House shopping: Prefer to see empty or furnished?

[Tastes_of_Chocolate]

@ThelmaLou

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?

You’d be amazed, I always am. My SO and I are “look at the bones” kind of people when we house hunt. Our realtors often seem stunned that the orange paint doesn’t bother us, but the cracks radiating from the corners of the door frames, or the sagging roofline does.

I’ve had a house sale (~$250k house, nice suburban 3 bedroom) hinge on me leaving the fireplace tools behind. They weren’t anything special. $60 from the local Fleet Farm.

But enough realtors have told me that stuff like this is an issue that I dutifully hide my dirty knife and remove all my pictures of friends from the hallways.

[SeaDragonTattoo]

To me, empty means pretty much ready to move in, and any repairs can be assessed right away as to major or minor. I don’t have to worry about the current occupants’ moving schedule or anything, so if I want to start a contract it will be done and I can move in a month with no worries about them getting out.

[koeeoaddi]

@ThelmaLou

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.

It puts me off. Staging is so obviously manipulative and I can’t help feeling that it means the seller is spending money – especially if it’s professionally staged up the wazoo – and that money is going to have to be recouped. From me. Mr. Ko and I toured a house once that had fake lemonade sitting next to a mystery novel casually tossed on the umbrella table on the patio. Yeeeesh!

[Charley]

I wonder if there are cultural differences. Our house is on the market. I’ve now decided I can’t wait any longer to emigrate, so we’ve cleared it out and we’re selling it empty while we rent. Our estate agent has confirmed my feeling that in the UK this is going to make it a bit harder to sell - not too much, but noticeably. It’s really unusual to be looking at an empty house to buy in the UK, so that might be part of the problem.

[Emtar_KronJonDerSohn]

I prefer empty. One exception is if there might be a single sitting area staged in an otherwise empty home, with a very comfortable sofa to flop down in to. I think of looking at homes as hurrying to get off work, driving around for hours, walking through crappy misrepresented homes (WTF?! Two of the bedrooms don’t have windows!) and it’s really nice to find something clean and open and acceptable where you can put your feet up and consider writing an offer.

[Peremensoe]

@amarinth

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.

You can’t reckon things in terms of your own body (standing height, arm span, feet)?

I understand having trouble with photographs, but not being physically present yourself.

Someone else’s furnishings can be more deceptive than helpful, ISTM. Their bed, or the staged bed, isn’t necessarily the same as yours.

[Peremensoe]

@Charley

I wonder if there are cultural differences. Our house is on the market. I’ve now decided I can’t wait any longer to emigrate, so we’ve cleared it out and we’re selling it empty while we rent. Our estate agent has confirmed my feeling that in the UK this is going to make it a bit harder to sell - not too much, but noticeably. It’s really unusual to be looking at an empty house to buy in the UK, so that might be part of the problem.

In very tight housing markets, I can imagine that unfurnished–unoccupied–dwellings give a whiff of undesirability. Why isn’t someone living here, unless there’s something wrong with it?

[DMark]

My SO and I are huge fans of Selling NY and Selling LA and House Hunters and Million Dollar Listing (both LA and NY versions)…

In ALL of those shows, they continue to dwell on the fact that empty homes/condos don’t sell as easily as staged homes/condos.

Supposedly, most people are too stupid to figure out in their minds where a dining room table would go, or where to put a sofa, or if their king size bed will fit in the master bedroom.

That said, we have also seen hundreds of model homes here in Las Vegas over the years - especially during the heyday market when they couldn’t build homes fast enough. Walking through brand new homes that had been staged by professional interior designers was sort of fun - some great ideas for designs, some great trim tips, some cool colors you might never have thought of, interesting themes for dens/family rooms…so yeah, it was sort of nice to have some of those home staged to look nice.

The only thing that is off-putting is, as mentioned above, people who had the balls to list their homes and didn’t even bother to wipe the counters in the kitchen, had crap everywhere, un-made beds, kitty litter boxes not even emptied…I doubt those homes got people exited.

So while I would say that professionally staged is probably the best way to sell a property, it can also backfire…someone might stage a home in “grandma style” and make it seem old and fuddy-duddy, or someone might stage it to look like a lobby at the Museum of Modern Art - cool for me, but would put a lot of buyers off.

BTW - a new “trick” for homes that are still not 100% completed, and thus unable to put in furniture - make artist renderings of the finished rooms (with furniture) and simply put up an easel in every room, with the artist’s sketch. Cheaper than staging, and still gives potential buyers an idea of what the room(s) could/would look like when finished.

[Nava]

@Peremensoe

You can’t reckon things in terms of your own body (standing height, arm span, feet)?

I understand having trouble with photographs, but not being physically present yourself.

Two of my Drawing teachers gave us what their former students tend to refer to as “psychological exercises”. They weren’t part of our grade.

One of them was in 9th, a year in which Drawing was complusory and consisted of copying a Picasso - half the class had no trouble, half couldn’t do it. The half which could not? The people who took Draftsmanship the next year, when it was optional.

The second one, 12th, it was Draftsmanship. It was our 7th year of taking Draftsmanship (including the parts of Drawing which were Draftsmanship). We were given a lot which came up to about 100m[sup]2[/sup] and told to design housing there; we had to present drawings of the facades, blueprints of any floor which was different from the rest, and a furnished blueprint for one of the units.

Out of 43 students, only 4 had furniture, windows and doors which were the right size. The one who’d drawn a 20cm-wide bed in one room is the one that became an architect :smack: (passed 1st year’s Draftsmanship with flying colors, too - traditionally it was Architecture’s Scylla and Charibdis rolled into one and with a dose of hemlock added for flavor).

[DCnDC]

@DMark

So while I would say that professionally staged is probably the best way to sell a property, it can also backfire…someone might stage a home in “grandma style” and make it seem old and fuddy-duddy, or someone might stage it to look like a lobby at the Museum of Modern Art - cool for me, but would put a lot of buyers off.

My GF and I decided to buy a house together and saw a whole lot of houses, almost all of which had been renovated and were empty. The housing market in the DC area right now is insane; houses go on the market and are bought within a week, if that long.

The house we’ve decided to buy (we’re right in the thick of it right now) was still occupied (the owner was actually sitting on the couch watching TV when we went to see it the first time), and it had been on the market for over 2 months. It was not renovated inside (obviously), but it’s a very nice old house. What we suspect was putting off other buyers was that it looked like an old lady was living there (because an old lady was living there), but fortunately we managed to see past the old lady stuff (seriously, there was a frilly toilet cover, not unlike this :D).

Anyways, my point is, I’m thinking it would have been bought much sooner had it been unoccupied and empty (but we’re certainly not complaining, as we would probably still be searching).

[Voyager]

@ThelmaLou

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.

When we looked we saw lots of messy houses, and walked away from them. Some even had holes in the wall, and one had a room so full of (figurative) crap that we couldn’t get into it. If the owners don’t care enough to clean up when a sale of hundreds of thousands of bucks is on the line, how could you trust them to do maintenance? I’m not talking of a dish in the sink messy, I’m talking real messy.

When we sold our last house we kind of staged, in that we totally decluttered it, painted, and made it look real nice. We sold it during the open house, saving lots of aggravation. When the purchasers started being obnoxious, the realtor could call their bluff, since our house was famous for selling so quickly. So staging works.

[Voyager]

@koeeoaddi

It puts me off. Staging is so obviously manipulative and I can’t help feeling that it means the seller is spending money – especially if it’s professionally staged up the wazoo – and that money is going to have to be recouped. From me. Mr. Ko and I toured a house once that had fake lemonade sitting next to a mystery novel casually tossed on the umbrella table on the patio. Yeeeesh!

It depends. They built a bunch of houses down the street, and the model was clearly staged and obviously so. They put a single bed in the master bedroom to make it look bigger, and took doors off the hinges to make the rooms look bigger. The bathroom was shown with no currents to make it look lighter - unfortunately it looked down at a liquor store parking lot. Since we had zero interest in the house, it was easy to see all these tricks.

[ThelmaLou]

@DCnDC

…What we suspect was putting off other buyers was that it looked like an old lady was living there (because an old lady was living there), but fortunately we managed to see past the old lady stuff (seriously, there was a frilly toilet cover, not unlike this :D)…

Being put off by “old lady stuff” doesn’t make one single bit of sense to me.

@Voyager

… took doors off the hinges to make the rooms look bigger…

WTF??? Good grief. People are fooled by this?

[gracer]

Interesting, we’re looking right now and I was interested in how most people feel about this. Also because we’re renting now, and we like our landlord, and I was wondering if he might like me to take some nice pictures of the place furnished. (Obviously the way I decorated is the best way… ;)) The pictures he had before we pretty bad.

For me, I really like it when there are pictures of the house both furnished and empty. That really helps to see the proportions properly, while you can also better see the room. The few houses that have both in the original advertisement: love it!

Viewing the house I’d much rather see it empty. You can see everything and it isn’t awkward looking into the utility room or the drawers in the kitchen. I’ve never seen a staged house, but I don’t think it would help me at all.

[computergeek]

As long as the place is not a mess or overly cluttered, I’ll accept furnished, staged, or empty. I do find that at least some furnishings help me to see (or imagine) the size properly. But really, I know my current sizes of rooms and would likely take a tape measure with me to see if that house’s sizes are enough.

When I’ve gone house hunting in the past, anything that was a mess (that includes excessive clutter) goes to the bottom of the list or off the list. Anyone who can’t at least clean up in order to show their house isn’t worth my time or consideration of a purchase. The house would have to be extra special outstanding to look past the mess and I don’t remember ever encountering that with places that were messy.

[Implicit]

I’m fine with either furniture or not when I’m looking, but I’m good with spacial relations. The house we just bought had beds on the floor and really crappy hand-me-down furniture, didn’t bother me, but certainly didn’t show the house to best advantage. For selling I staged with our own furniture (ie. removed about half our stuff). Houses look way better in pictures with some furniture and no one will come view the house if they don’t like the pictures.

[Zago]

I’m architect and started out in interior design. I prefer to see it furnished because I’m always curious about other people’s houses. My current place was staged to the nines when I viewed it - it was a nice vantage point, very interesting, and I actually ended up furnishing one of three bedrooms similar to the way it was staged.

[Voyager]

@ThelmaLou

WTF??? Good grief. People are fooled by this?

I assume it worked - they all sold. It was during the boom, though. I suspect if you are serious about finding a house (and rushed or nervous) you are not going to pick the nits you do when you’ve walked down the block to laugh at them. Over priced with terrible layout, and two stories which our neighborhood frowned on.

[Zago]

[QUOTE=ThelmaLou

WTF??? Good grief. People are fooled by this?[/QUOTE]

In my experience, people are not fooled, most intelligent people recognize staging when they see it and appreciate it for what it is. If someone has doubts about their own ability to see past staging they could ask someone to come to the second viewing for a reality check - I did this recently for a friend. She was savy enough to want a second opinion - she bought it.

[Cat_Whisperer]

@DMark

<snip>
The only thing that is off-putting is, as mentioned above, people who had the balls to list their homes and didn’t even bother to wipe the counters in the kitchen, had crap everywhere, un-made beds, kitty litter boxes not even emptied…I doubt those homes got people exited.<snip>

I don’t get that, either. We’re trying to decide if we want to sell and move or not, so we’re looking at open houses fairly regularly, and some of the houses we’ve seen were very WTF? When we sold our house four years ago, I made sure it was SPOTLESS before it got shown - nobody decided to not buy our house because I couldn’t be arsed to clean it!

@Voyager

<snip>
When we sold our last house we kind of staged, in that we totally decluttered it, painted, and made it look real nice. We sold it during the open house, saving lots of aggravation. When the purchasers started being obnoxious, the realtor could call their bluff, since our house was famous for selling so quickly. So staging works.

We de-cluttered, too. We’ve seen some houses that are terrible for that, too - I don’t want to see your house full to the rafters with 20 years of kitschy crap you’ve collected. Pack that shit away.