'Dressing' a house to help it sell.....

[Owain]

They also need a bedside table with a lamp, drawers and wardrobe, to look convincing.

Owain

[Owain]

Well if you upload some pictures somewhere I'm sure we'll all oblige.

Owain

[Set Square]

Well you may laugh - but we're in the process of selling my father-in-law's chalet bungalow. He's now living with us 'cos he's too old (96) and decrepit to manage on his own. His bed is now at our house - so only 2 of the 3 bedrooms had beds in them. SWMBO has made a mock single bed by lying an old door on a couple of cardboard boxes and draping a quilt over the whole thing. It looks quite convincing - as long as nobody tries to sit or lie on it!

[david lang]

And pillows stuffed under the duvets so people think someone is asleep :-)

I'm always amazed that people on these TV shows can't see past the lived in mess and colour schemes and visualise what the room really is and what it could be.

Dave

[Set Square]

Yes, so am I. But apparently they ain't atypical - and if we want our house to appeal to the widest possible audience we have to leave nothing to the imagination.

Sad ain't it - and I'm sure that none of us in this NG would have any difficulty in working out what's what - but we are, after all, a select group - and there are millions of plebs out there who don't share our omniscience!

[Adrian Brentnall]

Sorry for the delay in replying - was shooting peasants in the West Wing Not quite a mansion - just a bungalow with more than its fair share of rooms - there's a lot of 'free space' out here in the wilds of East Anglia

Yes - odd how few Agents seem to understand this. For all his bad points (and believe me - there were many !) our 1st agent did include a floor-plan with the property details.... and it certainly saves the mental gymnastics involved in trying to guess how the rooms in a house are arranged by looking at the room dimensions !

Adrian ======return email munged================= take out the papers and the trash to reply

[Adrian Brentnall]

The thought had crossed my mind...... - but I think we can 'borrow' a bed or two from next-doors - but the 'chunk of chipboard on cardboard boxes' might be a plan.....

Got a new estate agent coming round on Monday am - so we'll see what she has to say about the presentation of the place. If she thinks it'll help then we'll set to and swap the bathroom / bedroom round - then start 'faking up' some bedrooms......

...what a game, eh ??

Adrian ======return email munged================= take out the papers and the trash to reply

[Adrian Brentnall]

I'm sure that you all would I'll wait until I'm feeling unbearably optimistic before I go in for such public humiliation - but if anybody wants to buy a bungalow then you're all welcome to come round and see for yourselves ....

We try to be fairly 'organic' with our gardening - one rather up-market estate agent came round, name of Trystram or some such, and objected quite strongly to the bath sitting in the veg patch (home to some very organic frogs & toads - not just dumped there....).

Odd what some people consider to be unsightly - the bath's now gone, by the way, and the frogs, toads and newts have been moved into the main pond in the front garden - leaving the free-range chickens in charge of molluscicide in the veg patch......

Ho hum Adrian

======return email munged================= take out the papers and the trash to reply

[chris French]

We put a lot of stuff in to Self Storage, lot of books, some bits of furniture we wanted to keep but could do without, quite a bit of general ornaments etc. that again we wanted to keep but probably added little to the house for selling, camping stuff we had stashed in the spare bedroom etc. etc.

We put a real effort into presenting our last house well, finished off lots of roundtuit jobs, decluttered etc. Some things we couldn't by then do anything about, but we made the best of what we had, which was by then looking very good. when the estate agent came round for taking pictures I hardly recognised the house.

We sold the house in 2 weeks in Jan, for the asking price and we had 2 couples (out of I think 4 viewing) who wanted the house. other houses on our street had been on for a few months by then and were still on sale when we moved in April.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Same here. I can understand first time buyers wanting - if possible - something they can move straight into, as it were, but experienced ones are likely to see something that's been toshed over for what it is.

[Adrian Brentnall]

We've got plenty of room 'outisde' and 'upstairs' for hiding clutter - just lacking the enthusiasm . Still - as others have said, it will all need to be binned or moved eventually - we did have a good declutter about 6 months ago - I think it's time for a second 'cut'....

Yes - I know the feeling. It's the 'hey - this isn't a bad house... why do we want to move' syndrome

Excellent. Houses clearly are selling. One of the older members at the Church last night had just sold her house (central Ipswich) in 3 weeks ! We congratulated her (through gritted teeth )

I'll see what tomorrow's estate agent suggests - we'll do whatever it takes....

Thanks Adrian ======return email munged================= take out the papers and the trash to reply

[Owain]

Don't you have any teenagers?

It's no different from supermarket ready meals. Give lazy people what they want and there's more profit in it.

Owain

[Owain]

One of my favourite Punch cartoons is a couple sitting down to breakfast in a stately home, you can see room after room after room stretching away in the distance. They are reading the newspapers and says to the other, "I say, Davinia, it says in here the East Wing burnt down last night".

Owain

[Adrian Brentnall]

Love it ! Adrian

======return email munged================= take out the papers and the trash to reply

[sm_jamieson]

Re-use some of the plumbing from the old bathroom to make a new bedroom with an en-suite ? Would soil pipe for new bathroom be difficult ? Simon.

[Bob Smith]

"Adrian Brentnall" wrote in message news: [e-mail]...

On a similar note, what does everyone think when they lay the table ready for dinner to "dress" the dining room? And putting a massive impractical pile of cushions on the bed. Are you supposed to spend 10 minutes every night throwing them into a pile in the corner of the room?

I think it looks forced and false, and I would think it was weird to see a table set up for a formal dinner at 10am on a Saturday morning.

Bob

[chris French]

In message , Bob Smith writes

re the table, I have also seen them on TV suggesting not to lay the table, because of course as you say it looks odd, but just to put one or two things on it to act as focus. I suspect that maybe they do the full table thing on TV because it looks ok on TV.

With our dining room we removed the plastic table cloth thing that was normally on it, put a runner down the length of it that nearly matched the curtains, and had nice crystal vase with flowers - white lilies looked good . It really did lift the room up a notch when you first walked in

cushions aren't my thing, but I think the point again really is about making an effort to present it well. We had a bed spread and a couple of cushions that matched the curtain, of course as a rule we never used it as it just meant we had to take it off when we went to bed anyway. But it did make the room look good with it on, so we used to put it on when were selling the house. Again it just lifted the room a bit on first viewing, pulled it together, gave it more thought out finished feel.

I don't think that any of these small things in themselves make or break a deal, but I think they do go towards creating good impression in buyers minds which is crucial IMO.

[Adrian Brentnall]

Good comments. Had (potential) new estate agent lady round today - she confirmed that we've got the price about right (in her opinion) and that a bit of de-cluttering and 'dressing' will help to make it more instantly appealing. So - cardboard boxes 1st thing tomorrow morning !!

What a game, eh ??

Adrian Suffolk UK ======return email munged================= take out the papers and the trash to reply

[Matt]

Watch "Along Came Polly" and you'll see Hollywood's view on the cushions on a bed syndrome ;-)

[Mary Fisher]

downlighters over appeals to a woman.

Not this one.

bright light makes it sparkle.

So?

top means they are not using what you used.

Oh come on!

less than £100. Make sure the agent always turns on the kitchen lights when showing people around, otherwise they may not notice the new sparkling sink unit and mixer.

Well, I don't suppose it matters that you sell to the gullible ... their money's as good as anyone else's.

Mary