Dressing a House when Selling?

silvercar

My son is a potential FTB. He just looked at an empty new build with carpets and messaged me that the rooms were too small but the estate agent was taking him to see an identical furnished flat on a different floor. Second message said that the rooms looked bigger with furnishings and he now liked the flat!

not everyone can visualise an empty canvas.

lookstraightahead

silvercar said:

My son is a potential FTB. He just looked at an empty new build with carpets and messaged me that the rooms were too small but the estate agent was taking him to see an identical furnished flat on a different floor. Second message said that the rooms looked bigger with furnishings and he now liked the flat!

not everyone can visualise an empty canvas.

That's true. If you look at the foundations on a house it looks tiny.

badger09

silvercar said:

My son is a potential FTB. He just looked at an empty new build with carpets and messaged me that the rooms were too small but the estate agent was taking him to see an identical furnished flat on a different floor. Second message said that the rooms looked bigger with furnishings and he now liked the flat!

not everyone can visualise an empty canvas.

This ^^^

Hence the many suggestions to at least show what a room is capable of being used for. Soft furnishings, ornaments, artwork etc are all subject to personal likes & dislikes so I would keep those to a minimum.   

seven-day-weekend

I have a large conservatory off my kitchen that is used as a study and second sitting room.  However, if I were to sell it , I would present it as a dining room as we don't have dining space otherwise and I think most people would rather have a dining room than a second sitting room.  They might just see a room they don't need and wouldn't even think you could put a dining table in it rather than sofas and a coffee table.

brasso

There's no rule about this. Different sellers and buyers will respond differently but personally (as someone buying at the moment), if a house is newly decorated, I really prefer to see it without furniture. It's not hard to work out if a bed will fit into a room, or to visualise which room would make a good office. The other problem with furnishing it is that the style chosen may put some people off. OTOH, a house that hasn't been recently decorated can look awful without furniture to hide the marks on the wall and carpet etc.

The obvious suggestion would be to try it first without the hassle and expense of furnishing it, and if it doesn't sell. consider dressing it up a bit.

yksi

I'd never sell a home empty. As others hinted there are buyers who can't visualise. And they aren't a minority! This is why people say no to a house because of the red living room wall or the green carpet. They literally cannot fathom how the property could be used in a different way, for instance painting that wall or offering £500 less and replacing the hallway carpet. You don't want to discount these people, which might be half your viewers.

There is no need to go to huge lengths, but you should at the very least have the "appropriate" items in the room, ie a double bed if you can fit one to show that it isn't a single bedroom. A sofa in the living room, a kitchen table to show there is room in the kitchen.

None of the rooms should be bare and empty. You can't rely on the buyer having an imagination or brain. Make it easy for them. It might cost you a little bit to find and get delivered all the random bits from Freecycle, Gumtree and your local Facebook group, but I would be astounded if you didn't gain ten grand from it and I do still believe that the house shows are right and it's a 10% potential difference.

brasso

yksi said:

I'd never sell a home empty. As others hinted there are buyers who can't visualise. And they aren't a minority! This is why people say no to a house because of the red living room wall or the green carpet. They literally cannot fathom how the property could be used in a different way, for instance painting that wall or offering £500 less and replacing the hallway carpet. You don't want to discount these people, which might be half your viewers.

There is no need to go to huge lengths, but you should at the very least have the "appropriate" items in the room, ie a double bed if you can fit one to show that it isn't a single bedroom. A sofa in the living room, a kitchen table to show there is room in the kitchen.

None of the rooms should be bare and empty. You can't rely on the buyer having an imagination or brain. Make it easy for them. It might cost you a little bit to find and get delivered all the random bits from Freecycle, Gumtree and your local Facebook group, but I would be astounded if you didn't gain ten grand from it and I do still believe that the house shows are right and it's a 10% potential difference.

I can only disagree with that. A person lacking the ‘imagination or brain' to visualise a sofa in an empty sitting room is likely to be just as incapable of visualising an alternative to the one you’ve installed, that they happen to dislike. Someone who likes a modern, minimalistic look may not be able to see past the Laura Ashley-type decor provided, and vice versa. Just my opinion. It’s also quite a job to dress a house well enough to make a strong impression.

magicmcone

silvercar said:

My son is a potential FTB. He just looked at an empty new build with carpets and messaged me that the rooms were too small but the estate agent was taking him to see an identical furnished flat on a different floor. Second message said that the rooms looked bigger with furnishings and he now liked the flat!

not everyone can visualise an empty canvas.

I also agree on this. I would say that it depends mostly on the cost of dressing the house compared to the potential sale price as well as the prospective buyer.
I have been house hunting twice (both times relatively small flats in fairly central London). I have seen places achieving 2% or even 5% more that other identical ones (same building) just with beautiful paint, well placed plants and 2k in beautiful furniture. On a 500k 2 bed property, is definitely well spent money.

brasso

magicmcone said:

silvercar said:

My son is a potential FTB. He just looked at an empty new build with carpets and messaged me that the rooms were too small but the estate agent was taking him to see an identical furnished flat on a different floor. Second message said that the rooms looked bigger with furnishings and he now liked the flat!

not everyone can visualise an empty canvas.

I also agree on this. I would say that it depends mostly on the cost of dressing the house compared to the potential sale price as well as the prospective buyer.
I have been house hunting twice (both times relatively small flats in fairly central London). I have seen places achieving 2% or even 5% more that other identical ones (same building) just with beautiful paint, well placed plants and 2k in beautiful furniture. On a 500k 2 bed property, is definitely well spent money.

Painting and decorating in neutral colours prior to sale is normally absolutely worth spending the money on (and including in a higher asking price) because that's part of what the buyer is getting for their money. As I said earlier furniture-less properties in undecorated places tend to look terrible with marks on the wall and patchy carpets. It has to be just a personal thing because for me, a newly painted room without furniture always looks bigger and brighter than one which has been furnished. I'm not saying you're wrong of course -- it's just a difference in how we perceive things.

Abbafan1972

I think I would like to see a few bits of furniture dotted around if the house was empty.

I don't tend to take any notice of decor, as I know not everyone has the same tastes and this can be changed.

We are still in the same house that we bought as FTB in 1995, not through choice though I have to say.  I can remember viewing this place and the vendors had a coffee maker on the go and it smelt lovely.  When we got the keys and moved in, we quickly discovered this was to mask strong cooking smells from next door and there were plug in air fresheners dotted about that the vendors had left.  Taking a shower and all you can smell is onions and curry is not pleasant I can tell you!

Luckily, a few years ago they moved out and that was the end of the cooking smells, thank god!