Why never to sell an empty home

Thinking of selling your home and nervous about the current economic climate?

During uncertain economic times, we all look at areas of our finances where we can cut and reduce costs. When selling a property, often vendors want to be able to spend as little as possible yet still achieve maximum return.

Now more than ever, it is important that your property looks its best, and stands out from others on the market. #stopthescroll

With a reduced number of buyers searching for properties currently, they can afford to be picky. No longer can you simply rely on land value, or houses receiving exceptional prices while doing nothing to showcase it . Your home needs to stand out from the rest of the properties on the market, otherwise it could potentially fall through the cracks.

Vendors unfamiliar with the success and impact of property staging deem it an unnecessary extra cost and often comment that the “home will sell itself” and insist on leaving it empty.

This is a major misconception; empty homes often sell for less and don’t sell as fast as furnished ones for several reasons.

Read on for our 5 top tips to furnish and stage for sale:

1. A property without furniture will always look smaller than a furnished one, even if the space has a superior level of design and architecture. This is because a furnished room provides depth perception. Staging the home for sale provides perspective that buyers need and eradicates guesswork. For example, potential buyers shouldn’t have to estimate what size/how many sofas can fit in the living room, or what size bed can fit in the guest room. Unfurnished rooms appear smaller as you are unable to perceive depth and space without furniture.
2. Furnishing your property for sale, allows people to imagine how they could live a beautiful life in the home and make an instant emotional connection. Unfortunately, empty homes are unable to elicit that emotion and potential buyers cannot visualise themselves or the lifestyle they could experience in the home.
3. Studies have shown that only 10% of buyers who view a property which is vacant, are able to visualise living in that home. This means that having that property left unfurnished has lost 90% of the potential buyers already. Furnishing and staging the home for sale eradicates guesswork. Buyers who walk into empty spaces are often confused about how the space is supposed to be used, its functionality, what type of furniture could fit the space, and how to arrange the room.
4. A furnished property will distract and detract buyers from the less desirable aspects of the home, such as an outdated kitchen or a difficult floor plan. When a house is unfurnished, buyers are more likely to find flaws, as there isn’t anything else to look at! Buyers are more likely to find issues with scratches on floors and chipped paintwork. Buyers will mentally add up their perceived costs of repairing all those minor flaws. Adding up these costs could impact the final amount they are willing to pay, and a discount could well be negotiated.
5. When buyers are searching for homes online, there are only a handful of seconds in which to capture their attention. The images of your property must have wow factor to make them stop as they are scrolling through endless listings. Empty houses don’t offer anything special or exciting and it looks almost the same as every other empty listed home. You can make out a living room and a kitchen, and the rest of the rooms just look the same unless there is a particular feature in the photo to explain what the room is used for. Buyers will skip past properties like these to ones that draw their attention. A room is just a room with walls and floors unless it is staged and styled, and this does little to create any impact or excitement for potential buyers.

Furnishing your property for sale is a cost effective and proven way to help sell a property for an optimum return.

Why would you accept a lower price for your home?

When you consider that your property is often you biggest financial asset, it is paramount to make sure the home is properly prepared for sale.