Estate Agent told us to empty property

[Propertygo]

Estate agent has suggested we remove all the furniture to show off the large footprint.

The bedrooms have nothing in them except a bed and fitted furniture. There is a kettle out in the kitchen, a dining table and sideboard in the dining room, sofas in living rooms etc. When I’ve sold property before, agents have told me to buy e.g. a bed to show what can fit in a room.

That's very odd advice.

That's bonkers advice. Empty houses don't sell as quickly, everyone knows that. You have a bad estate agent.

Are you sure you haven't misunderstood? Some properties look very cramped because they're is too much furniture or the furniture is too large for the rooms. Are you sure they didn't mean get rid of unnecessary furniture?

That’s the exact opposite of what you should do. Unless the house is too small for the furniture don’t do this

Completely opposite advice. You need to stage it

Odd advice. Is your furniture excessively large or very dated? If I see empty rooms I automatically think they are too small for furniture and it’s a ploy to make them look bigger, or that someone died.

Is there something about the remaining furniture that might make the property less appealing? Perhaps you should ask them, as it's very unusual advice to clear the rooms.

Depends on how the furniture looks really. If it was broken, stained, marked, etc., or the house was cluttered, I can understand why an EA would say that. Even if not, sometimes a lot of random furniture/furnishings that don't match may put buyers off and prevent them from seeing through it all.

Assuming this is not lived in and has been cleared of possessions so just has a few bits of furniture, it does perhaps look sparse and unhomely and not showing itself off to its best. So yes, I would say it's better entirely empty. The opposite is to fully furnish so it feels a home.

Unless the carpets & walls are in pristine condition, it will look horrible with the furniture out.

We sold my late mother's house completely empty no carpets this year on first veiwing for full asking price.

They say most buyers have no imagination so can't visualise how a house will look when furnished so you stage it well with furniture so they see how great it is. Apparently empty is bad for most people, but we did buy a great empty house you could see the bones of it so I'm not sure it's true for all buyers.

If the furniture is cluttering the house, it's helpful to clear a lot of it out. But, that doesn't sound like the case here (do you need to leave more than one sofa, however?). I've never had an estate agent ask me to clear out all the furniture when selling. It's an unusual request.

Having said that, I almost always go for empty houses that need work, and furniture gets in the way of me seeing the bare bones of the house. Often, if a house looks too cluttered in the pictures, I won't even go to view it. If it looks as though the family who lives there hasn't even started to declutter, even for the photographs, it indicates to me that they're not ready to move or not serious about it.

Is your house a renovation project? If so, that might explain the EA's remarks. I'm looking for a new home right now, and I'm paying cash, and I want to see the house, not someone else's stuff.

They probably want to AI in the furniture 🙄

It isnt clear - are you living in the house or is it empty?

Perhaps the furniture is really awful and off-putting and they’re just trying to be polite.

They don’t seem the best agent. They are part of a chain. Are there any chain estate agents where other branches can easily show buyers around? This was a selling point for us, but in practice this doesn’t happen due to commission loss.

When my sons were clearing their late father's house two years ago prior to selling the EA advised to leave a bed in each bedroom, the two sofas in the sitting room and the dining table and chairs in the dining area, to give viewers an idea of how their furniture would fit

Prospective purchasers knew this was a probate sale so wouldn't be expecting a fully furnished property

I assume they OP isn't living in the house!

Maybe not, everyone knows now that "staging" is fake and doesn"t really sell a house, price for size and location sells most houses I think if we are being realistic?

Unlikely they are that interested, I think a lot of EA"s stay afloat now from gouging landlords?

I’d only do that if I were selling a probate

Is the furniture really dated or tatty?

Thank goodness for your post! We will be selling an empty property soon and was really worried from other comments.

it will be cleaned to within an inch of its life and carpets cleaned, a bit of touching up of paintwork but that’s it. I hope people won’t be put off.

Estate agent is an idiot