Did you hide all toys etc when selling your house?

[AllieBongo]

Estate agent said this would be a good idea?? anyone else try this..does it give and "air of space" or is this a load of old cack

[tilbatilba]

I hired a storage unit! It makes a great difference. And get a professional cleaner in.

[ItalianJob]

we're going to try and do this. we're in a city centre flat, so we're not exactly attracting people after a family home!

[Piffle]

Yes we did, also stored away books trinkets, all that stuff....

[AllieBongo]

i shoved em all in the cupboard under the stairs and in the boots of the cars! i'll keep on then, anyone want to move to newmarket? buy my house pls

[paolosgirl]

Have you not been watching House Doctor, woman?! Apparently, you have to de-clutter big time, by chucking stuff out, hiding it away or putting it into storage, to create as much space as possible. If it looks crammed with toys and too small for your needs, potential buyers will think it's too small for them also. By removing as many traces of your personality and family as possible, you allow the buyer to picture themself mentally in your home.

I do watch too much House Doctor, don't I?

[AllieBongo]

i don't do clutter or ornaments.. just like my kids to be able to play with toys.. buy my house pls... they won't accept our offer til we sell

[nooka]

I did a clear out, not particularly focused on toys, but did the declutter thing. Also did candles, flowers, the works really! The estate agent told me that the most important thing is for the property to be clean. From a viewing point of view I think it does make a difference if you can see the space as it's probably the most important thing when you are looking at properties. I don't think that you should hide the fact that you have children, just give a clean slate for someone else to imagine living there.

[bluebear]

Yes - we hired a storage unit and put loads of stuff in it - we also re-dressed the baby's room to make it look like a double bedroom (put the cot right in the corner and borrowed a bed to put in it.
De-cluttering made the flat look much bigger, and down-playing the baby stuff made the rooms look more flexible (we were expecting to sell to a couple who wanted a guest room, rather than a family).
Must have done the trick, we got an offer from the first people to view it.

[AllieBongo]

It's always clean.. i watch anthea! so just keep toys out to a minimum then??

[tilbatilba]

Oh and I also got beautiful linen sheets and new white towels, halved the stuff in the house, two vases of gerberas, made it all smell great, got a man in to clean the windows and it sold in a flash. Wondered why I didn't always live in it like this!

[AllieBongo]

had windows cleaned today. will do the candle thing though. got lillies left over from mothers day!

[bluebear]

But, when viewing houses, haven't you seen any that have been 'over' house doctored? I know that I did, got fed up of looking at sparsely furnished magnolia walled rooms with no feeling of 'soul' about them.
They do need to feel a little loved and lived in.

I found it weird that the buyers for our flat spent so much time looking at the books on our bookshelves! (We had a lot of travel books from the time pre-kids so I was hoping they were thinking 'if we buy this flat we will travel all round the world :) ), but really, why look at stuff that 's going into the removal van?

[AllieBongo]

god, they'll be looking at my next catalogue and lots of jamie oliver books. not really the lifestyle they'll aspire to.. will you buy my house?

[paolosgirl]

I must be very anal when it comes to looking at house - give me magnolia and no sign of life every time!

[nooka]

I saw one place that had rose petals on the beds! Too perfect for me - but then I wanted a place that needed work - I like to put my own touch on things. But I also saw some really grotty places, and a few where it was difficult to imagine fitting anything in. My parents came over for dinner when I was selling - they said the place felt like a show home. It certainly didn't feel like my home anymore. I think the trick is to maximise the space and show the possibilities without losing the soul.

[MrsSpoon]

We kept all DS1's toys in his room and his room was very tidy for viewings (DS2 was only a tiny baby at the time so had very little in the way of 'stuff'). We were selling a second floor flat at the time and the market was very bouyant so were fortunate to sell our second floor flat with a bright yellow second bedroom with Buzz Lightyear painted on the walls.

Hope you get it shifted soon.

[lucykate]

yes, cat outside, cats bowls hidden and children locked in a wardrobe

[handlemecarefully]

Yep - whatever it takes!

[Skribble]

It depends who your buyer are likely to be. We were selling a 1.5 bedroom flat that was certainly not going to appeal to families. So I took out the bunk beds and put in a small double and dressed as a guest room. Very little trace of kids as buyers were all single young first time buyers. Putt all toys in big chest and only a few books out in kids rrom.

If it is going to suit families then keep toys to kids rooms, and keep there floors clear and rooms fairly tidy. If toys in other areas have means to tidy them for veiwings.

I had a list to do for veiwings, like clear worktops, mop up porch, put down rugs over stains, put books up to cover holes in wall etc . Sold really quick to a young single girl with money and contacts to sort all the little things we just lived with.

[nooka]

I think it also depends on how you are marketing your home and to whom. If you think you can market it as "nothing to do, move straight in" then it is really important to "house doctor" it. But if in fact there is stuff to do (modernisation etc) then I don't think there is much point. If you want absolutely top wack, then I think it has to have that "aspirational feel". But otherwise I think that tidy and clean (that's where the candles/flowers come in - great smell hiders) is the key. The only issue with kids stuff, is if it makes your second (or third) bedroom look like it isn't big enough for a proper bed. I saw one beautiful house with a cot in the third bedroom and dismissed it on the spot because I thought I couldn't get a single bed in that room. On reflection I'm not sure that it actually was that much smaller than others that I saw that day. But I don't think that the magnolia look is good - I like houses to feel warm and welcoming. I think that the magnolia effect looks a bit like a hotel - very unhomely and flat. Oh, the other thing that I did feel on viewing is that the houses where someone had clearly made an effort belonged to people who actually wanted and were ready to move, so that's another plus.

[Blu]

I didn't eradicate signs of toys etc, I wanted to convey that it was perfectly absolutely more than possible to have a child in the house.
BUT before viewings I chucked everything that made made the place crowded in the car, parked just outide: DS's high chair, his 'convertible playstaion' (those round things they sit in), anything that you had to squeeze past, or would make it seem squashed when we were all standing in the room going 'this is the cold tap, this is the sink' et.

Before viewings turn lights on all over the house. Let the buyers go into a room before you so that it doesn't feel crowded, give them an idea of the ideal lifestyle you achive in the house: 'this is where we sit on summer evenings' - even if you don't!

[hulababy]

No. We made sure the rooms were tidy and well presented but made no attempt to hide everything. We made sure the rooms were not too cluttered too. This was despite us selling a city centre apartment where family life was not the image we needed to sell. We sold it without having to do all that and it wouldn't have sold quicker if we had have hidden them.

First place we sold was a family house and it was when DD was due. We made sure the smallest room looked like a nursery and had toys and other baby items out. It looked lived in and cosy, but tidy and well presented. It sold before going on the market properly.

[wannaBe1974]

I think it’s important to have middle ground. I didn’t hide the toys but I tidied up all the stuff off the floor before viewers came round. I certainly didn’t think that it was important to hide any evidence that I have a child, after all, I wasn’t selling a show home, I was selling my home, and I still had to live there. I think that it’s possible to go too far both ways. I went to look at a house once which looked as if it had been burgled. There were toys all over the floor, to the extent that you had to step over them to get into rooms, upstairs the beds were unmade, again there were toys all over the floor, and clothes all over the floor and the beds. It was such a mess that I actually couldn’t ttell you anything about the house other than that it was in such a state. On the other hand I also looked at a house where they’d done the house doctor thing, nothing out of place, all non essential furniture had been removed, and she had bread in the oven and coffee brewing in the kitchen. It was a lovely house, but all that never made me want to buy it any more, in fact I remember walking out and saying “oh she’s obviously read the manual then”. I’ve sold two houses, and both were sold to the first people who viewed them.

[allyco]

yes I did and I hid the kids and the dog...