How Much Does A Cluttered Presentation Affect Property Value and Viewings?

[ConfusedHousehunter2023]

We live in a one bed Victorian period mansion block in Zone 1.
Walking distance to one tube station and two train stations. Large beautiful park with ponds opposite the block separating it from the river. In summary, the location and the block are fantastic.

My DH has lived in this lovely flat for 20yrs and in that time decorated twice and new kitchen. We then got married some years ago and I moved in from my flat into his. We'd hope to be here not more than two years but I guess we can blame lockdowns although it's partly indecisiveness of where to move to.

So, we need to put our flat on the market asap but the issue which is the purpose of this post is that we're cramped and I feel this will affect the amount that's offered by potential buyers.

1. Too much furniture in the bedroom. I'll like to remove the standing wardrobe and chest of drawers to show the space as there's a large in built wardrobe with four large sections but there's no where to move the standing pieces to.
2. I would have liked a new bath tub as we currently have what I describe as an oval wide U tub which is dated. The bathroom could be changed but I love the tiles so I'm hesitant to remove those.
3. For the kitchen, I guess the spice bottles and appliances can go in a box and be kept in the car.
4. The dinning table is too large for the space it's in.

A similar property just came on the market at £27k more than what ours was valued at in May last year even though the space is a bit smaller as it doesn't have the benefit of the high ceilings we have and is on the 4th or 5th floor (no lifts) while we're on the 1st.

Apologies if I've given too much info which has distracted from the main gist I want contributions on.

Is it worthwhile getting a van and storage to move things out? If we do this we'll probably then want to paint our bedroom and hallway. The EA said it's best to leave it as is so that whoever buys can decorate as they wish as they'll put in a new bathroom.

Yes

Declutter
Pack non essentials you can live without until you move
Label everything carefully with a spreadsheet so you can find stuff if sale takes longer, market isn’t brilliant
Van & storage

it is worth it. And you are moving anyway, so take the opportunity to pack and declutter at the same time

Agree. Rooms look so much better when uncluttered and no over furnished. If viewers see extra furniture or piles of stuff they will think there isn't enough storage space.

As pp says, you hope to move so some pre-sorting makes sense. Be ruthless - don't outninto storage anything you won't want in a new place!

If moving furniture exposes decorating issues you could slap some paint on walls, but don't change your bathroom a this point.

Don't redo the bathroom.

Do take out the excess furniture.

A link of paint never hurt a sale as long as you keep the colour neutral.

I'd give my right arm to have your flat.

My parents took so much stuff out that their house looked a bit too Spartan. But it obviously did t matter as it sold very quickly.

*lick

This.
I think the clutter also gives a bad "feel". Like to me it would feel a bit chaotic and claustrophobic

Viewing a place that was very cluttered wouldn't affect how much I offered, but it editor affect whether I offered at all. We moved from a small new build that didn't have any real storage in it and every time we had a viewing we filled up my car with all our clutter. It was a pain but we figured we didn't want to highlight to buyers the reason we were moving ie house was too small for our growing family!

In your situation I wouldn't replace the bath as anything you buy might not be to someone's taste and they'd want to replace it anyway. But getting rid of anything you wouldn't want to take with you anyway sounds good!

I buy houses with large gardens - the clutter doesn't matter.
Does your house have other good features like large rooms, large garden, handy for school/ shops etc

It would put me off but not my DH.

When we bought this house my husband viewed properties by floor plan whereas I viewed by photos.

Having said that we packed everything up and put it on storage and then sold in 24 hours.

Don’t change the bathroom but do remove excess furniture- either pay for storage or ask family to store it for you in a garage or house until you move.
Anything you wouldn’t take to a new property you should get rid of. You will have to do this at some point anyway so why not now.
Just as an observation though, a lot of people prefer flats on higher floors as they tend to have better views so I don’t see that as a disadvantage in the other flat you mentioned.

Declutter and quick fresh lick of paint. Don’t go mad. Don’t change the bath. New photos.

Clutter makes the place look smaller, and also, high ceilings are a big disadvantage, I would say

Yes. I think estate agents are often more interested in getting the listing, and a few thousand here and there won’t make much difference to them E.g. if the flat isn’t selling and they later suggest you drop the price.

However this kind of thing does make a difference.

Yea I think so it's hard to see the rooms properly defo get rid of excess furniture!

Just to add that I’m not sure a 4th floor of 5 is worse than a 1st floor, even if a walk up. For a 1 bed ( so probably no kids) a lot of people will like having height and being further from the road noise. Just my opinion but a bit of context on the valuation differential with the similar flat.

With a 1 bedroom flat you have to be ruthless about decluttering, even if it has high ceilings, as there's not a huge amount of floor space to start with, unless you have a unique one that's 1,000sqft or something.

I wouldn't change the bath at all, however I absolutely would, and did, declutter and stage our house for selling when I split with my EXDP. Not easy with a 3 and 4 year old at the time.

Any clutter I couldn't get rid of I moved around for the photographer, then when viewings happened, I stored the overlflow stuff in the car.

We sold in 3 days (admittedly in a hot market).

You’ll be surprised how reasonable storage is. The large companies like Big Yellow will usually offer half price for the first few months. It’s definitely worth doing - not least because it makes keeping the place looking good for viewings much easier.

Floor plans do give dimensions but an awful lot of people (me included) really struggle with spatial awareness and will be very swayed by photos/viewings if the amount of stuff makes everything look smaller.

Thanks so much for the comments.
In summary you all thing it plays a crucial role in speed and value. Shall try to remove the large item especially.

I always see this on MN, but in real life I think its unworkable. We have definitely put stuff in the car and (flooded) garage for viewings/the photographer, but ultimately these are our possessions and we have no friends/family who can store. I've had quotes for storage which we couldnt afford, and also once your stuff is in there, you can just pop in a few more items or get something out. I do think that houses that are newly painted grey and white with no personal items at all sell quickest, but I also notice that the owners live like that generally. We're in our 60s so have 30+ years of stuff. If you have a couple of small ornaments on the mantlepiece that seems to be clutter to a worryingly large number of people on here!!

Anyway, we're on the market now so I may well be proved wrong and not sell for months!! 😱

Well, we exist in real life, and it’s what we did 😁

It matters for people like me who struggle with visualisation. I find it hard to imagine what a room would be like without all the clutter etc.

It made a massive difference when we sold our last home. I definitely think it’s worth it.

Absolutely, for the best price, ruthlessly declutter, ideally to recycle but worst case into storage.

Freshen up the paint, don't bother with the bathroom.

I'd suspect that the EA might have their own reasons for wanting it to taking some time to sell. Some EAs have contacts looking to swoop in on undervalued properties, to do them up for shared profit.

I know, I know, not all estate agents

I think it helps inasmuch as you want to create a feeling of calm and allow people who struggle with visualising to see themselves living there. But be careful not to go overboard. I looked at so many bland houses that were all basically the same, I could barely remember which was which sometimes.

@Ttwinkletoes

Does your house have other good features

I think being in zone 1 is the big one.

We're buying a house that's quite cluttered. It's clearly lived in by a large family and because of the clutter, it's obvious it hasn't been decorated in a few years. I feel like we've got an absolute bargain because the clutter put other buyers off. I found the Zoopla listing from when they bought the house and it was beautiful, the previous owners spent a lot of money on high quality fixtures and fittings which are still there under the clutter.

Be ruthless when sorting through things. I highly recommend binging the show Sort Your Life Out in 7 Days. I used it as my inspiration for clearing out my wardrobe. I'm planning to put on the final few episodes as I sort through the cupboards of doom in DH's home office and the kitchen.