carpets, approx. $300K price range, no mortgage

I've been preparing to sell for quite some time, getting rid of some junky furniture, throwing stuff out, packing non-essentials. Ended up with two completely empty bedrooms, now both partially filled with neatly stacked boxes. Bedroom furniture is average plain furniture (throwing away bed when I move, keeping the oak dresser and end stands). Living room upholstered couch and chair aren't good enough to let my dog barf on, but I let him anyway. At bare minimum I'll either have to get slip covers or maybe buy something cheap on Craig's list, or rent couch/chair. Dining room oak table and chairs are nice. I don't want to buy new couch/chair because I'm going on the road for several months, storing my stuff, and anyway I don't know what would look nice in my next house.

Here's the question: I almost wish I could just throw away bed, couch and chair, put the rest of my stuff in storage, and end up with a completely empty but nicely painted and newly carpeted house. Or I can do something about the couch & chair and live here while the house is being shown.

One broker told me it was no problem if I wanted to store my stuff, leave the house empty and get out of town, that it wouldn't affect the time necessary to sell it or the price I ultimately get. Yet I've always heard that prospective buyers like to see what a house looks like with furniture rather than totally empty, thus the furnished new model homes.

Staging in a big way isn't really an option because it would cost too much to fill this house with nice rental furniture. Either way I'm already going to have two empty bedrooms (or partly filled with boxes). And also, I have conflicting advice from my prospective agents: one says please move the packed boxes to a rental storage unit, the other says it's no problem at the level it's at now (neatly stacked and organized, room at least half empty).

It would be so painless showing the house if I could leave it empty and take off camping. Both brokers say selling and closing is no problem at all via phone/fax. The neighborhood is nice enough that I don't have any serious worry about leaving it vacant and unattended. All the houses around me are occupied and it's a nice family neighborhood.

Advice? Okay to show the house empty or should I stay here and wait for the sale? Should I completely empty those unused two bedrooms or are some boxes okay?

I haven't bought a house in more than 35 years but I remember looking at homes and all that furniture in the houses confused me to the point that I felt I had not seen the houses. I like to see a house empty and move in ready. We ended up buying a house that had just been built because I hated looking at homes people lived in. How do you know what all that furniture is hiding?

Nothing wrong with having a model home for the real estate staff to be comfortable, but I want the house I am looking to buy to be empty and functional.

[mig1]

I prefer to look at nicely staged homes with minimal furnishings/clutter.

[nightcrawler]

Originally Posted by TheEconomist

I don't understand the buyers who are completely unable to visualize what an empty space can look like. I guess its more proof that the vast majority of people have virtually no brainpower.

Yeah seriously. I don't need a blow up mattress in a bedroom to let me know its a bedroom. Duh !!!

There is nothing wrong with selling an empty house, it is not like the house is being featured in decorating ideas 101. Your selling the house, the space...not the decorations....What part don't people get???

Too much HGTV has brainwashed us that we almost feel we have to have a house staged....

staging is really just another form of re-decorating.....

[chet everett]

Same for a couch, or a dining room table or even, shudder, a tandem garage.

As a real estate I ALWAYS kept several nice tape measures, folding rules and a Sears catalog in my desk / car for buyer to verify that YES a king bed will fit in a 14x20 berm with no problems, a three person sofa will fit along a 12 ft wall with room to spare, a 52" inch round dining table is perfectly fine for a 130 sq ft dining rm, a tandem garage that is 36 ft deep will fit TWO Ford F-150 pickups nose to tail with room to sneak by either end and any normal cars a whole lot easier

It ain't so much that the blow-up mattress is some magic, but once people see a fully made bed with nice comforter and matching pillows and room for a nightstand and a dresser they are like "Oh, NOW I see that this would be better for my kid than a shared den and this fourth bedroom really does make this place worth more..." or "despite this being an older home I guess bed sizes have not really changed over the years..."