Is it best to live in a house that you are trying to sell?

[EmmyLou]

We complete on our purchase of a house down the road from our current one in January - I'm thinking it would be best to stay in our current house though, until we've sold it. Any experience/opinions out there?

I think if you can afford to move then there would be no problem in doing so. We sold our house when it was empty. At least you don't have to clean round before every viewing, for example, and viewers know that they are seeing it warts and all - no problems lurking behind furniture.
It's even better if like us you move hundreds of miles away and you can get the estate agents to earn their money by doing everything for you.

Depends some house wll look good completly clear others will look better with rooms all set and a bit of a lived in feel.

I must say I like the idea of not having to tidy up etc before viewings. Not sure how our house will look empty though. Wonder how much those 'house dressers/room stagers' cost.

our last house had people living it in when we first viewed but they had moved out when we went for a 2nd viewing. it change the way the huose felt - rather empty and cold. although i loved the house so we still bought it. i like houses to feel lived in.

I would advise you to stay in it a bit if possible. When i do viewings in empty houses, the 2 main things that crop up are...

1. believe it or not rooms can sometimes look smaller empty, and people often like to see houses furnished so they have an idea on what can and cant fit in the rooms.

2. if the house is empty you are likely to get lower offers as people will assume you are desperate to sell as are paying 2 mortgages, bridging loan etc.

And of course, if you believe programmes like Selling Houses, people need the functions of the rooms spelling out to them.Apparently some people can't work out for themselves that a room upstairs is likely to be intended as a bedroom, etc.

We sold an empty house without any problem.

The flip side, however, is that if you stay where you are you can spend time decorating / getting your new home just right without the stress of having to live in it at the same time. Decorating an empty house is a pure luxury.