You are in the market for a house.
Do you prefer to see houses furnished or empty?
Empty!
It’s easier to imagine my own stuff in it for one thing. It’s also easier to see the broken floor board and nail polish disaster when there isn’t a throw rug and coffee table strategically placed on top.
I prefer them empty, but most people can’t figure out how large rooms are unless they have furniture.
This is exactly why I prefer to see them furnished… empty rooms always “seem” small to me, when in actuality they are perfectly reasonable for most furniture.
When we were viewing houses in 2004 (very hectic housing market at the time) there were three basic conditions in which we saw houses:
- Messy, not ready for viewing (usually occupied by uncooperative renters).
- Staged, with just the right amount of furniture and accessories.
- Empty.
I much preferred empty (and would walk away from the messy ones without a backward glance). The staged ones are perfectly arranged for some hypothetical (usually not very tall) people who don’t have stuff like mine. Staging gives an unrealistic picture of what life would be like. Maybe I don’t have the perfect oval dining table that fits in the cramped dining area and still allows you to move around. Stuff like that.
Roddy
Empty, unless the furniture comes with the house.
Absolutely empty, for many of the reasons above. If there’s flaws with the house, furnishing can and often does hide them. It can be misleading if you think that their sofa works well in a spot, but don’t realize that yours is a different size and wouldn’t. If the furnishings are much different from your own, nicer or worse, it might distort the quality of the home. And, frankly, I prefer a blank canvas; I want to see how the place flows for me and judge it based on that, not however the current owner thinks it works for them.
As an undergrad, I worked part time doing moving, so I’ve seen tons of homes and tons of different ways of furnishing them. Even though it’s been years, I’m still very good at judging the space and dimensions of rooms and how my furniture would fit in them. And, hell, there’s no reason that I couldn’t take some measurements if I felt I needed to as well. So, I know that’s a lot of what those who like about furnishings like, that they feel they get a better judgment of the space, but that’s a complete non-issue for me.
So, the only reason I’d want to see a furnished home would be if I was buying it that way.
I have no preference and this thread gives me a chance to vent one of my rants:
I don’t understand the whole phenomenon of “staging.” Sure, it’s fine and dandy if your house is neat and there aren’t any dog turds on the carpet (or cat turds), but can buyers really NOT see past the removable stuff to the basic house? If I looked at three identical houses and one was “staged,” one messy and lived in, and one empty, I’d be able to see the HOUSE and I would make my decision accordingly.
The house I’m living in now was a total mess when I looked at it while the former tenants were here. Their furniture was plain and boring, there was clutter everywhere, and all of the blinds were closed, so it was as dark as a cave. NONE of that stuff bothered me, as none of that stuff represented permanent, structural features. I knew as soon as I walked in the front door that all of my stuff would fit perfectly and look great, which it did and it does.
Roderick Femm said above, he “would walk away from the messy ones without a backward glance” – why? Why reject a beautiful ROOM or a beautiful HOUSE/APT because it’s full of someone else’s clutter? Can you really not see past it? (Maybe some people can’t. I dunno.)
Depends on how nicely it’s furnished. Frankly, there are some houses that I love in part because the furnishings are so nice. Others, especially dated furniture and antiques, make me wish I could erase the furniture and see how the house would look with something more in line with my taste.
Either way, though, I’m pretty good at ignoring easy fixes and focusing on the structure.
Empty is my first choice, but I’d rather see how the current occupants live rather than an artificial staging. Clutter is often a fact of life, but for some folks, so is filth. I think it’s pretty easy to spot the difference, and that’s something I’d want to know before buying. If I like a house, but it looks like it hadn’t been cleaned in decades, I’d include something in the offer about having it professionally cleaned before taking possession. Or if there was an overpowering odor of animals or stinky cigars or general decay, it would be a clue that all might not be as it seems.
I do think I’m good at looking past decor. This house was horrifying when we first saw it - built and decorated in the mid-70s, and stuck there. :eek: But my husband and I tuned out the shag carpet and the cheap paneling and the contact paper on the walls, and we ended up with a great house. It took a lot of replacing and remodeling, but the bones were good and we’ve been very happy these last 9 years. 
I concur as well. Rooms always look smaller to me when empty; I need furniture there to give me a better sense of their real size and capacity.
At least semi-furnished.
I am very, very bad at judging sizes without an actual reference in front of me. I cannot tell whether or not a room is big enough for a bed unless the room is gigantic or there’s a bed there.
Once it’s there, I can reconfigure it and tell whether it will fit in a different part of the room. I can ignore questionable paint choices. I can even ignore clutter. But unless there’s something in the room that lets me judge relative size, I’m completely unable to tell whether things fit.
I must have looked at 50 houses in the last few months - my poor realtor.
Some were furnished, some not, some were not even habitable. I’m not turned off by personal stuff, family pictures on the wall make it homey to me. I think I like furnished better because it is easier to see how furniture fits, but the house I put the contract in on is empty.
One house was so cluttered and I really had trouble seeing past the clutter. I couldn’t tell if the rooms were really small or if it was too much junk in them. I thought realtors tell people to clean out some of the junk. I felt like a giant walking through the rooms. Shame too, because it had a nice yard, off street parking and was really cute outside. Oh and it smelled, too much incense which I know could be aired out but it was such a turn off and I wondered what they were trying to cover up.
A little dirt, clutter, and looking lived in is okay but filth is a deal breaker, even though the house can be cleaned I figure if they aren’t cleaning it what else are they neglecting. I know people with filthy houses and they will let repairs go because they don’t want to let anybody in. You don’t know if under the filth there are bugs, mice or mold.
I can see pluses and minuses to both ways and ultimately I think it doesn’t matter much to me.
My sister in law is the kind of person on whom staging works. She’s gotten better with time and contact with our family, but she used to be completely incapable of imagining other furniture in the same room, or to realize that my living room (few pieces of furniture, generally light in design, mostly arranged around the walls) was exactly as large as hers (the sofa in the middle, alone, took up more space than my “coffee set” of futon, two armchairs and low table). You have visual imagination, she does not.
Empty. I don’t want to see other people’s shit when I’m trying to imagine my own shit in a space.
Empty or lightly staged. I hate, hate, HATE when the occupants are still there.
No, sorry, I didn’t express that very well. If the house was occupied by uncooperative renters I would run, not walk, in the other direction, since in San Francisco it is a very arduous process to get them out even if you want to live there, and even if they default in their rent. Otherwise, if the owner is living there but can’t be arsed to clean up for a showing, I wonder what else is wrong with the house, and how well or poorly they have kept it up.
When a house is empty it’s harder to hide the bad things (if any). In a full house, it’s hard to see the mold growing in the back of the full closet, or the hole in the wall behind the sofa. I can easily look beyond a bad paint color or dirty carpet, and take those into account, because I can see them.
Roddy
I put myself down as furnished… but I’d rather have empty than furnished done poorly.
Really, the poll ought to distinguish between staged and furnished. A staged home has all/most of the personal artifacts removed, with furniture provided to show scale and “suggested” usage. The staging does help me to understand the size of the room and to envision how my furniture might fit in.
Hehe, when I said:
I should have specified no people turds either. 
Okay. You meant messy to the point of seeming to hide icky bad things (like that pile of clothes in the corner might be concealing a body or a hole in the floor). (Yeah, I watch too much Law & Order: SVU. ) No, seriously, I see what you mean.