Selling A House With A Shop - Leave It For Showing Or Empty It?

[krw]

HGTV has, or at least did have, home staging shows.

[krw]

Tough to tell what's serious and what's not, today. ;-)

"Unmodified"? You mean "unfinished"? It's all about proportion. If the space is cramped, it'll look small, no matter what its true size. If it's bright and open, it won't. Like I said before my ~2500 ft^2 of unfinished basement isn't going to be anyone's "storage space". No one has that much crap. Well, no one is going to _move_ that much crap. After 20 years... ;-)

[russellseaton1]

ote:

this house could have a finished basement. Many potential buyers would se e the basement finished if it was empty for them to imagine. But if filled with shop equipment, and used for a specific purpose, its harder for them to imagine all that gone and the room finished into living space. Unfinish ed basements are also storage space to many people. If empty, its easy to see it as storage space.

ssuming couples buy the house. By showing it as a shop for a man, you are automatically causing half the people looking at the house to instantly be deprived of ever using that basement. When selling things its not good to make half the buyers happy, man shop, and half the buyers filled with rage and hate for the place, women who cannot ever use the space.

a separate space from

the overall basement.

for the wife and a

I have known one or two or maybe three women in my life. Have yet to meet any that do woodworking or mechanic work. Or yardwork. Or cut firewood. Or dig ditches. Not saying there are not any. There are. But very, very, very, very few. On TV I have seen women play football. Tackle football. In bikinis! Yeah. But I have yet to meet any women who play football. M en, usually young, will play football with each other. Have not seen any w omen playing football. Except on TV. In bikinis! I'm just guessing the b ikinis are important.

[Michael]

is house could have a finished basement. Many potential buyers would see t he basement finished if it was empty for them to imagine. But if filled wi th shop equipment, and used for a specific purpose, its harder for them to imagine all that gone and the room finished into living space. Unfinished basements are also storage space to many people. If empty, its easy to see it as storage space. Also consider that half the people looking at the ho use will be women. Assuming couples buy the house. By showing it as a sho p for a man, you are automatically causing half the people looking at the h ouse to instantly be deprived of ever using that basement. When selling th ings its not good to make half the buyers happy, man shop, and half the buy ers filled with rage and hate for the place, women who cannot ever use the space.

A lot of us would.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Do you think football would be more popular if the NFL adopted the bikini as the uniform?

[DerbyDad03]

ke this house could have a finished basement. Many potential buyers would see the basement finished if it was empty for them to imagine. But if fill ed with shop equipment, and used for a specific purpose, its harder for the m to imagine all that gone and the room finished into living space. Unfini shed basements are also storage space to many people. If empty, its easy t o see it as storage space.

Assuming couples buy the house. By showing it as a shop for a man, you ar e automatically causing half the people looking at the house to instantly b e deprived of ever using that basement. When selling things its not good t o make half the buyers happy, man shop, and half the buyers filled with rag e and hate for the place, women who cannot ever use the space.

s a separate space from

of the overall basement.

n for the wife and a

I'd like a little more info related to that statement. Just curious...What do you mean by "known"?

How does one go through life "knowing" only "one or two or maybe three women"? Heck, your mom counts as one so you don't have too many left to hit your max of 3.

Do you mean "known" in the biblical sense?

Or cut firewood. Or dig ditches.

Well, if you've only known 3, that's not surprising.

Drive through my neighborhood sometime. Lots of woman joining their husband s or partners (if not single) doing all kinds of yard work, stacking wood, etc. Heck, 1/3 of my lot is comprised of SWMBO's gardens. She does 90% of t he work related to them. I know enough not to intrude unless invited to help. (BTW I don't feel deprived of those areas)

You know, now that I think about some of your earlier comments, I guess I'm going to have to rip out all of her gardens before we sell. I may be implyi ng that the next owners can't have a full lawn or a pool or a patio because of the current contents of the gardens.

. On TV I have seen women play football. Tackle football. In bikinis! Y eah. But I have yet to meet any women who play football. Men, usually you ng, will play football with each other. Have not seen any women playing fo otball. Except on TV. In bikinis! I'm just guessing the bikinis are impo rtant.

[J. Clarke]

space.

I remember a rather attractive young lady dropping by a barn I was working on and inquiring whether there were any odd pieces of the old structure or siding available for purchase. On inquiry it turns out that she makes furniture and likes to use the sort of vintage lumber one occasionally finds in 200 year old barns.

[Markem]

Go check out realty ads, craigslist or Realtor.com, zillow.

The pictures that kill me are when the house is stuffed to the gills, but the pics are that nice soft focus (blurry). You can tell the staged ones. My preference when looking at houses, empty my imagination can fill it.

I doubt anyone has kept statistics that are valid as to which sell best though, the messy one though are probably last.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Most people depends on the money from the sale of their house to use as downpayment on the new one so they want to sell before moving. If the house is empty, why? Overpriced? Problem with structure?

[krw]

They could make a fortune selling ads for eye bleach.

[krw]

The people already moved? I'd expect that a lot of people who move, are moving out of the area. There is usually a time line for such life changes. In two of our three moves, the house was empty. The third was a move into an apartment for a while (I was working a short-term contract at the time) so left everything in the house (including SWMBO) until it sold. The first was a "corporate move", so there wasn't a worry about selling and the last was a more "normal' move, though we owned both homes for some time (with a year leasing it "after" the sale).

[clare]

+1 -,or more

[clare]

That may happen in some markets - but right now, around here, if a house doesn't sell in a week it is either in bad - and I mean REAL bad shape, or VERY over-priced - or both.

[-MIKE-]

Unfortunately, that shows a blatant disregard for recent home values and trends in the market. Our last house wasn't anything close to what you'd consider luxury or high value, but we sold in 3 days and that was only because it took that long for the bidding war to calm down. The home we bought was on the market for several hours when we made our offer which was accepted within a couple days only because it took that long for inspection. The way the recent housing market is, homes are selling for tens of thousands more than they were worth only a year ago and they are selling, not in months, weeks, or day, but hours-- many much higher than listing.

People in many housing markets can well afford to empty and stage their homes, move into a hotel for a week, store their belongings in PODS, and make a profit that will make these expenses seems like peanuts.

[Keith Nuttle]

I think that whether a house sells and how fast depends on the area the house was located. You count not expect the same price and turn around in North Carolina, Florida, New York City, and Los Angeles.

We have not been in the market for over 5 years, but watching the house around us it seems like it is taking between 3 and 6 months, and they are getting close to their asking price.

[krw]

If it's really that hot, housing is very under priced. Ninety days is considered "normal". This isn't even the normal peak buying time.

BTW, if I move again, I certainly wouldn't even try to buy a house after selling. Way too stressful.

[krw]

That's much more normal and healthy market.

[-MIKE-]

This whole debate has been over a specific selling trend that caters to a specific buying trend. You can't say a strategy doesn't work just because you don't see those trends in your local market. The strategy works in hot markets and those are the markets in which it is being used, and used very effectively.

[clare]

Not making any sense, when in this hot market people are getting offers 20 and 30K over asking - SIGHT UNSEEN.the first day the property is listed. Why pay motel room and storage when it isn't going to make ANY difference in the selling price or how long it takes to sell??? I talked to a neighbor at the open house down the street today

- his neighbour listed his house, and had THREE offers before anyone was in to see the house - all of them from out-of-town - (toronto) - All of them well over listing price, and no conditions on the offer.. Even a quart of paint would have been wasted money.

[clare]

1-7 days, 10 to 150 thousand over listing price in Region of Waterloo, Ontario - about 60 miles from Toronto.