Selling an empty house

[Hobbyhorse345]

We have inherited a house that used to be rented out, but is now empty. We will be putting it on the market once we have repainted walls and replaced carpets. I was wondering whether we are only likely to get low offers if we try to sell an empty house. Is it worth trying to put some furniture in it to make it look "Lived in"?

Thanks for any thoughts.

If you are spending money decorating and replacing carpets it is worth spend a bit more and putting in some furniture. You could use anything you can manage without at home, look in charity shops, Facebook marketplace, freecycle, IKEA.

I'm in the same boat and have had no offers at all.

it wouldn't bother me at all but I know that some people struggle to visualise whether furniture will fit - eg how much space will be left for a wardrobe if there's a king size bed in the bedroom etc. Ask some estate agents?

Never used them but heard mentioned on "home" progs on TV that you can rent furniture to dress a home for sale.

We sold our first house empty as we had already moved. Sold in 4 days.

I wouldn't bother. Houses that have been rented are often sold unfurnished. If you have repainted and put in new carpets, I honestly wouldn't' bother.

I would much prefer to look around an empty house. The only thing I suppose is having a bed in the bedroom so that you can see how much space there is, but apart from that, I wouldn't bother.

work out cost of furniture v cost/hassle of putting furnisher in/out. I would try without 1st

I've moved a lot and much prefer to view an empty house. Furniture would not make it attractive to me in any way. In my eyes furniture detracts from the area/space in the room and I don't get a clear picture. I can better visualise living in the property when rooms are empty.

Some people cannot, I understand that.

I would prefer to see an empty house. Plus it is an advantage to have no upward chain that outweighs any disadvantage from being empty imo.

Thank you so much for all your advice. It is much appreciated.

We sold our house without furniture, as we'd moved into our new home already.

I'd suggest trying to sell with no furniture first and seeing how that goes.

We bought our current and previous house empty so definitely didn't put us off.

I sold an empty house last year and listed it with a guide price. Two separate couples were interested and it got into a bit of a bidding war between them. I accepted the highest offer and sold it no problem. To be honest I didn't even consider that it being empty would be an issue.

Both places we bought were empty and I think we got a good price on them because lots of people do have a hard time visualising things.

Could you do the rooms for the photos at least? If not I would try it empty first and if no offers then think about dressing it properly for sale as a pp said.

Thank you for your posts!

We bought an empty house-totally didn’t bother me. In fact I think it was maybe better as you’re not distracted by someone else’s stuff which might not be your taste. And you are seeing everything-the vendor can’t use furniture etc to hide things like scuffs on walls/marks on carpets etc.

the house we have just bought was empty it was better as we could see the whole floor space and any flaws in the decor etc, (it is a doer upper ) i would have loved it if the seller had put new carpets in as we have to replace the whole house, and we offered full asking price as it was priced for the work needing doing

I bought an empty house.

It made it much easier to see the space and think about making it mine without someone else's stuff and personality filling it up.

And obviously the lack of chain was a bonus.

It was on the market for about six months before I bought it though.