Selling W6 by the river - to stage or not to stage?

Disjoint

I am about to embark on selling a nice family home where I added a whole floor (roughly 160sqm total house) - agent is telling me that likely will sell for 1.2m but if I stage it could get 1.25m. Getting the staging company to quote at the moment. At the moment it's empty - I am due to finish work on the property next week and list right away after that. I would have listed it myself but moved abroad due to Covid so can't really just use an online broker and do all the leg work this time around.

We run a property management business in London and currently put 3 flats on the market (my sister in-law does viewings and helps with the business now that we moved abroad) - needless to say the demand has been atrocious at the moment, it's the first week of January so not too worried, but still worried enough that I want to put all my chances in selling.


So long story short: staging plus and minuses? What you guys think? We agreed with my wife that we will pay max £5k for it (stage the downstairs living and dining room as well as first floor two bedrooms and keep top floor empty to showcase the large extension we built, extra 2 bedrooms).
Reason I specified where the house is and the price, is that I would not stage a small 1 bedroom studio, but in this case it's January and the house feels a bit empty and cold in those dark months. 

Doozergirl

See what your quotes say but I'm not sure you'll stage it realistically for that price through a company.  And you don't know when it will end.  

People want to buy homes, and feeling like a home really helps that, but it's not to say that empty houses don't sell.   I would say that the empty house should be immaculate or people will see what needs to be done far more easily than in a furnished house, and that would be what drags it down.   £5k would be better spent on deep cleaning,  refreshing paintwork properly and new carpet, perhaps, if it's otherwise in good condition. 

You can't please everyone.  You don't know what your eventual buyer wants or will tolerate, nor do you know the eventual selling price. 

I can guess that the West London market is quiet as I've had lots of agents contacting me personally this week to check my position after looking last summer for someone who was living by Charing Cross Hospital. 

AdrianC

Can't your sister-in-law just do the dressing?

Yes, it will sell easier/better if it looks like a home than if it's just an empty shell. People have no imagination. Fifty grand is a small proportion on a £1.2m place - but a big chunk of change. It makes a rentavan to Ikea VERY worthwhile.

Disjoint

Doozergirl said:

See what your quotes say but I'm not sure you'll stage it realistically for that price through a company.  And you don't know when it will end.  

People want to buy homes, and feeling like a home really helps that, but it's not to say that empty houses don't sell.   I would say that the empty house should be immaculate or people will see what needs to be done far more easily than in a furnished house, and that would be what drags it down.   £5k would be better spent on deep cleaning,  refreshing paintwork properly and new carpet, perhaps, if it's otherwise in good condition. 

You can't please everyone.  You don't know what your eventual buyer wants or will tolerate, nor do you know the eventual selling price. 

I can guess that the West London market is quiet as I've had lots of agents contacting me personally this week to check my position after looking last summer for someone who was living by Charing Cross Hospital. 

Shoudl have added - house will be brand new as entirely redone with a new floor with over 200k of work to it. I am currently spending money to deck the garden as well. If you are still looking Doozergirl I am a seller)) 

Disjoint

Update: did an Ikea online shop. £3000 and we bought everything we wanted. Paid £250 for someone to assemble and paying £100 for a cleaner to come and do the beds etc.... All this done while living abroad. 
Problem solved. Now I won't cry when it's not sold and I have to pay every month to stage it. Hopefully new owner will want to buy the furniture, if not gumtree will certainly get me 50÷ back