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January 24, 2006
Front Page Forum: Dressing Up For Sale
In discussing the shabby appearance of 1370 Pacific Street for its open house last weekend, a reader posted this question:
Is it better to gussy up a house for a showing or let everyone see it warts and all? All of the crap is going to come out in an inspection, hopefully. Isn't it more honest to just let it be? I hate viewings where the owner slaps some paint on the wall, and covers the holes in the floor with a rug and a plant. I really hate when high priced brokers have the owner do things like strip painted woodwork in a half assed sloppy way so they can jack up the price. You're only going to have to redo it anyway, why pay for it twice? I only ask that your home is clean when I come see it, it doesn't have to be out of the pages of House and Garden. I can do my own decorating. Any thoughts?
Our thoughts? A whole industry now exists around making over properties for sale. It must be adding some value.
Open House Picks Comments [Brownstoner]
Comments
Not all buyers are that savvy. I think a GOOD job of staging actually works if the property doesn't need work. Personally, I don't like to see a horrible renovation. Strip the wood, please...but don't put in the cheapest Home Depot fixtures and then charge top dollar for your "renovation" in which you put band aids over existing problems.
Posted by: anon at January 24, 2006 11:09 AM
At the very least, one would expect the place to be neat and clean as if one were having guests. Or visitors. Or people coming who might want to buy the house.
Posted by: Hal at January 24, 2006 11:21 AM
New owners will probably want to change things anyway. I say leave the house as is, just clean it up.
Posted by: Anonymous at January 24, 2006 11:38 AM
Coming to New York from California, I think the willingness of brokers to show lightly papered-over crack houses without even a faint attempt to clean things up or rip out obviously disgusting carpet does a dis-service to their clients. Regardless of savvy buyers who might prefer to find a bargain they can do a little work in, that's not who the brokers are working for. Even a few hundred dollars spent wisely (not papering over structural issues) to clean up paint, rip out anything obviously filthy and horrible, and clean the place up will have a 10x or more payback and accelerate a sale. If you've ever watched the "house doctor", the experience of a Californian going to the UK to show them how to do it is pretty much how I feel here (although there's less chintz and stencil in Brooklyn, typically than Merseyside). To "anon" I think there's a big difference between staging a house for sale and doing a shoddy "flip".
Posted by: Joel at January 24, 2006 11:56 AM
I'm the anon who wrote in the question, and upon thinking about it more, I guess it depends if you are seller or buyer. As a buyer, I'd rather you didn't bother to do too much. But then, I love fixer uppers, and I'm in the design business, so I guess my perspectives are very different. I'm also not wealthy, so if not doing a lot keeps the price down, I'm more than happy.
If I was selling, I would want to get as much as I could, and act accordingly. I would also be embarassed if people looked at my house and it was a dump. I think I'd not be home for the showing.
I have watched those fix up to sell shows on HGTV, and it is amazing what they do, but most of it is smoke and mirrors. I do think it unwise to spend big bucks on bathroom and kitchen remodels. Those are very subjective rooms, it's not the same as disliking or loving a paint color.
Posted by: Bunky at January 24, 2006 12:09 PM
Yeah just clean the place up! and don't redo the bathroom with the lowest end crap you can get at Lowes like I keep seeing. I think all these flip this house shows end up doing a disservice to buyers. It breaks my heart when I see some shoddy wall thrown up to make a one bedroom a two, & that its obvious some broker talked aunt helen into doing to get more money. People arent that stupid are they?
Posted by: kowgurl at January 24, 2006 12:42 PM
Having staged an apartment that sold for $1.3M after showing it previously at $1.1, I am all for staging. That said, we put about $15,000 into the staging effort including channeling the cable, phone and alarm wires into the walls behind the moldings, adding very expensive ($25 per foot) moldings where needed, replacing wooden floors that were gone and carpeted, replacing quite good but white kitchen appliances with better (but not top) ss ones, etc.
No cover-up but not an excellent roi.
Posted by: Anonymous at January 24, 2006 1:22 PM
I'm in creative field (graphic designer) and we staged our apartment ourselves when we sold it a couple years ago. Most of it entailed clearing out clutter and personal effects but we did remove some furniture as well. We changed bed linens and put up some curtains with less pattern to make the place look spacious. We did all the work between the time the RE agent came to evaluate the apartment and the open house. We even took the pictures for the listing so we could do it when the sun was streaming in the windows. The agent was floored by the changes and definitely feels we got a better price for our 5th floor walk-up.
As creative folks, we think we had an easier time seeing past the clutter and filth we saw when we went to buy a house. And we saw a ton! Just clean, if nothing else, but clutter removal will work in your favor. We really believe there were fewer folks interested in the house we bought because they couldn't get beyond the walls plastered with hundreds of pictures, crazy wall colors and tons of furniture. We overheard comments at the open house to that effect. Reno may not be worth your time/money-as a buyer I'd rather just rip out the old than live with a new but cheap, cheesy kitchen or bath. But staging and a thorough cleaning can be worth every penny.
Posted by: kensington gal at January 24, 2006 1:53 PM
I am no fan of poor quality HD fixes to allegedly raise a property's value, but staging definitely works.
Even though folks aren't buying your furnishings, an attractively furnished and uncluttered space helps people better visualize how they might live there.
My mom had a very nicely decorated and well-maintained home, and it sold easily. When the buyers came for a final walk-through once the house was empty, the very upset wife said, "What happened to my house?" Clearly she had been attracted to the decorating and not the basic bones of the house.
Yes, looks matter!
Posted by: Tinarina at January 24, 2006 2:26 PM
I think times have changed from just a few years ago when any house we could afford to buy was a mess- a stained matress in the parlor, the upper floors all needing to be plastered, carpet everywhere etc. that was what we expected when we looked at houses in brooklyn- we were shown those for a few 100k more with the HD flip redo and of course walked out- i watch all the hdtv shows and they never seem to apply to brooklyn, ny- depending on where your are in your budget here, depends on what you dream of finding- we thought god had smiled on us to finally be shown a house that was in the run down but mostly intact layout situation as the one we bought... btw would someone please do a cable "hgtv" type show for brooklyn- i mean what would be better than House Hunters in brooklyn- "today this young couple dreaming of woning a home will be shown a burnt out shell for 1.2mil" or all the other scenarios that would be so exaggerated here in lovely brooklyn. bcat actually does one in bed sty and it's fun but not on enough.
Posted by: luxeterna70 at January 24, 2006 2:48 PM
This topic has touched a nerve with me. I know someone who staged and moved a house in a few hours- all bidders from Manhattan who thought that the place was sooooo cute. And this place had been on the market for a while- they even had a bidding war. For $24 you can buy ceiling medallions at Loewes and call it detail. I joked with a neighbor this morning that when we moved into this neighborhood over 20 years ago, we picked a house based on the street that it was on and how much cash that we could scrap together- not how much a place looked like Crate and Barrel...
Posted by: Anonymous at January 24, 2006 4:33 PM
"btw would someone please do a cable "hgtv" type show for brooklyn- i mean what would be better than House Hunters in brooklyn- "today this young couple dreaming of woning a home will be shown a burnt out shell for 1.2mil"
Hah! A friend/ex-coworker moved on to HGTV and we talked about lots of show ideas like that. He even pitched the bigwhigs an idea I had for urban backyard 'renovations'. (Basically I wanted a free makeover!)
But yeaaah. I guess if an hgtv show isn't about 30-40 something, childless, debtless folk who live in a suburban McMansion, then it ain't worth doing!
Posted by: Anonymous at January 24, 2006 4:44 PM
Sorry it's touched a nerve, but looks sell. And it's not just Manhattanites. There are a whole lot of people who can't visualize anything. On some of the HGTV shows like House Hunters, I've seen people refuse to buy a house because the room colors weren't to their taste. And paint is the easiest thing to change. I'm always amazed by this, but I've seen it through my own experience.
The other thing that a clean, well decorated house suggests is that the owner actually takes care of the place. Filth and sad sack furnishings make you wonder at what else is being neglected. Besides, if I can get a bunch of Manhattanites to get into a bidding war over my place when I move because I've got decent taste, more power and money for me. If I didn't have decent taste, I'd pay for a little.
Posted by: kensington gal at January 24, 2006 4:50 PM
"I think times have changed from just a few years ago when any house we could afford to buy was a mess- a stained matress in the parlor, the upper floors all needing to be plastered, carpet everywhere etc. that was what we expected when we looked at houses in brooklyn" - luxerterna
Most of the houses I look at still look like that. I just wish I could afford them, they've hit the roof too.
Since I've lived in old houses in a constant state of repair most of my life, I guess that never being done is the one constant in my homelife. When I go see listings, especially in my neck of the woods - Bed Stuy/Crown Heights, I often see homes that have been in a family for 50 years, with a lot of photos, clutter, and memories. These are the people who kept these neighborhoods from total chaos, and raised their families, and who lived through the bad times, and are amazed at what their homes will sell for now. I find buying one of these homes to be more of the passing of a fine legacy, and would look forward to restoring them to their glory. I can easily see beyond clutter and old paint.
Posted by: CrownHeightsProud at January 24, 2006 5:32 PM
anon above- i can't believe they don't want to do it- even with just NYC audiences it could pay for itself- it's not big league production of course- it would have been more interesting even a few years ago but everyone has there stories of some of the houses they've seen and their crazy closings etc. i can't imagine it's like that anywhere else in the country- regardless someone should do it- from the little i know, house hunters as it is has somewhat of a cult following and that's to look at papier mache houses in the suburbs with tiny windows and carpeting- sorry i've been obsessed with the idea for some time...
i just basically want to be able to watch the show.
Posted by: luxeterna70 at January 24, 2006 5:42 PM
I spent weeks and about a thousand dollars staging our apartment when we sold. My husband thought I was nuts. He thought differently when we had 8 bidders at the first open house and we were selling in on our own (and yes, it was listed at market price). I should have a t-shirt made up that says Paint Works!
Wdding pictures and religious totems are distracting. Make sure you have only enough furniture to make the place seem nice, not stuffed. And my #1 tip: don't have your TV in the middle of the living room and your furniture arranged to all face it. It's depressing. Rearrange. Just while it's on the market.
Posted by: Anonymous at January 24, 2006 6:28 PM
There's staging and staging. While it's awful to see cheap renovations done in a hurry, it's also naive not to think that cleaning up a little won't help. When I sold my coop (open house with multiple bids), I did a little painting, put out fresh flowers, cleaned the windows, put Sarah Vaughan on the CD changer, and -- most important of all -- GOT RID OF AS MUCH CLUTTER AS POSSIBLE! The flip side of this story is that when we finally found a brownstone to buy, it was clearly so in need of a complete gut reno that the fact it looked like a shit-hole didn't really matter. We knew we'd be starting from scratch the minute we walked in the front door. It even made us less sentimental about the purchase because, while we saw the potential, we didn't get so attached that we over-paid and ended up getting it for a pretty decent price.
Posted by: Anon at January 24, 2006 7:27 PM
My husband and I just bought a rowhouse in Jersey City. We were looking for a gut-reno job to do ourselves but we loved the view from this place, and the price was in our limited range! However it had been reonovated to sell, and it is going to be a nightmare fixing it. Cheap wall to wall carpet with carpet adhesive everywhere, vinyl windows, vinyl tiles, etc. We are going to have to rip it all out and start again and the shame of it is that all these resources were wasted in the first place. I honestly can't understand anyone who would want to move in and actually live with what these people have done, and would rather have started from scratch anytime.
Posted by: Anonymous at January 25, 2006 10:05 AM
When I sold my coop, the agent immediately told me to rent a mini-storage room and store my comic book collection, some odd pieces of furniture, piles of books, etc. And all of a sudden my apartment looked BIGGER! I also spent a bit of money fixing some ceiling cracks (not to cover up anything structural--just needed some plastering). Got a good cleaning, including windows. That kind of stuff really does help with an open house.
Posted by: anonni at January 25, 2006 11:13 AM
Re: Joel comments: I assume that participants of this blog are for the most part educated. With that being said, can someone please tell me why it is that every townhouse in a "brown" community that is not in mint condition is repeatedly referred to on this blog as a "crack house"? Please stop perpetuating ignorant stereotypes on this blogsite!!!
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