Selling dms house - how to make it more appealing to families

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We are selling deceased parents house.
It's a 4 bedroom detached with an acre of garden surrounding, in a small village, great view.
Decor is very dated.
Furniture and nick nacks, lights, pictures, wall paper, the whole lot.
Would it be better to declutter and leave as is, or empty every room bare and paint magnolia for example.
Or something else?

I have a young family and I'm looking to move. I would be less concerned with dated furniture or whatever, but things like old patterned carpets and bathrooms or kitchens that aren't at all appealing would put me off. I can paint easily. If there's wood chip or artexed ceilings I'd steer well clear.

Also, rooms complete devoid of furniture can look smaller. Better to leave a bed in each bedroom and basic living room furniture etc.

I'm sorry for your loss. I hope you're taking time to emotionally handle this as well as literally.

Declutter so that there is enough furniture to imagine using each room, but that theres plenty of floor and space visible. Clear the sides so it looks like there is plenty of storage, and as long as the walls aren't marked under the pictures reduce the number.

Taking photos of the rooms may help - then you can see it through anothers eyes, and ask a friend for their honest thoughts.

Sorry for your loss .

I would say yes to leaving in enough furniture to show e.g. where a bed and wardrobe fits. If you;re in a high end price bracket, it may be worth staging the house with rented stuff if your late mother's furnishings were very dated.

If the house is in an area of high demand I would probably leave it as is. If the market is slower, it is probably worth getting rid of wallpaper and very old/dated carpets and replacing with something neutral.

Good luck.

IMHO and IME I wouldn't bother changing carpet or kitchen or bathroom

Cos we preferred to buy a house and put our own in rather than pay an inflated price to cover their choice of kitchen or carpet or wall paper etc

eg some people like wooden work tops some like steel some like granite

Some want a separate shower some want shower over bath

Some want wall paper some want painted walls

Just make it clean

Sorry about the circumstances

Been there, got the scars but also the quick sale.

Declutter, ruthlessly, but leave sufficient furniture to show the furniture does fit and make it feel a little bit lived in. Wash everything, especially windows and including light bulbs. Remove net curtains, open curtains wide. Consider a coat of magnolia anywhere there isn't wallpaper. Take up carpets in loos and bathrooms and replace with cheap vinyl. Buy cheap new towels and nice soap and leave them in the bathrooms. Mow grass and keep on top of the garden (especially at this time of year).

I'm with Purple clean everything esp Windows, remove 90% of furniture but leave enough so it shows main rooms. We bought one like this two years ago. They had replaced the toilet (cheap one from B and Q ) so I dread to think how bad the original one was! Lawns were mowed but it was filthy, after they accepted our offer they cleaned it really well and dh said he'd have paid more if he'd seen it clean. I bought it for floor space and garden, the decor, paint, kitchen was all really dated but just about usable (no bath and a broken disabled shower) but I didn't care it is the perfect house in the perfect road for us. The house had three offers in ten days of going onto the market, the first two were 50 and 40,000 below asking price we paid about 10,000 under best thing I've ever done. Don't spend money just show off the potential as best you can.

Oops lost sight of the big picture there. I am sorry for your loss, I often think of the previous owners I nurture their roses and thank them every time the plum and greengage tree shower me with fruit. This house was obviously loved and still is.

Not in a rush to sell
Will declutter and have a think and magnolia over the 80s
Garden is massive and very weedy...
Lawn mowed though

I would disagree and get rid of everything. Neutral "Greige" throughout. We fell in love with our new house when it was empty...when we saw it 8 months earlier, with lots of "old lady" decor and furniture, it put myself right off. We couldn't see past it.

Please, please, please don't paint over the wallpaper.!!
We are 18 months into buying a lovely, but dated home, where the owners had painted over the paper several times. I could cheerfully strangle them.
Removing the paper is so much harder when there are several coats of paint that need to be removed too

Agree about paint my heart sinks when I see worship that's been painted over its got to come off anyway

Don't magnolia everything. Magnolia is horrible. Pick something neutral that is not magnolia. And certainly no paint over wallpaper.

Tbh, you might be best just talking to the EA and agreeing a price that reflects the decorative condition. Lots of buyers want a bit of decorative fixing up to do.

As a former EA I'd say declutter then leave as is, and see what feedback you get if you're not in a rush. Some people like a house that's a project. There are plenty of bland new builds on the market for those that like that sort of thing.

Please don't make work for yourself painting it. Just clean as people have suggested, declutter so that there's plenty of room for buyers to walk round. We've just bought a home where the old lady had died, and I loved the 'feel' of the place, despite it not having been decorated or updated for many many years. It felt like a home. It made me smile to see wallpaper like my grandparents had, and I marvelled at the original 1960's linoleum in the bathroom. The house size will sell it, and then the buyers can put their own stamp on it. It may be less heart wrenching for you too, to leave it be. Do get on top of the garden though, and ask estate agent to walk people round outside, so the amount of garden space can be appreciated.
Good luck.

I'm in a similar position to you, OP. My DM has gone into a Nursing Home.

We have cleared all the bric-a-brac, etc but have left the furniture as the EA's that came to value it said that it's better to leave the furniture in to give an idea of room size. It has an avocado toilet and bathroom and woodchip painted magnolia, so it will be interesting to see what interest there is in it!

Had this with two sets of grandparents. For both, we left the house pretty much as is (we decluttered to the extent you would if you were letting a furnished house). On both cases, the houses went to sealed bids and actually broke the ceiling for the roads they were in (SE London). As weird as it sounds, people actually LIKE the though of getting a house in such poor/dated decorative order that they can do it up and get all the credit for it at dinner parties.

Both houses were structurally well maintained though (windows, roof, electrics) thanks to my Dad, just very dated and tired.

I am sorry you are in this position. I have sold in a similar situation although it was a more distant relative. The house was cluttered and dated with terrible lay out but a great location with large garden. We emptied the personal items but left the furniture to give buyers an idea of layout although it was obvious a purchaser would want to do substantial work. We then gave it a good clean but nothing else. We sold at a price we were happy with - I had mentally decided I would take less in return for the lost hours doing work to the house and was more than happy with the price we achieved.

We bought a house in similar circumstances - we undoubtedly got a good price because everything needed doing. However I wouldn't have paid an extra £20k if it had been painted magnolia or had a cheap kitchen overhaul.

We bought because of location and potential and could see through the green bathroom suite etc

This is what we did to sell a relatives flat.

Take away any personal bits and pieces and clutter.
I think we left a bed and sofa in situ to give buyers an idea of space.
Cleaned everything thoroughly.
Replaced carpet in the bathroom with vinyl flooring.
Gave the walls and ceilings a coat of paint to freshen them. The walls were magnolia originally. (I probably wouldn't have bothered if this was a 4 bedroom house)

The dated and quite frankly inadequate kitchen stayed, as did the dated, but plain bathroom. We priced it for a quick sale and it wasn't on the market too long before someone bought it.

Definitely don't paint over wallpaper. The owners will want to remove it and painted wallpaper is a pig to get off. Your most likely buyer is someone who wants a bit of a project and this will just annoy them.

Even if you put in a new kitchen etc. chances are it would not be what someone else would choose.
Personally I'd just clean like mad, tidy the garden and remove clutter, while leaving basic furniture. This is what this family has done for 2 relatives' houses - not deceased but had to go into care homes.

One of these sold very quickly - because it was realistically priced. The other took ages, and finally sold to someone who'd offered quite a bit more 6 months previously and been turned down. The people handling the sale had not known the area and had believed an EA's wildly optimistic valuation.

Getting the price right IMO is so important - so many EAs over-value in order to get the business.