Family home or show home? - how to style for photos?

[TeddyBeans]

We've got an appointment on Thursday to have the photos taken to put our flat on the market and I'm having a last minute panic about how it should look. We have 2 kids, nearly 3 and nearly 8 - they have a lot of toys and tech.

Would you prefer to view a flat that looked lived in? Family photos on the walls, knick knacks on shelves, some toys that are too big for storage boxes out and about? Or completely empty of anything personal so you could imagine yourself in there with your own belongings?

One of the agents said that people like to see how you live in the space but everything I'm reading online suggests it should be like a show home. I'm just trying to gauge how much stuff we should be putting in storage now ready for the photographer to come and ultimately viewings to happen. Please help!

Empty. I don’t need to see your detritus.

Show home, definitely. Lots of people can't envisage a space with other people's stuff in it.

Show home for the photos. Can be more lived in for when you have viewings ( but avoid ‘clutter’ as much as possible). Sorry.
Stuff doesn’t have to go in storage necessarily, but drag it out of each room before photos are taken.

The more stuff you have out the more I think there’s a storage issue.
so if you have boxes/ pans on top of wardrobes and cupboards hide them.

shove the vac and the ironing board in your car etc. coats and stuff on coat hooks need to be in suitcases and hidden (my cases live on top of the wardrobe in the spare room but for selling we’d hide them)

hide all your crap

Clean, tidy and reasonably uncluttered.

When we had our photos done we had a box in each room in which to dump excess items that we used daily before the photographer came, eg only one shampoo bottle out, dry flannels, soap dish hidden, no toothbrushes. Can you easily grab the bigger toys and put them in the hallway during the front room photos? Same with toy boxes? We did this with the cat bowls/litter tray as well.

Show home.

most people can’t see past stuff.

Somewhere in between. So a family home but neat, tidy and decluttered.

Absolutely show it to the max. We've had a stager in both times we've sold and the impact on buyers is huge. As a PP says it can always look a little more "lived in" when people are visiting, so long as it's clean, odour-free and uncluttered.

Hide your crap is excellent advice.

show home! I really do believe the way a flat presents itself in photos can be pivotal to more or less viewings! You want to sell a lifestyle not the reality of living with loads of clutter and kid’s toys etc 😂

I have wondered about doing this, is professional staging really worth it? Where do you find such a person?

Somewhere in the middle. I couldn't hide that 2 kids live in my house but I made sure everywhere was as tidy and clutter free as possible. I had loads of shit in the boots of the cars. I was slightly more relaxed for the viewings but still as clean and tidy as possible.

Photos and viewings have slightly different needs. For the photos you can move stuff out of sight and put it straight back. There needs to be significantly less stuff around for the pictures.

For viewings, You do need to declutter as much as possible (and we hid stuff in our car for viewings). However as cupboards get opened you need to give the impression of storage etc so can't have stuff cascading out of someone opens it.

You will be used to toys but I would guess if you are moving your target buyer will be child free right now.

You don't need to take away all signs of life eg, take pictures down from walls in either case though.

If you have stuff hung up on the fridge door, that's an easy win of looking less cluttered.

We are in the same boat. We have just signed contracts with the estate agent to get us on the market, but it is going to take us weeks at the rate we are going to get ready for photos. I want to pull out already it's stressing me out so much.
The reason we are moving is because there is no storage!

All good advice, thank you all!

Lots of things have already been put away (we have the luxury of a very large loft so hiding things isn't an issue) I am trying to sell some of the bigger toys as the kids don't really play with them anymore but selling things on FB is the bane of my life!

I shall get a box for each room, that is definitely manageable. Should I clear all the things out from under our bed for the viewings? I think I can push them back in such a way that they won't be visible in the photos.

We've never sold before so I'm in waaaay over my head!

stuff under the bed as long as cant be seen is fine.

i self staged our house a bit. nice schleich animals set up in a farm in playroom. nice new paints set up on kids craft table. nice wooden toys on display. plastic crap hidden in drawers! sold the dream of a separate playroom.

in garden - clean watering cans lined up by tap with kiddie watering can. looks cute.

in kitchen everything off counters. nice flowers on window sill.

reading corner - comfy pillow, scented candle, nice book

etc

for photos i dragged a lot of stuff to the hallway so each room could get photographed separately.

i was selling family home so needed to sell the aspirational family lifestyle. fairly upmarket area.

I've noticed that houses that are show home on the photos have been up for longest on our local right move. They do look cold and empty.

No one wants to see clutter, so your goal should be show home. But it’s not the end of the world if some logical bits are out. And for the photos, you can move some of the things that don’t have a home out of the room for the photo. Viewings are more relaxed in terms of big items being out, but you want them to see it perfect in photos first.

The concern is making people think you lack storage. So if somethings that obviously can’t be stored are out, that’s not a problem. No one’s going to think an enormous paw patrol tower is out because of a lack of storage, but they might think it if a ton of smaller toys are.

I always put the kids into the closet before viewings.

You want the show home for the market you are selling into.

If that is a starter home where you can grow into a with children home you need to sell the single /couple life style first.

So kitchen /living areas should be adult focused spaces with a small hint of child play area.

Professional pictures should blur family photos on walls so that can be a visual distraction.

Adult bedroom should be somewhere to rest after a long day at the office or herding enjoying the children.

Childrens rooms should say cute well behaved cherubs live here but it could be an home office.

And space or the feeling of space sells.

Take photos today from every angle and compair them against similar listed homes that you like.

I don't think the kids would be happy in the closet 😁 might take them to the park instead!

The kids room and the living room is the only place where toys are luckily. We've got new bedding for our room and we've completely decluttered in there so hopefully it hits the relaxing adult space objective.

I scrubbed the kitchen top to bottom yesterday so it'll only need a quick once over on Wednesday evening. Other half will be getting a box out of the loft later on in the week to chuck the scattered living room toys into.

The other big dilemma I have is my son's electric drum kit. It's huge and would be an absolute arse to dismantle but I think it needs to be dismantled or at least moved for the photos? Thoughts?

a little bit rude ?

my son's electric drum kit

Out out out ....
🙉

That says the NDN likely Hate You and will Hate them too. 🤷‍♀️

Show home in photos and at the viewing. I don’t want to see very much of other peoples lives and really get a better feel for a room / house if it’s uncluttered and impersonal.

Having sold houses too I’ve found it hard to de clutter and store all the personal items away from the house, but it has helped to sell it.