5 Reasons Empty Rooms Are a Bad Idea When Selling Your House

Source: Hannif Highclass c/o Genie Sabre Realty Inc.
Publish:MY BLOG: Toronto Real Estate: September 28, 2012

Whether you’re a builder about to list a spec home, an investor ready to sell your vacant property, or a home seller who is living in a house with empty rooms and you’re wondering whether to furnish them before listing your house, this article is for you.

Here are 5 reasons why you should always use furniture and/or accessories in a room rather than showing it empty:

1. People don’t buy houses, they buy homes.
When you sell a house, you aren’t selling a commodity. You are selling a HOME, a place where a family will LIVE, raise their kids, have a refuge from the outside world. Even if you’re selling a tiny condo, you’re selling to someone who will bring their hopes and dreams of how their lives can be to living there.

Buyers can’t tell the difference between a 12 x 10 foot room and a 14 x 12 room if it’s empty. It looks about the same even though one is 40% bigger.

And when you’re dealing with a space that is 15 x 20 feet, a potential buyer has no idea what to do with it or how to arrange it. They might think it’s just big enough for a couch, 2 chairs and a coffee table, yet there’s room for so much more.

3. People can’t visualize how furniture will fit in an empty space and if they’re unsure, they don’t buy.

As shown in the living room/dining room example at the top of this article, it would have been hard to imagine how much furniture would fit in there or how it might be arranged. It’s a relatively small space and it was important to show buyers how it could be used.

4. When a room is empty prospective buyers focus on negative details instead of falling in love with the overall space.

Instead of looking at the flow of one room to another, they get bogged down in questions like

• Is the drywall smooth?
• Will those bumps in the carpet come out?
• How come the closet doesn’t have a hanging bar yet?
• Why doesn’t that molding fit perfectly?
• How come the light switch is in the middle of the wall?

5. When a house or even a few rooms are empty prospective buyers can get distracted from looking at the house.

Instead of focusing on whether this is the home for them, they may be busy wondering: Is this a divorce? Have they left town? Are they selling because they have money problems? This train of thought will take them where you, as a vendor, don’t want them to go!

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