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NMMR: Need Selling Advice - Room Related

This is mildly MM as it's related to my parents selling their home and trying to get the best deal possible. My question is about staging...read on...

My parents live in an outstanding school district and they have a SFH, two story colonial, 4 bed, 2.5 bath, 2 car attached garage that they built in 1984 with a developer. It's a private lot, less than one acre. It's immaculately clean and very neutral walls and décor. The roof, windows, mechanicals, and carpet have all be replaced within the past few years. The kitchen is updated and has Corian countertops, which are middle of the road for their neighborhood. Other than these items, it's a pretty "normal" house. The one HUGE drawback is that they have NO deck or patio (all the homes in the neighborhood have at least one of these, sometimes both). So staging is huge for them. My mom understands this and my dad does a bit but basically has the attitude of "buyers can visualize whatever they want."

Another interesting feature of the home is that it has a set of French doors between the family and living rooms.

Currently, my parents have their family room sofa in front of these doors, which renders the doors as a walkway between the rooms, useless. The doors are not blocked from the living room, though.

Due to staging, AND if the dimensions will allow it, I have advised my parents to move their family room sofa to another spot in the room. Doing this would open up the French doors so they can actually be used as a walk-through between the rooms.

Here's my question: If you were a prospective buyer looking at this home and the French doors were blocked by a sofa, would you be able to see past this, noting that you could move the sofa elsewhere? Or, would this be a drawback for you not being able to visualize that the sofa could be moved? Would you assume that the sofa "had" to go in that space - making the doors useless?

They need to do whatever they can to make their home "special" since they are without a deck/patio. As a side note: I advised them to get this done, but due to time constraints and money they have, but don't want to spend, they are not going to do this project. I disagree, but that's another matter.

So: Move the sofa, if possible with dimensions, or leave it in front of doors?

 

 

Re: NMMR: Need Selling Advice - Room Related

  • I need to add that my mom would probably do this if my dad was on board. But, due to his attitude from above that I mentioned, he refuses to take the time to move some shelves, shelf items, sofa, tables, lamps and a chair. I admit, it's time consuming and they do both work full time.
  • AprilH81 said:
    I would move the sofa.  I can look past things, but leaving the sofa there implies that it is the only place it will FIT and buyers will think the room (and therefore the house) is too small.

    Can you hire some movers for a day to do the heavy lifting for the furniture?  Maybe the thought of the back breaking work is overwhelming for him.
    That.  Some people can see past it, but most won't.  Also, it's best to give them no reason to think there isn't enough space or the doors aren't functional.

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  • I would move it. Moving and removing furniture was all the staging that we did for our house. It is important that the house feels as big as possible and blocking off a door would make it seem smaller to me than it really is.
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  • Like PP, I'd move it. I could personally see past it (see the hideous wallpaper in the house I bought) but I think making the house look as big and open as possible will get your parents their best offer.
  • staging is everything….I would totally move the sofa
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  • I can look past it too, but it does make it harder.  The doors might make a nice statement as well if they are open and inviting.


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  • I could definitely see past cosmetic things (I bought my house with matte-rust-red counters...eek!), DIYs like taking down wall paper, or refinishing surfaces don't scare me...however we definitely passed on a few homes because rooms looked too small, we knew we couldn't afford to buy a huge house, but small rooms would make me think twice. if there's a different place for the sofa to go, I would move it. 

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  • I would move it since people can't or don't want to try to visualize things. I also don't think that the lack of deck or patio is as big of a drawback as you think. Some people want to do things like that themselves so it can be exactly the way they want it.
  • Move the sofa definitely, then declutter, closets and kitchen cabinets no more than 1/2 full, everything sparklingly clean, all small details tended to - .
    I would have a realtor come and look at the house and give staging advice - or view the photos on line of similar house listings.  Less furniture than you would generally live with is a better approach when staging your home.

    Limit items on the wall, remove personal photos.

    Paint walls and trim if needed.

    Lack of deck.patio will not keep most people from buying IF the inside is to their liking.

    Good luck.


    People in general cannot visualize and most are not looking for projects.to do after moving in.
  • Like others have said, I would move the couch. I personally can look past a lot of things and visualize a lot better, but some people cannot do that.

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  • Yes I should add: I can look past cosmetic problems because I know that most cosmetic issues aren't that expensive to fix.  But I do have a hard time visualizing furniture orientation - I usually have to try a few arrangements before settling on something.  So I think seeing that couch in front of the door would make me assume it couldn't really go anywhere else.
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  • I would move the couch. While I can visualize things, there are a lot of people who cannot. And that is any easy and budget friendly fix to help sell the house.

     We had that problem when selling my grandparents house...and my grandparents were hard-heads about it all. I truly think they got less money just because they wouldn't stage anything to make it look better to a buyer.
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  • Remind them they are staging to SELL the house NOT staging to live in it!
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