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Our townhouse is still for sale........still no lookers......still no buyers......
I close on my new house on October 23rd. I'm planning to move slowly - because really...why the rush!? However...I do want to start moving my furniture, etc. into my new house where I will be living.
I know that "stagers" are out there for a reason - but I also hear about people wanting to picture their own stuff in your house.
My question....is it a bad idea to have absolutely NO furniture in your house while selling?
From a recent buyer's prespective, I say yes & no (that doesn't help, does it!)
It was great to see some empty homes b/c you saw the true space & very hard to hid cosmetic problems.
Homes that have stuff in it; well, it helps b/c then you can see if your stuff will fit & look right.
At the same time, some homes are over cluttered & it's hard to see past pictures & decorations & just tons of stuff. Also, you don't see the "true" conditions of some things.
we are in the same situation and we are leaving 1/2 our stuff here. Our realtor said empty houses do not show as nice and they sell for less - so we are leaving 1/2 of it and it will make the condo look much larger. We are taking our bed though and as I saw on HGTV we are putting in a blow up bed!
If your house is priced correctly, I don't think it matters if there is furniture or not. That being said, if you do leave your house vacant, you will need to make sure everything is smudge, nick and scuff free. Those things show up a lot more in a vacant house than they do in a furnished house. If you haven't done it already, I would have your house painted, the carpets cleaned and your whole house professionally cleaned. You might also want to stick an air purifier in there. Houses that are left vacant often get a "vacant" smell to them.
If your home is perfect. Perfect paint, perfect flooring, perfect smell, and perfect baseboards... then sell it empty.
Otherwise have is staged. It is worth the money to have a professional stager tell you what to leave. I do this for my clients because I have a knack for it. Maybe your realtor will be able to do this for you. If not, hire someone. Your home will sell faster and the money you would have spent on carrying cost will go towards your stager. In addition your home should sell at a higher price. Also clean your windows inside and out. It is one of the biggest details that people miss!
Want to buy a house toopen a daycare/afterschool business
Hi,
I will like to begin a search for a house that I can use for the purpose of a family care business and also to run an after school program. I was told that this would need to be "blessed" by NJ Child Services to ensure environmental hazards not on property. All other updates to make the environment child-friendly and safe will be done by me. Can anyone help me to understand how I can go about stating this in contract with sellers? Also, will sellers be reluctant to sell with this condition in contract?
I will like to begin a search for a house that I can use for the purpose of a family care business and also to run an after school program. I was told that this would need to be "blessed" by NJ Child Services to ensure environmental hazards not on property. All other updates to make the environment child-friendly and safe will be done by me. Can anyone help me to understand how I can go about stating this in contract with sellers? Also, will sellers be reluctant to sell with this condition in contract?
Belize, homes show better with furniture than without, however that doesn't mean that you have to have a full house of furniture!! I just staged my brothers empty house for him. I used a card table in the kitchen and put a colorful (striped) table cloth over it, and then 2 chairs I had, with a pretty centerpeice. I have a cookbook rack in the corner of the kitchen counter (where it gets a little dark) with a colorful recipe showing. Thats it for the kitchen. Dining room has the DR table and a couple of chairs, with a white large platter on the table. For the LR I put 2 wingback chairs from my LR in there, with a nice couch and had my brother leave a side cart. I put the cart in one corner to mimic where the TV would go, and the only reason I added the wingbacks (with white slipcovers) was to make the room look larger. Huh? Well,, the way you walk into the LR, you will mentally cross that space off as if it doesn't exist, by placing the chairs there I brought that space back into the LR making it feel larger.
No bedrooms have furniture, but each bathroom has a white fluffy rug and a white shower curtain, and something nice on the counter to give it pizazz and interest. Nothing too large. And big white fluffy towells on the towell holder.
As a previous poster said, when your home has minimal furniture, you MUST have it s p i c and span clean, because it emphasizes those items.
But as you can see staging can be nice and minimalist. Just investing in white shower curtains and towells made a huge improvement in the bathrooms.
Belize, I know you are excited about moving, however I still think it would be wise if you considered not closing (or moving) until you sold your condo.
You said you could only afford two mortgages short term. I honestly don't see your TH selling in the short term unless you drastically cut the price. You said there wasn't any buyers around. As you said in an earlier thread, you are hoping for a miracle.
What are you going to do if the inevitable happens? Just trying to prepare you for a unfortunate financial mess you might be running into down the road. Please don't let the excitement of moving into a new house cloud your judgement on doing the financially sound thing in this case.
What you can do and it's helped my last two buyers who ended up purchasing the vacant homes, is to leave pictures of the house with the furniture in it on the counter. Some people can't visualize with furniture in it and some can't visualize with it out. So, you get both people satisfied with the pictures. They can look at the pictures and see how it could be done and even move things around in their mind from there.
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Empty house - not a good idea
