With or without furniture?

clairecymru

My husband and I are going to move into rented accommodation before our current house is sold.

Is it better for us to rent a fully furnished place and leave our furniture there or would prospective buyers prefer the place to be empty to imagine their own furniture there?

I_have_spoken

IMHO an empty house will be a harder sell and likely sell at a lower price.

- taking out the furniture will show all the marks on carpets and walls
- viewers generally can't imagine if a bedroom will comfortably take a double etc. and need to see one in the room
- empty houses make you look like a distressed seller/repo etc.

Davesnave

^ This.

If you rent, there could well be the benefit of an integral garage or spare room, where some items could be stored, giving you the opportunity to stage your house in a manner rarely achievable by those engaged in real life!

Slinky

We sold both a house and a flat that we weren't living in at the time but left furniture in (with the house, we moved into our present one sleeping on an airbed and with the plastic garden furniture in the dining room). We'd lost a buyer of the house just before we moved from my OHs house to my house (which I'd been renting to tenants).

As we didn't need to sell to move, we didn't want to appear desperate, plus it was January. We cleaned the house to within an inch of its life and were able to leave it staged like a show home without the normal day to day clutter which invariably appears. We also had a friend staying in the house a couple of nights a week to keep an eye on it.

We got one person offering a low price who inched up by £2K a time for a bit, but held out and got £2.5K more than the previous sale which had fallen through.

I don't think we'd have got anything like the near asking price offer if the house had been cold and empty.

With the flat, it was one my husband lived in whilst working away from home. We left that furnished and looking like a show flat. When we sold it 2.5 years ago we got the highest price in the development since the peak, and no sale since then has got more and the flats are nearly identical.

Being able to 'stage' a house to look like a 'home' without your ordinary living clutter gives you a unique opportunity providing you do it properly.

LandyAndy

We had to move into rented (relocation due to MrsLAs work) before we had sold our house. We rented furnished and left all furniture in our house. I was living there a couple of days a week but in any case it made it look much better to retain the furniture. Downside was that when we did sell we had to put everything into store for a few months while we found somewhere to buy in the new location.

tim123456789

Personally, I prefer to view an empty house so that I can look around at where all the plug sockets etc are.

I have no difficulty working out if my furniture will fit.

But according to the clever people on the telly, it's impossible to sell a house for the best price unless it is "dressed". I don't see it myself, but they've managed to blag a gig on the telly, so they must know best.

Fire_Fox

Depends on your furniture: if it's oversized, shabby, dated or so many pieces that the rooms seem smaller you won't be doing yourself any favours. Generally it's best to leave some furniture, showhomes often don't have everything you would have in a family home, just key items.

tonyparker

It is good to store your stuff in some Self Storage company who can store it till you don't want it back. You need to pay some on monthly basis either on weekly basis. You don't need to sell your all the stuff.