TV, aren't those choices very market specific? Where I live people buy their next house before selling the current one. The old house is shown 100 percent staged. Where my aunt lives, people just tidy up their house and wait for it to sell before making the move. I don't get how that works since housing stock tends to be low even in low cost areas. You could sell and not have a new house for a while.

PS We decided not to sell when we last moved. Still the leasing company showed the house empty and staged,

TV I don't think you'll have to worry. Houses are being sold with bidding wars without even being neat and tidy, and not even bring liveable.

If you can afford double house payments do what's easiest for you. We accepted an offer on our current home before we began looking for the home we would move into. The current home had to close before the new home--with our finances. Staging isn't a REAL thing here, unnecessary. My daughter looked at many homes that were empty last year. Right now in this market the head line above is not that out of the ordinary.

We were able to move into our new home that we built and then have work done on the old one to prepare it for sale. We purchased some furnishings that we planned on using in the new house and staged it with things that were light weight so we knew we could move it out ourselves. It worked fine for us.

However, if your messiness is due to too much stuff, you are going to have to pack it all up or sort and toss a lot of it anyway. In prep for sale, it may be cheaper just to box up what you know you want to keep and rent a storage unit short term so the place shows better and is easier to maintain for the short term.

I will be asking my real estate agent, of course, but I was wondering about others' experiences.

When I sold my last home, I did rent a local storage unit to box up a lot of extras - like out of season clothes and some of my abundance of kitchen toys - but I still found living in a place with cleared counters and perfectly straightened throw rugs very stressful.....I actually moved up to my cottage, but had to drive back to the city for my part time job a few days a week.

An extended family member who lives in the southern part of my state is about to put their house on the market. Their agent said for best results, move out, we'll have our team clean it for you and we'll stage it, no charge to you for either.

Translation of what realtor really said - "I'm sure you like what you have and I'd never tell you otherwise. This is my polite and disguised way to tell you that we need to clean it up better than how it was when I saw it and we need to put in furniture and decorations to make it look more attractive. Having less "stuff" around will improve its appearance, make it look more spacious and will help it sell for the best possible price".

"This is my polite and disguised way to tell you that we need to clean it up better than how it was when I saw it and we need to put in furniture and decorations to make it look more attractive."

Oh, I should be so lucky! My preferences are not very conventional or fashionable.

By any chance do you want to keep it as a rental? You could hire a realtor or a property manager to handle it for you.

What Elmer said is what we did. Our Realtor told me to get rid of most of my orchids and brought in a house stager who looked around and told us what to do prior to going on the market. We were selling our house in an upscale area outside NYC, but it was during the market/real estate crash. Worse time to sell.

I sold most of my orchids and left a few large houseplants. Cleared out closets and any things which made the rooms look smaller and moved everything into a storage unit. We repaired anything that needed it, and let the realtor direct what stayed and what had to go.

We lived through buyers coming in, most of it fell on me as my husband was still working full time.

We had three large dogs (Rottweillers) and two cats. I told our Realtor that we needed to be notified ahead of time before any showing. I also said, she had to be present at each showing. I did not want buyers Agents coming in to our house without her being there to let them in.

When we'd get the call, I'd put the dogs in the car, left the cats (which hid anyway) and would drive to a park and read a book with the dogs. Since it was November in NY, sometimes I went to a local Diner and had coffee or breakfast.

Telling the Realtor that I needed to be notified worked. Having her present made me feel safe leaving my house and letting people in. I was always given an hour notice, time to do quick pick-ups and get out with the dogs. I had a wonderful Realtor. She made everything go so well.

It was a tough market as Real Estate was plunging and I refused to sell unless we got our asking price. Took about 3 months of this, but we got asking price.

It wasn't impossible to do and not terribly disrupting as I was given time to get out before showings.

Jane

"My preferences are not very conventional or fashionable."

Are you suggesting that potential buyers might be distracted or put off by what you like? If so, it may be better for you to move out before it's listed.

Since we have lived in our present house for 39 years,my story isn't too relevant. It was the worst time of the year to buy a house in 1983 but when this historic house came on the market we bought it because there were other offers. The interest rates were horrendous back then, and the former owner wanted us to have it so she clued us an offer was coming in the next morning so our realtor and we sat up till midnight to make the decision. After painting the historic house while it was empty, we moved and left the home in the suburbs empty. It sat that way till the following spring. Apparently, we had the thermostat set too low and a pipe broke in the powder room so that was a problem. We were only six miles away though. Our present house could never be sold as it is because it doesn't present with the minimalist look people want today.

I find this thread unfamiliar. Here few people could afford to move before they've sold their old home. You might be forced to take out the dreaded ’bridging loan’ or rent temporarily but these are rarely active choices. We don't do ‘open houses’ as a rule. People just make an appointment and you or the agent show them round your house. You would tidy up a bit but there’s no ’staging’.

We sold at the end of 2019, without another house lined up. We lived in my in-laws' house for several months while they traveled. We moved most of our "stuff" into storage, but left our furniture and planned to continue living in the house while it was on the market. We had it professionally staged, which was livable.

As it turned out, we had two showings and two offers, and it sold in the first weekend. We had to leave it staged until the due diligence period was up, just in case the offer fell through. I removed some of the more ridiculous decor from the counters, and we worked around the rest.

Funny story: when we were starting the process, I thought I made it clear to my husband that I preferred to move out before the house was listed. The only other house we sold was on the market for a couple of months, and I didn't want to deal with that. He said OK. When we were in the throes of packing up, i said that he was going to have to pick up the pace getting his garage cleared out. He looked af me blankly and said that could wait until the house was sold. What?? Seems his idea of us moving out was to take his clothes and toothbrush and go live somewhere else. He had no vision of leaving it empty. 🤪

We stayed.

Where I live the housing market is so fired up, you could probably do whatever you want and get away with it and still come out ahead.

A house down the street from me was listed for sale last summer. It is just a small weekend or vacation cabin built in the middle of the last century that had been empty and abandoned for at least the last 10 years I have lived in the area. All they did to it before listing was to clear away the tangle of ivy and blackberries that pretty much blocked any access to it. There was nothing inside....and I mean nothing. No appliances, just an empty counter in the kitchen and a room that was obviously meant to be a bathroom but with NO fixtures...just plumbing connections. An obvious teardown, the house sold after 2 days for $985K!! I should mention that it is technically a 'waterfront' property, as there is just a road between it and the beach (Puget Sound). I'm sure that prompted a strong interest in the property if not the house itself :-)

The kicker is the house went back on the market again earlier this year........nothing had been touched. Again, it sold in a matter of a couple of days and this time for $1.4 million!! Not a bad profit for just holding the property for 6 months!!

Granted, beachfront properties here do go for a premium but any house on the island will sell fast and for a serious price tag. Bidding wars are common and properties are often sold for much more than the asking price. Lots of cash buyers.

I don't know how any first time buyers can afford to buy a house in this day and age. At least not where I live! Average sale price is $800K and the current highest priced listing is $9.8 million (also beachfront).

I had three small children when selling. Try and keep THAT house walk through clean! Ours sold the first day on the market. 10 people came through that evening. Multiple offers by 10PM. This market--the 'keeping it clean' should be a one two day deal tops.

We've only sold twice. Both times we had our next home lined up, so we had double house payments for only a month or two. We decluttered extensively but didn't move out until the house sold. Both times it was a revelation, how spacious and pleasant a minimally decorated house can be, wow! but that's not us, long term.

In today's hot market, if your home is in a moderate neighborhood, "move in ready" and not ridiculously overpriced, it'll sell overnight. Empty and clean is great, no need to stage.

We moved out and sold our "old" house about a week after we put it on the market, four months later. We did minimal repairs and cleaned it to within an inch of its life. We sold in a very slow market, for full asking price, in cash.

My last house, that I lived in scenario:

The realtor hired a stager/free to us. We rented a storage unit and removed everything in the living room except 2 wingback chairs, and piles of cute pillows. We lived there, but, left during showings. The feed back we got was they HATED the carpet. It was dated/brass faucets. Hand shower in master, they wanted a shower stall. The woods surrounding the house were unmitigated/fire hazard.

On Thursday, I ripped out ALL the upstairs carpet. Rolled it up. Hauled it off. Friday I went to Lumber Liquidators & purchased Laminated hickory flooring, hauled it home. By Sunday the flooring was down. .89cents a sq ft. It sold Monday.

@summersrhythm_z6a...not ALL houses make good rentals. This was a high maintenance house.

I still don't understand how you manage to move out before the house is sold. How do you pay for the next house or accommodation? People here don't expect a house to be pristine when they view. They're looking at the house, not the contents or the lifestyle of the inhabitants. Don't people see that it's staged and not realistic? One of the things that attracted me when viewing my current home was a note stuck on the fridge from one of the kids to their mother. It made the house seem like a place one could live with a normal messy family.

@floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK...."if" people don't have enough money to purchase the next house before the one they're living in is sold....they take out a "Bridge loan". They pay it off when the house sells. A lot of people own more than one home tho. With mortgage interest rates so low.....some even take out loans on ALL their homes.

I've sold empty. First house was first MIL's- she moved out and into care and we took over the house for a while. When we purchased our house (it was empty), MIL's house was emptied out and cleaned for sale. When I sold the house we had bought, I sold it almost empty. Left behind a large entertainment unit, a couple chairs, and all the appliances. I had moved in with my second husband and held onto my empty house for a while before selling it. We then moved into our current home (it was empty). When his home was sold I assume it was empty- it was a 2 unit he purchased with a couple and things went south with them after we moved out. That ended in a divorce and the house going to the bank, and banks usually don't stage houses.

While house shopping, I've only been in empty or occupied places for live shopping. Open houses have often been staged. Messy and occupied didn't bother me- I could see past that to when it was gone and it was my mess instead. But there were a couple houses that were dirty- like fixer-upper level dirty. Those were a hard pass. And one that was nice- but it was the neighbors that were so gross I knew I couldn't live there.

"You would tidy up a bit but there’s no ’staging’."

Ah, those were the days! The days before house porn, before Instagram and websites promoted the Photoshopped perfection that purported to be real life.

"I don't know how any first time buyers can afford to buy a house in this day and age. At least not where I live! Average sale price is $800K and the current highest priced listing is $9.8 million (also beachfront)."

No kidding! Here, the median cost per square foot for a condo apartment is about $1000 right now, which is why new condo builds here are getting smaller and smaller. The average price of a semi-detached house in Toronto is $1.3M, and the average price of a detached house is over $2M. It's shameful, honestly. We do have some mansions on the market for over $20M, but those are outliers - each over 5000 sq ft, on 2 or 3 acres.

We sold our house about 23 years ago. Left all the furnishings in it and left when they had a showing, We had a clause on it that we would not vacate for three months (When H took retirement.) It sold quite fast and we ended up paying the buyer rent. Only for one month because with vacation time we could retire early. We were having a new house being built and were able to move in although the workers still had some things to do. worked out fine for us

The market around me is so hot I think you could sell the home with a dead body inside.

I've sold empty once, only because I had become severely allergic to my cats and couldn't abide living there. The buyer mildly redecorated with beautiful antiques and re-sold for a 30% net gain six months later.

We intend to sell our current home empty of us, but staged with remnants of our furniture.

Just like we bought it from the p.o.

(p.s. The cats were safely re-located.)

Yes - we put ours on the market the day we moved out. Fortunately we were in a position to do this without mortgages. Based on input from our realtor, we took what furniture we needed to live in our new house along with everything he recommended we get out of the place. So we left a few pieces of furniture - no staging. We didn't do much else to get it ready to put it on the market other than removing wallpaper in a guestroom and hallway and repainting that area and replacing some rotten boards on our deck. I even left the pheasant border up in the family room. I guess the buyer liked it because when the house went on the market again a few years later it was still there. We didn't sell during a hot market and our house was pretty unusual so we thought it might be for sale for months. Fortunately it sold in three weeks and we were completely out two months after we listed it.

We bought our current house before we sold our previous house. There was 1 1/2 weeks between closings that our old house was empty. I worried about people going in stripping the copper out of it. Copper was high at the time and copper stripping was rampant.

Yes, our last move, we sold our house after we'd moved out. We hadn't been house hunting when DH found a house he wanted. Badly wanted. I hadn't been thinking of moving and had some updating and much purging to do. Happily there was no mortgage on our smaller home, we moved and I took almost 6 months to ready it for sale. Most I did, some was contracted. It was only a few minutes away.

I didn't fully stage it, just a few pieces of furniture and plenty of lamps (floor and table) on the chance there were evening showings. The floor plan was pretty straight forward and no need to show how spaces could be used.

It sold the first week listed. Happily, as my insurance company had just informed me they would cancel policy at the end of that month, they didn't offer coverage for unoccupied homes.

There's also the opposite problem. A family member moved to a new city, intending to rent for a year and buy a house at the end of their lease term. Too busy to go looking until now. Their landlord, who once had said that a month-to-month extension after the first year would be okay, now has said no, either re-up for another 12 months or move out.

floral, we both know the UK and the US are different in many ways relating to customs and practices. In my relative's case, should they not be able to find and then close on a purchase in time, they'll put their stuff into storage and move into a VRBO home. Owners of such places are thrilled to have tenants staying for more than a week or two at a time and rates are usually reduced from what's charged for more short term stays.

If I could afford it, I'd move out before I put my house on the market. I'd love for someone to come stage it. I'd have to win the lottery, so that's not happening.

TV, it’s been awhile but we bought our current home before putting the other on the market. We spent a few months doing some upgrades on the new home and sprucing up the old before putting it up for sale. It was paid for so we didn’t have two mortgages but there were carrying costs - taxes, insurance, utilities, etc.

FWIW - We had our largest monthly utility bill in 20 years when our house was vacant and up for sale. It was common practice for agents to turn on all the lights and the HVAC system to the most extreme setting for the season. It was just as common for them to not turn anything off when leaving.

We did not stage the home.

Yeah, realtors seem to be notorious for leaving lights on. When our house was for sale I went back over there after every showing to turn off the stuff they left on. A house for sale with lights on all night is a sitting duck for crime in my opinion.

I meant to say one other thing, if anyone hasn't sold a home in a while, this market is not like any other. In Nashville, you can't even get your house on the market, it's sold before it gets there! Don't depend on what you've done in the past, and think it's going to happen in current day.

Best of luck to all sellers!

We had moved into our current home before selling the previous one (no mortgage on it). I realize that's not always possible, but it sure made things easier The house was completely empty when it hit the market. That was 2013 and there was a major bidding war. The house sold in 5 days for well over the asking price. Potential buyers wrote letters to us thinking it would persuade us to choose them. The down side was we were also in a bidding war with the purchase of our current home. Luckily, we got it. Our current house was also empty when it went on the market.

FYI - I just met with my selling agent, and he will stage the place after I've moved out. I broached the subject and he jumped right in with the suggestion. At his cost.

Well, there you have it. Good for you!

TV, here in Toronto most people I know buy first, because they know someone who sold first but then couldn't find a new home they really liked in time, and ended up in a pickle. Homes in our neighbourhood are selling for way over ask, within days of being listed, even ones with original builder grade features, (so never renovated) and no staging. I'd bet on it your house will be snapped up while you're still trying to find a new one, but at least you can stay at your cottage if that happens.

@Toronto Veterinarian...One of the houses I sold, the buyer asked to buy my duvet cover/shams and house plants! 😁 The buyer said his wife left instructions to pay me whatever I asked. Then THREE years later the buyer contacted me saying the dry cleaners had ruined the duvet cover and was claiming it was hand painted. 🤩 Your going to miss out on ALL the drama. lol

Not long after gutting much my bathroom I bought another house and gutted much of that down to the studs, including kitchen, bathroom, removed walls, etc. The renovation of my forever house was slow and took a little over a year after which I then moved in. A year later the old house was finally readied for market and closed 4 months later.

Well, this thread moved fast. Best of luck TV, hope it sells quick for the price you want!!

Rob, houses here are actually sold without even going through it. Strictly from the listing. Nuts.

We’ve bought our past three houses with bridge loans, so we’ve moved into the new house before listing the old. We have a child with special health needs, so house-buying and moving has always had additional considerations to factor in.

Said kiddo is now off at college and doing really well, and we’re just about to launch into the house buying/selling process (hopefully for the last time for a really long time). Our current house is 100 years old and quirky, and we’re not entirely convinced that it will sell quickly even in a relatively hot market. We’ve got a storage unit that we’ve been slowly moving unneeded stuff into and we’re considering listing the house and moving into an Air BnB until it sells. We have a small dog, which might complicate that plan, but so far it’s the best we’ve come up with. I just don’t want to be left with two mortgage payments for a long time if our current house takes a while to sell.

The plan as it stands now is that we completely move out and have the house stage. List it on a Thursday and have open houses on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (our realtor suggested this). I’m hoping, of course, for multiple offers by Monday, but I’m not counting on it.

Good luck to you! This stuff is stressful.

We've only sold 2 homes, and the first one never went on the market with a realtor because we were approached by a developer who wanted to buy our property so he could couple it with one next door to us that would give him enough road frontage for commerical development (it was an early 1900's Colonial on a busy road) and we said "OK"!! We moved from our 2nd house to a vacation home in 1999. Staging properties weren't really a thing then, but our realtor did have a few open houses and keeping the place show worthy was a real PIA because we were both working fulltime and had to board our cat - but we sold in short time and with no problems. She was a real barracuda. We gave her power of attorney to represent us at the closing, and the parents of the couple who bought it had so many nitpicking issues our realtor basically told them that if they didn't sign the papers, they would lose their deposit and she would put the house back on the market the next day because we had another place to live and really didn't need their offer. I loved that woman...

No, I have purchased a new house before selling the old house, but I have done "staging" for real estate agents. A couple of times I have suggested to agents and sellers to show the house empty (and clean, clean). Of course with all the chat about how important it is to get the house stage ready, it caused raised eyebrows. One agent took my advice and showed the home totally empty. And I mean empty, as in no toilet paper on the holder. House sold at first open house. There are lots of savvy buyers who do not care where a sofa is positioned. They see all the possibilities without help.

Last time I moved it was across country. Sold one home, moved into temporary housing until I could close on the next home. Took less than 2 months.

Just an update, if anyone's following: It took over a week to get it staged and listed, but then I sold it in 4 days for a little more than I was hoping for. Happy all 'round.

Congrats! That was super fast!

Fantastic Toronto Vet! Bet you’re glad to be through that gauntlet!

Sounds great!!!