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Thanks for all your advice! This is a great forum...
It sounds like we definitely need to work on wallpaper and any painting issues but, if we do need to move before putting the house on the market, "empty" (with some staging) is not as bad as many friends (and HGTV) have led us to believe!
We have never bought a house that had anything in it. I guess I just like to see the house empty since the furniture does not go with it and I didn't really want to be looking at something I wasn't buying. I found looking at homes people were living in to be distracting. I like to see every inch of the place I am buying and I am not rude enough to poke around in someone's home.
'Staging' works well to entice people looking at new homes/builder communities. When I toured one new model recently I couldn't help but notice the various people so busy looking at the furnishings that they weren't noticing the quality (or lack thereof) of the construction, the pipes, all the stuff that would actually affect their living environment. So if one is looking to distract (as well as entice), then a beautifully appointed/staged home will (psychologically) work on lots of people. For a home in a nice location, priced well, in good condition, etc, etc, then you probably won't have to do much staging at all.
If your house is priced right and looks nice, it will sell regardless!!! We were looking at a really cheap house in Cary (online) and it was gone in 3 days! It's all about price in this market right now!!!
All true I think. Price, price, price! But, with regards to staging, I'm sure that those who are buying homes often fail to look at the important stuff, like the quality of construction. And, that's a shame and will potentially be a sad reality when they actually move in. On the other hand, my experience has proven to me that many people can actually "see" themselves in a home unless there's some degree of staging. This may simply be an empty house with a simple seating area near the fireplace to relay the idea of a comfortable night in front a fire. Believe it or not, generaly speaking, many folks can't envision themselves in a place that doesn't spell out how they'd actually exist there. Of course, they aren't pruchasing that furniture or that artwork. But, it may help them a little to see something in place. This isn't to say that lots of other folks can easily envision themselves in a home, and can see the changes they would make. I don't mean to pursuade either way. It's simply that what I've witnessed demonstrates that it's sometimes tough for people to put it together and see their furniture and things in a home that isn't theirs. I think this is particularly true as buyers look over many properties and they start to collide in the ole memory bank!
You have gotten a great deal of really good advice. We sold our home about 5 months ago in Wake Forest . We wrestled with the same thing about staging, etc. as we had bought another home that we had moved to in the general area. I think one of the most important things is to clean, declutter, clean, and then declutter some more. I had bold colors but they all flowed so well through the house leaving them made sense to me (and my realtor). I did not have wallpaper but if I did I would take the time and remove it.
We left our family room a bit staged with a couch and a chair just so someone could get a size dimention. I took all my art down ( I collect art and my realtor felt it would be too distracting to a potential buyer), touched up all the walls and cleaned some more.
Oddly, our home sold the day of our garage sale when it looked its worse. As people were carrying boxes of purchased items out of my house little did I know the buyers-to-be were walking in. I laugh now that for all the times my house was spotless the sale happened the day I didn't care how it looked.
Above all I think pricing your home correctly is the most important thing you can do as everything else really is individual opinion and choice.
Good luck on your sale!
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