Selling up - need to dress my house...

Hot_Puppy

Hi,

Having re-furbed a four bed family home I'm now thankfully coming to the point where I want to put it on the market. The only problem being that as the project is a development and I am single I dont have all the trappings of a family home that might attract potential vendors.

I've heard talk of companies that offer furniture for short-term hire but havent been able to find any in the local press or on the net. Can anyone help by suggesting the name of a national or SE England based company? Does anyone have any other ideas of how I could dress a place cheaply without lumbering myself with loads of furniture (and bread makers / coffee machines )


[First time post - apologies in advance if I've done anything that breaches forum ettiquette. Hi to all other posters and thanks for your help]

Doozergirl

Welcome Hot Puppy!

I looked into these companies a while back and TBH you could buy the furniture for the same price as renting for 3 months if you look in the right places. If you google for "show home furniture hire", you'll get several results. Here's a few websites:
https://www.furniturerental.co.uk, https://www.homestagers.co.uk, https://www.sterlingfurniturerental.com, https://www.propertytherapy.co.uk
You'll find there is definately some blatant Ikea stuff thrown into these packages and some downright nasty stuff too.

There's a trade fair at the NEC coming up https://www.thefurnitureshow.co.uk where you can pick up furniture at trade prices if you have a company (we used to cheat, as SIL has a generic name for her business!). It means that as well as using Ikea you can buy stuff that you can sell on eBay or whatever as ex-show home for around the price you paid for it because the retail prices are so much higher. There's a couple of regular companies there that sell virtually everything you can think of.

If you can move into your house, if you've not already, it's better as people respond much better to a well looked after home, than a house that is empty. We've tried it both ways and we've even moved friends into houses for free rent as it saves money on furniture and the house sells quicker. Fact.

follyfoot

Hi welcome to the board. try the following link http://www.ipadesign.co.uk/index.htm. the companies you are looking for are called home staging. you can rent the furniture from them. they are quite expensive. if you are from the southeast the Excel Centre has a property show twice a year and loads of companies will decorate your house for a fee. however you can do it yourself. simply define areas: bedrooms should all have beds - doesnt matter how cheap. cover them with bedding that looks expensive but try and co-ordinate. so for example if you have painted an accent wall, choose a throw or cushions in the same colour. living room should have a sofa/chairs/pictures/mirrors/lighting. more importantly if you have a separate dining area buy a table big enough to seat 6-8 people - families love to dine together. if you dont have a sep dining area sep the room into dining and living room with the appropriate furniture. if you can go and look at the showhomes (they are everywhere - take a camera) - just pretend you are a mother with four kids and exaggerate what you have to spend.

Hot_Puppy

Wow ... excellent advice that I will follow up on. This place is great...