Dressing a House when Selling?

Slithery

Abbafan1972 said:
Taking a shower and all you can smell is onions and curry is not pleasant I can tell you!

Sounds fantastic to me

Abbafan1972

Slithery said:

Abbafan1972 said:
Taking a shower and all you can smell is onions and curry is not pleasant I can tell you!

Sounds fantastic to me

Believe me when I say that it was vile and made me feel sick. 

brasso

Abbafan1972 said:

Slithery said:

Abbafan1972 said:
Taking a shower and all you can smell is onions and curry is not pleasant I can tell you!

Sounds fantastic to me

Believe me when I say that it was vile and made me feel sick. 

I can believe you. Much as I love curry, I don't want to smell other people cooking it. The coffee brewing, along with the freshly baked bread smells are pretty classic bits of advice from TV property programmes! If I smelt either of these things during a viewing I'd instinctively wonder if they were trying to mask something else!

BikingBud

brasso said:

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.

Not sure I completely agree with this.

The flipper mantra of a few licks of paint and a new kitchen. Then being sold as finished to a high standard throughout often masks the bodges that have been undertaken. Poor plaster and woodwork that has not been prepared, not been filled correctly, not been sanded back is but the visual indicator of   focus on the superficial.

Window dressing and shiny new clothing are there only to mislead to seek and increased price, it's just something else buyers need to be wary of. 

Take the house as it is and do your own thing.

brasso

BikingBud said:

brasso said:

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.

Not sure I completely agree with this.

The flipper mantra of a few licks of paint and a new kitchen. Then being sold as finished to a high standard throughout often masks the bodges that have been undertaken. Poor plaster and woodwork that has not been prepared, not been filled correctly, not been sanded back is but the visual indicator of   focus on the superficial.

Window dressing and shiny new clothing are there only to mislead to seek and increased price, it's just something else buyers need to be wary of. 

Take the house as it is and do your own thing.

Was that in reply to me? I said nothing at all about "a few licks of paint", "poor plaster" and so on. It's up to the buyer to examine the work that's been done, whether that's just painting and decorating, or wholesale improvements throughout. The question posed is whether it's worth dressing a house with furniture. Most seem to think it is, as apparently people can't imagine a bed in a bedroom unless you put one there for them. Personally I don't mind either but I do know that it's much easier to conceal faults if a house is furnished which is why, on balance, I'm happier to see a completely empty property. Either way, I don't advocate low quality work and have never been a flipper!