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My personal opinion is first and foremost is the neighborhood and the curb appeal of the house. That sets the tone before one even walks inside a house.
Empty and spotlessly clean always appealed to me. I could see everything. Nothing hidden. I think empty looks larger especially if a smaller house.
We are getting ready to sell and I was going considering selling empty. My realtor told me not to. After doing a lot of research I'm seeing that the bottom line is a well staged house sells faster than empty.
Well staged doesn't mean having the dining room set like someone is coming over for tea. And it doesn't mean an empty living room with nothing but a couch and recliner. It means taking note from builders of expensive, upscale homes. They all stage or at least have a model that is staged. As noted by the poster above (forgot your name but I'm going back to give you rep points).....people who sell homes stage them.
When we went looking at homes, typically the empty homes were forclosures or short sales. They needed a ton of work. Sellers had basically squatted in the house for the past year paying no mortgage and certainly not doing repairs or updates. Or an empty house meant that the sellers had to move out of state for work. So that meant they likely wanted a fast sell, which meant it was more tempting as a buyer to beat them up on price.
I also see a lot of empty homes sitting on the market a long time.
Another thing I noticed as we've been looking at apartments to rent is oddly enough furniture can make a room feel bigger. We looked at a place that was empty and I could not see our bed fitting in the bedroom or our couch fitting in the living room. Then the person showing the apartment took us to a staged model that was acutally smaller and there we could see how our furniture would fit because the model had furniture. I know our upstairs bedroom looked bigger once we got a queen sized bed in it. Empty it just looked like a small square room. With the queen bed and dresser, it actually feels roomy.
So I can see how having furniture can help people see size and layout of the room.
This is just my experience with my area of central Virginia. Other places may be different. If my realtor said to sell it empty, I'd move and sell empty. Based on what I'm reading, staging it the right way seems to be best.
I'll admit if I was looking to buy I'd almost prefer empty but that is only because in my mind, I could get a better deal on an empty house. Not really the kind of buyer you want when you are selling!
good luck. Selling sucks.
We are getting ready to sell and I was going considering selling empty. My realtor told me not to. After doing a lot of research I'm seeing that the bottom line is a well staged house sells faster than empty.
...
I'll admit if I was looking to buy I'd almost prefer empty but that is only because in my mind, I could get a better deal on an empty house. Not really the kind of buyer you want when you are selling!
I think you nailed it. I've helped a couple friends find homes recently. Their first thought at seeing an empty listing was that the price was negotiable. The sellers were paying the mortgage on a home they were no longer living in and were likely open to low ball offers.
The posts from folks who prefer empty houses so they can evaluate things better are likely investors who sharpen their pencils when making an offer.
Staging is an art. It's putting your best foot forward. Many believe you are leaving money on the table if you don't do it.
I'll post this here since it seems most appropriate of all the threads about staging I've looked through.
I've spent a couple months surfing Zillow for prospective houses in Colorado and have lost count of the number of listings - a good majority of them not FSBO mind you - where the interior photos are simply horrible. Clutter to the max; unkempt bedrooms & bathrooms; pets in the photos, etc.
Are the sellers trying to save a little $ by not going along with the realtors' advice? Are the realtors not concerned? Or is staging a practice more common to high-end properties (been looking at sub-$400K's)? We've painted, cleaned and de-cluttered our home here in MD in preparation for putting it on market - it's positively spartan by comparison to many of the listings we've seen.
I'll post this here since it seems most appropriate of all the threads about staging I've looked through.
I've spent a couple months surfing Zillow for prospective houses in Colorado and have lost count of the number of listings - a good majority of them not FSBO mind you - where the interior photos are simply horrible. Clutter to the max; unkempt bedrooms & bathrooms; pets in the photos, etc.
Are the sellers trying to save a little $ by not going along with the realtors' advice? Are the realtors not concerned? Or is staging a practice more common to high-end properties (been looking at sub-$400K's)? We've painted, cleaned and de-cluttered our home here in MD in preparation for putting it on market - it's positively spartan by comparison to many of the listings we've seen.
Funny, I'm in Maryland now but moved here 2 years ago from Colorado. Yes, sometimes it seems the price point does make a difference. There is no real cost savings by not going with a realtor's advice; I pay for the stager's consultation and usually its just a "declutter, depersonalize and clean like crazy". Now if the seller is hearing what I'm saying, I don't get the stager involved, no need. But sometimes they need to hear it from a third party. Nobody wants to here their baby is ugly so sometimes we REALLY have to dance delicately around that. A home looking good in photos is a huge concern; one chance to make a first impression.
The average DoM is 30 and dropping.
Multiple offers in the first day are common.
(I was at an open house this past Saturday and the listing agent said: "We received 3 offers already and it is under contract". One of the people in the house said: "What? We put it in an offer and have not heard back." The agent said: "Did yours have any contingencies?" He said: "Yes." and she said: "They accepted one with NO contingencies.")
Sellers feel they do not have to stage. Nor clean (the open house was a cluttered mess).
You are not going to find a house using Zillow.
As much as I like Zillow, it has too much lag in the Denver market.
You can use it for research about what WAS available and sold data.
As much as I am not a fan of real-estate agents, you need a buyer's agent who knows about houses BEFORE they hit the MLS.
Thanks. At least for me, seeing photos with clutter give the impression the seller isn't all that serious about moving - or by extension selling. They also imply their vacating could be problematic.
Meh - perhaps that's just me; maybe other viewers get a 'cozy' or 'lived in' impression from it.
Last edited by Scratch33; 02-11-2015 at 01:02 PM..
What Dave said about inventory is true. Sellers don't have to work as hard to make homes appealing, so they don't bother.
And also true about Zillow - best case scenario, Zillow updates overnight so it's always a day behind. When you start looking in earnest, that will be an issue. REColorado and some other sites have real time updates from MLS and are a little more accurate. But yeah, you'll need to work with a good buyer's agent in this market.
Forget about staging, it is a scam to separate you from your money. I would much rather see an empty house than one that has been staged. An empty and clean house is what I want to buy, not some cheesy rented "personality". Many realtors that I know agree.
And many realtors that I know disagree.
Our last realtor paid for a stager to come through and give us advice. It worked.
If you are looking at cheesy rented "personality" homes, then you are likely not looking at well-staged homes.
To me, an empty home says that the sellers have moved on, are paying the bills on a home they are no longer living in, perhaps paying two mortgages now, and might possibly be quite ready to negotiate the price.
I suspect that buyers who drive a hard bargain prefer empty homes.
Sellers who want to appeal to buyers who are willing to pay extra for a home that feels right to them might do well to consider staging.
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so sometimes we REALLY have to dance delicately around that. A home looking good in photos is a huge concern; one chance to make a first impression.
Lazy and sellers' market
Our preference is more rural.
