Does how tarted up a house is actually help persuade you to puchase it?

[GretaGip]

It's a slow sell here, on the market for 8 months, 9 views up to now, but for some strange reason there's 4 different appointments tomorrow.

I'm absolutely sick of staging the house a la Channel 4 housey programmes - fresh flowwrs, delightful fragrance, and the garden manicured etc.

The house will be clean, tidy and well-presented.

But do I NEED to dot my 't's and cross my 'i's?

Does it make a real difference?

Someone above made this point...sometimes OVER-staging puts me off. There was one house that we looked at that was perfect. Absolutely perfect. Nothing needing to be done at all. Everything to show-home standard (including the teenagers' bedrooms). It scared me because I knew it wasn't going to stay that way.

As long as it's clean, smells nice (ie non-funky) and relatively tidy (not like the one where I opened the door that hid the washing machine to be greeted with dirty pants - stuffed behind the door but not in the machine) then that's fine.

The feedback on one house was "it's lovely but it doesn't half smell of dog" (which was confusing as we'd only seen evidence of a cat - a big cat tree, cat food in cupboard and a sleeping cat on the bed!) was met with "yeah, we've told the vendor that and they swear blind they've never had a dog in the three years they've lived there". Made me wonder whether they'd actually cleaned the place properly in that time or whether it was just surface clean balanced on 3+ years of ICK

I don't think tables need to be set, a suggestion of use is fine.
It would look stupid having dinner laid for 6 at 9am, but a jug, couple of glasses or some some fruit or some napkins, just one or two items gives a hint of use and looks appealing.

You are selling a 'lifestyle' and how you present the property has to reflect that

Decluttering is the main point for me. I don't want to see other people's personal possessions at all if possible as I want to imagine the place as my home, not theirs (and if I buy it, I don't want to remember how someone else lived there). I don't care about decor though strangely enough as I know I will change that anyway. Probably why we have always bought properties that were empty, now I think about it! Good luck OP, hope you get some offers from these viewings.

You are selling a 'lifestyle' and how you present the property has to reflect that Really? I thought you were selling a house.
DS and family moved recently to an extended semi with old fashioned wallpaper, loads and loads of dated light fittings, the original kitchen from the seventies. They love it because it gives them all the accommodation their family needs and all of the things they want to change can be done over time.

I think if you do home staging well, you just make the place a bit more inviting. We have lived here for 20 years and have done nothing to make the house look "nice". It was all to do with meeting our practical needs.

After cleaning and decluttering, we added in some nice touches, eg matching cushions (£3 each from IKEA), new towels (£1-2 each), some pot plants, some patio plants.

A lot of what you buy for the house can be taken to the new house, and nothing needs to be expensive.

I don't think anyone has mentioned, but a key thing to do is get all your little repairs done - lights fixed, holes polyfilla'd etc. The rationale is that if you don't do the simple repairs, you don't do the big ones either.

In the middle of putting mine on the market now. Fresh coast of paint everywhere, a declutter and good tidy. Yes I want the best price for it but we have to live in it too! More likely to appeal to a landlord round my way so were doing it so they could move tenants in straight away with the odd new carpet in place.

Do you know your target market? Is your home likely to appeal to young first time buyers who may want to do a little bit of decorating but probably aren't up for a major refit (and probably more likely to fall for the styling)? Is your house in an area which some might see as "aspirational" in which case a few artfully placed magazines might help. Is it likely to appeal to the doer-upper who wants space and can see past the surface stuff?

I agree with selly - people aren't just buying a house, they're buying a home and a lifestyle and you have to sell them that.

I would be put off (slightly) by a table 'made-up' for dinner. I would think the vendors were all mouth and no trousers and it would make me suspicious about whether I could believe what they said. I may be reading too much into it though...... Tidyish, cleanish and without the vendors watching TV throughout will suffice.

Swings and roundabouts. Some people love the idea that they don't have to do a thing, others love a fixer-upper. Some like the idea of a nice neutral kitchen and others want to see a kitchen disaster zone as they don't want to live with other people's taste and like the idea of getting some money off if the kitchen/bathroom clearly needs replacing. Etc.

I'd say - just make sure it's decluttered enough that you give as much of a sense of space as possible, no smells, no staging as to some people you'll look as if you're trying too hard and they'll wonder what the problems are.

It does make a difference.

Have just left the house in the care of the EA.

I twisted a dining chair as I left to give an insouciant air rather than staged.

I agree with the poster above that says about getting the little DIY jobs done. We tend to look at any annoying little jobs that haven't been completed, these are usually just a pain to do and we wonder if there's more yet to be uncovered.

We had a list of things we wanted in our house so if the ones we viewed didn't really match, it wasn't a goer regardless of staging. Some was area, some was upkeep of neighbouring properties, some was size, space for a dining table etc.

We didn't mind dated as long as it was clean. Clutter was annoying because we couldn't really see the room size but DH is very good at looking through that (me less so).