Staging a empty house to sell, it's it worth it?

[NotPerfectlyAdverage]

We are selling our three bed end of terrace in Kent. It's completely empty now and I was wondering if it's worth staging it? It needs a kitchen and bathroom and will be looking at a 280,000 - 300,000 sale price.

I would say, see how it goes without staging it.

When you say needs a kitchen and bathroom, us a developer going to buy it, or a family?

If a family, I'd try and put a sofa, table and beds (or boxes made up to beds). Personally, i think rooms look really small without furniture, abd a lot of people lack imagination.

It does look very small empty, but it's a decent size. I think a family will buy it. Top price it will attract 310,000 so not much profit in flipping it. Wrong area to turn into a HMO as its a close around a green with drives and garages. Absolutely no where for off street parking. It's a bit posher than where the HMOs are in town. A landlord might buy it. But there will be interest for families looking for a cheap starting point.

I’ve bought and sold in Kent
in a developer way

I don’t put in furniture but I leave it looking like I’ve partly moved out

In an empty room some large pictures stacked up
The occasional rug still on the floor

Coffee pots and cups etc in the kitchen

It’s about adding a bit of colour and comfort
Like this for example

.

At that price point I wouldn't bother. You could sound out local EA's to see if any offer a virtual staging facility, i.e. pictures showing what rooms could look like with furniture in.

When you say it needs a kitchen, does it have a cooker and running water? Houses need a basic, functional kitchen to be mortgageable. Otherwise they are not deemed habitable. The same applies for bathrooms.

Most estate agents have software which will virtually furnish a home for the photos. Will attract more initial interest.

Probably a bit disappointing when people actually go in to view though.

I sold my rental house earlier this year. When it first went up for sale it was empty and even though we got a lot of viewings, these didn't lead to any offers. After a couple of months we put some furniture/pictures in and had an offer within a couple of weeks. It made a huge difference to how the house looked. Empty, it looked a bit sad but with furniture in, it looked like a home.

I’m buying an empty house and tbh even though I have a good imagination and I’m not bothered about the decor etc, it is hard to envisage eg how much room a double bed takes up.

There is a sofa in the lounge so at least that gives an idea that I can fit one where I want it, but the bedrooms are hard to visualise without anything in them.

I’d suggest even if you don’t ‘stage’ it to make it look inviting, at least an appropriate bed in each room, or even a rug/(pile of boxes!) of that size to show how much room it would take up might be useful.

One of the bedrooms in my current house isn’t being used but we put a double bed and desk/drawers in there (picked them up free off marketplace and will pass on when we move out) to show that they would fit, as it’s a small room and isn’t obviously a double size.

But tbh, if someone loves the location and the price is right they’ll work it out. We’ve done plans on the computer to try and see where we can fit things.

We had to move a large distance due to work and initially rented ( paid by employees ) so our house was empty.
When we put it on the market it had all the white goods plus a bed in it and that was it .

Definitely not. Just make sure it’s as clean as it can be and leave the vision to a buyer.

There is a working fully functioning kitchen with all the white goods. The kitchen is just very dated ( white goods are new) same for the bathroom. It's all just dated. All three estate agents agree. We could redo the bathroom for about 4k and the kitchen for 15-25k ( some experience of this before so we can almost meet trade price) but don't need that hassle as it's only going to raise the price by 20k-30k max. Unless it doesn't sell. But it's five minutes walk to mainline train into London ( under a hours train ride ) it's got a drive and garage. It's going to sell for at least 280,000( hopefully!)

People involved in house staging businesses say yes.

ROW says no.

As it needs a new kitchen and bathroom, no, don't bother staging it. Any buyer is going to hone in on that anyway. I've never had an issue being able to envisage how a house might look once it's furnished.

I disagree! I have no interest in house staging. I am talking from my own experience which was that having some furniture and decoration in my house helped it to sell. I didn't fully stage it, just a bed in the bedroom, sofa and table downstairs and a few pictures. That was enough to make it look like a home rather than a slightly tired house.

I think if you have small bedrooms then having a bed in them can help but if its really obvious you can fit everything in less useful.

Some people do have issues with visualising sizing though the type of people who buy houses to renovate are normally better at it. I would want more than the cost of renovations off though if there are similar done up houses for sale.

Ours was on market a couple of months before it sold and we had it empty at first then added beds and made sure we looked round for any minor things to sort and it then sold quickly. May have been coincidence.

There is nothing of a good standard on at the price point of 280,000. With a new kitchen and bathroom it will be 310 -315 done up. Weirdly there ate two very low ball houses in town on RM that look modern but say they need renovation. They have been reduced and the market for months. Obviously if that was the case for us we would reconsider. But it's not even on the market yet. Estate agents have said it should go fast max price of 300. We shall see I guess.

I've bought 2 houses, one staged and one not. Of the two I rathered this one, completely empty so I could see if there were significant issues.

My house needs a new kitchen and family bathroom but they were serviceable so I didn't mind. Yours sounds the same.

Your house sounds ideal for someone starting out!

Yes I used to flip houses and always dressed them down to the blinds and artwork. Always sold quickly and made a decent profit. Any furniture was available to buy.

"Always sold quickly and made a decent profit"

More to do with cheap mortgage debt than "staging" though?

I wouldn’t bother an see how it sells

if no interest

then stage / Some people find it hard or visualise a bed etc so if you can stage it it may be better

Blow up double mattress with bedding on (double, single as appropriate) in the bedrooms so people can see the size of the bed (or boxes). A few things around to warm it up. Cheap as chips, makes a difference.

Estate agent told us to stage. Sold very quickly.