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Like most things: It depends! I think knowing who your potential buyers will be, if you can generalize, should help you decide.
We're currently "move up" buyers in a hot market. For us (middle-aged couple with kids), unless the home is a fixer (which isn't a bad thing), we far prefer empty & clean over staged. I find furnishings distracting.
As for smells (pet or teenage boy or dampness from a recent shower or stale cooking), those are all a huge turn off. And lots of potpourri or other air fresheners are a red flag for me. Once again, if the home is empty & clean, this shouldn't be an issue.
However, if you are 100% sure your house won't smell as stated above, if your potential buyers are more young/first-timers, some staging might make it more appealing. I know my perspective has changed on this over the years (cosmetics used to influence me a lot, but in my current stage of life, not at all).
We're also sellers of more of a "first-timers" type home. We plan to sell it empty & clean, even though we know buyers in our area could be swayed by a room being staged to look really cool and fashionable. But, with the market being super-hot right now, we don't think the little extra "oomph" our house could possibly get from a bit of staging would be worth it.
My agent says an empty house says "owners already gone and desperate to sell," so buyers expect a discounted price. She thinks you get more money for a staged house that is or looks occupied. If staged, she even recommends some clothes in the closet.
I staged our house. We put everything into PODS that were going with us but didn't need to be in the house while on the market. Two more houses with the same floor plan were for sale in our neighborhood, both foreclosures, and the banks were asking more for those houses than we were. Each realtor told ours that our house was absolutely gorgeous and looked far better than the others. Several tried to hire me as a stager, but we were leaving the area.
We had a cat. We warned the realtor to warn others that there was a cat, and that his litter box was in the basement. Never had a problem. Also, it was an automatic cleaning litter box, so no odor.
Our house sold in 19 days (in the snowiest January in decades). The others were still for sale when we left in March.
When we got back to Texas, we looked at 22 houses in five days. None of them had been staged, and were so cluttered that it was very difficult to see the walls and floors. But we both have the ability to look past other people's junk, which is apparently not the case with many other folks. I sure would have been much happier, though, if they'd been either staged or empty.
The key to living in a staged house is clean, clean, clean!!! Squeegee the shower after every use. Wipe down each sink, and if you have a stainless steel kitchen sink, wipe dry and rub a little lemon oil into it so it gleams. Tell your realtor you need x amount of time before each showing, so you can refresh the vacuuming if you have carpet, do a quick straightening, and bug out.
Worked for us.
Your house looked good. The simple look is definitely best. It wasn't a factor for you, since yours sold quickly, but generally it is probably best to avoid any seasonal decorations in pictures, because if the house doesn't sell, they just remind people how long the house has been on the market. If I see pumpkins when I am looking at pictures in April, I wonder what is wrong that the house has been on the market so long.
My agent says an empty house says "owners already gone and desperate to sell," so buyers expect a discounted price. She thinks you get more money for a staged house
What do you mean? She had no dog in the fight. She was my agent as a buyer. I am selling in a different state, so she will not be involved in that transaction at all. She was just offering advice that I leave some of my furniture behind, if possible, until I sell rather than emptying my house completely. I guess "LOL" back at ya.
My agent says an empty house says "owners already gone and desperate to sell," so buyers expect a discounted price. She thinks you get more money for a staged house that is or looks occupied. If staged, she even recommends some clothes in the closet.
Yeah, but I can easily spot a professionally staged home, which also shows me the owners are already gone. Now, if you're leaving enough behind for it to look occupied, what your agent says could be true, depending on the market.
Well, now, "already gone" is meaningless, and certainly does not immediately connote "desperate to sell."
And no seller needs to discount a house for, or cater to, a buyer who thinks that way. They can just go out and spend less on something they can afford.
When it comes to appraisal, the house is not docked for vacancy.
Vacant is the best way to sell a house in the broad market.
We had an offer two days after it went on the market. The offer was from a realtor who wanted to move from a townhouse. She offered a price so low as to be insulting, then asked we take it off the market while waiting for her to qualify for a VA loan, and we pay all closing costs.
Our reply was "No." Our realtor almost had a heart attack, saying we had to (HAD TO) make a counter offer. I reminded him that we were choosing to sell, not required to sell, and that if we didn't get offers we liked, we could just take it off the market and keep living there. Once he got over his panic, he realized what a crappy offer it was and it didn't rate any response except "No."
The next offer was for what we were asking, they were already approved for a mortgage, and they paid all closing costs. They really, really wanted that house.
My agent said not to put too much stuff in our house. She suggested place settings on the snack bar. I bought new placemats and put 2 place settings out. We had plant shelves, I put a couple real plants, a few books, and a small light to show there was electric up there. New towels, entry rug, nice wreath on the door. New shower curtain.
Agent said she liked my staging. We did leave everything squeaky clean, all maintenance issues taken care of. It sold in the first week.
I think there is a lot of luck involved. What's the market, the economy, the inventory, the price range? Sometimes it's just all right and goes quick. Sometimes not. Years before in a bad economy we couldn't move the house.
In our case, our buyer wanted it because of the location. They were going to change a lot of things once they moved in. I don't think staging or non-staging made any difference in her case.
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