Posted by Long Beach Ed on April 12, 2001 at 15:40:48:
Jim,
Just about every house I sell is empty. It is is clean and furnished beautifully, I think it will sell faster. But few tenants are clean or tidy. Most are pigs, and their garbage distroys sales.
When a place is freshly painted, plastered, with new rugs, switches and wall plates, it sells nicely empty.
Long Beach Ed
Is it hard to sell an empty house? - Posted by Jim C
Posted by Jim C on April 12, 2001 at 13:27:06:
Does an empty house not sell as well as a furnished house?
Thanks!
Jim C
Re: Is it hard to sell an empty house? - Posted by Chenel Moore_Fl
Posted by Chenel Moore_Fl on April 12, 2001 at 18:17:47:
It really all depends on the location of the property. There have been some houses that I have sold in a flipping scenario/wholesale purchase where the emptiness of the property was not a factor.
However, here has been my experience from working as a real estate agent. Usually, empty houses don’t provide the buyer with the visualization that they need to picture themselves living in the home. That s is why builder/developers spend such big money on building these model homes when they are selling floorplans in new homes community. Literally the idea behind the whole decorating bonanza you find in these properties is to capture the imagination of the buyer to make them think of the house as their own. Usually those models are oversaturated with features that the builder’s call “optional” or non-standard, because they know that if the buyer can’t visualize it, they usually don’t buy it.
Having said that, speaking from the point of view of what I tell my buyers as an agent, one of the areas that I have the most difficult time is in getting sellers to think like a buyer and clean up the house, remove items that clutter the home and or detract from the appeal. The rule usually the closer that you can get the house to look like a model home, the faster and easier it is to sell it. Most agents tend to tell their sellers to use mostly neutral colors on the walls. While this is mostly common sense stuff obviosuly hot flourescent pink is not appealing to buyers, if I have noticed that the seller has done a prticular good job with painting with decorative touch for example in a child’s bedroom, I usually like to keep it that way to appeal to people with families. You always want to create a warm cozy feeling, even down sprinkling cinnamon in the oven.
I know this is kind of long, but it really does depend on the location of the house. I have found that homes in upper end neighborhoods where the demand is high tend to sell with or without furniture.
But when dealing first time home buyers to even move-up home buyers visualization or furniture is important.
Now from the investor standpoint you don’t have to buy the farm, I usually paint the walls in nice neutral colors, I tend to spend about $100 bucks on decoration. I put in nice shower curtains in the bathrooms, I put cheap pictures on the walls, and cheap but new rugs on the floors. Curtains on the walls. That is usually what I do with my vacant properties.
Kind of long, but I just thought that I would share my experiences with you and you can make your decision from there.
The client who want to buy a home is always preferred the furnished residence which saves their time and money too. The empty house is hard to sell as it has renovate and furnished again. You have to only pay for the empty space as walls and ceilings.