Staging an empty house for sale - quick and easy solutions please!

[NormaSnorks]

We've been renting out our former house for the last few years but have decided to sell early next year. Current tenant is moving out at the end of the month after four years.

I know it's going to need some work to get it ready to sell, but I'm just wondering what IS and ISN'T worth doing? I know that empty homes sell for less, so we were thinking of staging it to some extent with some spare furniture from our current house and some new bits and pieces which I can resell afterwards. I did contact a couple of companies, but they were all quoting upwards of £2500 for staging and furniture loan for 6 weeks.

Has anyone done this? Can you offer any tips about where to get cheap modern furniture/ art etc. Colour schemes that are 'in' etc?

Don't ask the agent what to do. They always tell you not to do anything except have it neat and tidy. They want to get the house on the market asap, getting a few extra grand or selling for a few grand less makes a tiny difference to their fee from the sale they just want to be the one to get it on and sold. (used to be Saturday "girl" in an EA).

Clean the place within an inch of it's life. Make sure the outside is clean and tidy too. If needed paint the front door and front windows.Remove any weeds. If you aren't nearby and can't check make sure your agent or a friend or a paid person can go in and remove junk mail from the hallway regularly as it looks bad when the door can't be opened - the agent can do this if they get there a few minutes before a viewings, also get them to open blinds/curtains too and check there are no leaks and the hallway and toilets etc are clean. If the house isn't shifting make sure it hasn't got really dusty. Dont be stingy with the heating in winter despite the house being empty.

I agree with PP saying just clean it. Put rugs over the worst carpet stains. Put a chopping board over the worst damage on the kitchen work surface. It will still sell looking a bit tired.

Hello OP
There are companies who will do this and you rent the furniture so that it looks amazing. It costs a lot less than you think.

Whereabouts in the UK are you OP?

@NormaSnorks Completely agree with @17to35. You don’t have to do much to make a difference. It certainly doesn’t need to be professionally staged. I would personally always leave the kitchen and bathrooms unless anything was actually broken. They tend to be the things people want to change anyway. Make sure they are clean and presentable and show the space well.

Other rooms, I would keep relatively neutral (good colours already suggested! Or get valspar to colour match you some for a cheaper alternative to F&B.
I wouldn’t pay much for furniture to dress the space but I would put in items that show the size of the rooms if that makes sense? An empty bedroom could be any size really depending on how the pic is taken but seeing it with a bed etc in allows you to see what you’re actually working with. Same with living/dining space.

Don't ask the agent what to do. They always tell you not to do anything except have it neat and tidy. They want to get the house on the market asap, getting a few extra grand or selling for a few grand less makes a tiny difference to their fee from the sale they just want to be the one to get it on and sold. (used to be Saturday "girl" in an EA).

Or they're just being practical. If spending £5k nets you an extra £50k then it's worth it. But faffing about spending a couple of grand for maybe an extra £5k on the sale price is pointless.

The market price isn't being driven by the colour of the walls or whether or not they can imagine a sofa fitting in the space - not unless it's one of those Rightmove Classics with a borked layout.

I’ve bought four empty properties, I prefer to see empty places as other people’s furniture, rugs etc can hide problems major and minor. I’ve also sold an empty property, which we had rented out for three years.

We had it cleaned really, really well ( it wasn’t as damaged as yours sounds) . We ‘made good’, filled in any holes, painted one wall which had been damaged, touched up the rest. The heating came on an hour in the morning and evening to keep it from having that unloved in feeling.

We sold it in three days, for the asking price.

We've just sold our 2 bed London flat after moving out first, so it was completely empty. We got some minor repairs done, a deep clean, and repainted the walls. There's a bit of damage to the kitchen and bathroom surfaces, it doesn't show on the EA photos though it could be seen on a viewing. Anyway, it did take a few months to sell but then the market for London flats is slow, plus interest rate rises has meant buyers haven't been able to afford as much. But it sold for £700k, and I don't think staging would have helped us get a better price or sell any quicker.

For us, moving furniture back in would have been a hassle as we don't have a car and also 2 young dc so even if it meant using existing resources, it didn't feel worth the effort. If you have the time and access to a van to move your own spare furniture and rugs back in then it might be worth trying. If it doesn't make a difference, then at least it didn't cost you much effort or time.

Estate agents advised us to repaint the walls, which we did

We had zero furniture, but it was a small property

We fixed or replaced a few broken items

Tidied up the garden

Lots of viewings & it sold

I was going to replace the carpets, but did not in the end

Forgot to add that it was cleaned too

Just make sure it's clean, smells nice and repair any obvious damage. It's never made any difference to me when viewing if empty or not, in fact I prefer to be as nothing is hidden behind furniture! Xx

I'd give it a really deep clean, including the windows inside and out, and the front door. I'd also hire a rug doctor to clean all the carpets- they can make an AMAZING difference, and are way cheaper to hire and do yourself rather than getting someone in to clean the carpets- you can hire one for about £25 for the day, and buy the much cheaper, generic carpet cleaner shampoo in Home Bargains for about a fiver). Really tatty carpets might need a couple of going overs. I'd make good any damage to the walls, and give a lick of paint to any really tatty looking walls, but I wouldn't bother painting top to bottom. I'd also give the garden a good going over, including weeding, and washing down any patios. The kitchen is a tricky one without any pictures, would you be brave enough to share some?

I would put a few select bits of furniture in if you can, but definitely not furnish the whole house. In fact just a few bits of furniture can work to your favour if the rooms are small and in danger of looking cluttered. Some people (including me who has done my fair share of doer uppers!) find it really hard to judge empty spaces. When I was selling a house a few years ago I felt I'd need a bed in a spare room to just help sell the space, and I managed to buy one off Facebook Marketplace for about £75. I've given away old furniture on Facebook for free because I couldn't be bothered to arrange collection and disposal, so it's definitely worth looking there.
I think its worth a little bit of effort, and making it a little bit more like a home because my antenna always goes up when I see slightly sad looking ex-rentals on the market- I always think if the vendors can't be bothered with the maintenance you CAN see what on earth will be going on with the bits you can't see, such as the plumbing and electrics? This is particularly true in a buyers market. I don't think it needs to cost much at all, it might just require a few weeks work, a bit of elbow grease and some lateral thinking about how to do things cheaply.

Clean it to within an inch of its life and make sure it is smelling nice for viewings. Keep the garden neat as well. That is all.

Personally, I think it's worth putting furniture in there. When we moved, DH's office looked much bigger empty but I was surprised by how small the other rooms looked, especially the main bedroom.

Ours was beautifully presented with furniture for two months during which we had zero serious offers, then after we moved out and it was all dustballs and wires where the TV used to be we got 2 decent offers in 3 weeks (and sold to the first of them.)

Thanks for the suggestions - some useful advice and opinions!

I've probably made it sound worse than it is. It's a fairly modern property (15 years old) and was in a good state four years ago, so hopefully damage will be mostly superficial stuff that can be cleaned and repaired. The tenant is meant to be having a full end of tenancy clean, but I will be interested to see how thorough that is!

We live very locally so it's not a problem to do decorating and repairs ourselves and take things there. We don't have a van, but I guess I could hire someone for one trip with larger items.

I've been watching property sales in the area for equivalent-sized houses for a few years now and they seem to go in the range of £475 - £525k. It's on the edge of a 'posh' town, but technically just over into the next postcode, but it's in the catchment for some excellent schools and it's definitely a popular area for young families. The houses that get the higher prices are fresh, bright with modern furniture.
Ours has the benefit of 2 bathrooms and a downstairs loo, a SW facing garden and driveway parking (like gold dust around here!)

Just hope the market is going to pick up (or at least not crash before) next year!

I've just done this. We repainted throughout and replaced all carpets. It cost less than £1000 as we did a lot of the work ourselves.

We have put throws on the old sofas and have made up beds in each room. It looks a million times better in the estate agent photos and definitely smells better than it did when the tenants left.

We staged a rental to sell. We used as much of our own furniture as we could with a few basic ornaments to dress the house. Stuck to basics and kept to a simple colour scheme throughout so it looked 'put together' and ready to move in. We bought those cheap solid jelly type air fresheners in citrus or vanilla and discreetly left them around the house. At this time of year winter berry & cinnamon air fresheners would be good.

Best tip was to use basic picture frames from IKEA and fill with funky wallpaper samples from a DIY store. You can tear off enough to fill the frame. We've still got them up to fill a gap at our house and often get compliments!