Selling former rental property - to furnish or not?

Celepie

Just looking for some thoughts.

I'm selling a house that has been rented out for the past year or so after myself and my partner bought a new home and moved out. My tenants are moving out next month and we are taking the opportunity to sell. It was let unfurnished so obviously when they leave all that will be left is the white goods.

I'm in two minds as to whether we should furnish it, which we can partly do without buying anything new, but some things we would have to buy (and the stuff we do own that we can move to the old house might not exactly match) or just leave it empty. It's been recently painted and decorated and some new floors laid, etc. and the tenants have kept it spotless.

We just want a quick sale so we're pricing it low so it moves - I wondered if the fact it'll be priced v well means that dressing it is less important or if we should still try to make it look 'lived in'.

danlewi2

if your selling it - i would leave it empty.

Squirtle17

In my opinion, empty is preferable to dressing it. If any of the rooms are a bit small (as in, they can just fit a bed in) or are funny shapes, it might help to have some furniture to help people picture how the space can be used.

NaughtiusMaximus

Personally I prefer to view a completely empty property as it eliminates the possibility that the vendor may have carefully positioned the furniture to hide imperfections such as a stained carpet, damaged plaster, a damp patch etc etc.

pinklady21

Another vote for leaving it empty. The rooms will appear lighter and bigger without furniture.
There will always be some folks who can't visualise a property without stuff in it, but heh ho. Personally I always prefer to view a property properly empty - I can see better anything that might need repaired or refurbed, and as others said, gives me more confidence that nothing is being covered up by a strategically placed rug or wardrobe!

Celepie

Thanks! It would be much easier to leave it empty so I'm glad that doing so seems to be a good choice!

badger09

I'm selling my late sister's property. EA advised me to leave it furnished for marketing photos, which I did.

It is now STC and as I live 200 miles away, I'm arranging for it to be cleared. We cleared the personal stuff some time ago but most furniture was removed yesterday and the rest will go next week. EA agreed that if this sale falls through, an empty house will not put buyers off. There's no question of furniture hiding anything, or any manky carpets.

If it looks good now, would tenants be willing to let EA take photos as it is?

Celepie

They're in the process of packing so there's a lot of boxes and clutter everywhere at the moment, plus they have some pets in cages that take up a big portion of one room at the moment, so not really possible sadly. It does look big and light when empty so I'm hoping that'll help and it's been freshly decorated so the paintwork still looks nice and new (no need to hide anything with furniture!)

badger09

Celepie wrote: »

They're in the process of packing so there's a lot of boxes and clutter everywhere at the moment, plus they have some pets in cages that take up a big portion of one room at the moment, so not really possible sadly. It does look big and light when empty so I'm hoping that'll help and it's been freshly decorated so the paintwork still looks nice and new (no need to hide anything with furniture!)

In that case, I think you'll be fine, though I agree with post 3.

getmore4less

Make sure the floor plan and description have accurate measurements in both metric and imperial.

If the inside is good already make sure the outside is also up to scratch.

saajan_12

I would ideally post photos with furniture in the property, as it can be hard to judge the size of a room from a photo.. the angles always look wierder to the eye when you have few points of reference.

Could you ask if the current tenants would allow you to take photos when they've cleared most of their belongings / clutter / boxes, but not the main furniture? Perhaps in return for £x off their final rent or a case bubbly..

When you actually get to the stage of viewings, an empty house is fine as people can physically see the space and estimate furniture sizes etc when they are standing in the room. Plus the added benefit that buyers can see every inch.