Selling your home with all, or most of your furniture, could be a great way to transition to a new place. If you are looking to start with a clean slate in your next home, it’s a great way to part ways with your existing furnishings without holding a separate contents sale. The viability of selling your house and its contents is as much your buyer’s decision as yours, but if the opportunity presents itself, what would you do?

Staging

There are many real estate professionals who partner with home staging pros who have a keen eye for interior design. Furniture in a home helps most potential buyers visualize how much space is available in your home, and what living in your house would be like. If your furniture is clean, modern and conservative, it makes your house feel warm, inviting and more like home than just a building. Furniture in a home can help a potential buyer to estimate how their furniture will fit in the space.

You might be attached to your plaid loveseat and faux-leather sofa bed, but a buyer might find them tacky, and the idea of having to drag your old furniture to the trash could be a deterrent to a purchase. Consult with your real estate professional to find out if your furniture would be a motivator or a deterrent to getting offers on your house.

Vacation Getaways or Second Homes

If you are selling a vacation property or a second home, you should consider selling the place with fixtures, furniture, and décor. Potential buyers often don’t have furniture for a cabin or beach house and are generally more amenable to pre-owned furniture.

For primary residences, buyers generally want to bring their own style and energy to a space because they will spend more time there, and have their friends and family over to visit.

Take the Stress Out of the Moving Experience

Moving into a new (or pre-owned) empty home can be scary. Experts say it is one of the most stressful life events people have. Thinking about all the work they’ll need to do to move their own furniture can be nerve-racking, while “move-in-ready” home could make the transition less difficult.

If you have quality furniture but aren’t interested in moving it, consider offering price options for selling your home furnished or unfurnished. If you live in a remote area, or your house is suited to first-time home buyers, it could be a motivation to get a deal done. But don’t bet on getting a high dollar amount for your furniture, and be sure to offer an option for the just the home and basic fixtures.

Many banks won’t allow for the value of furniture to be added to a mortgage, so consider a separate bill of sale if your buyer wants to take possession of your items with your property at closing.

Before making any significant decisions on preparing and listing your home for sale, contact a local office near you for advice.

Will Furnishings Add Dollar Value to the Deal?

Like so many questions in real estate, it depends. Your own furniture, appliances, and electronics might be very valuable to you, though the buyer might feel they are doing you a favor by keeping these items, and they could negotiate their value out of the sale.

Staged homes may spend less time on the market compared to unstaged homes, and sell for a higher price. Note that this increase is for staged furniture as opposed to pre-owned furniture. A related NAR study found that the cost of staging is usually between 1-3 percent of the sale price of a home, so there is potential for significant profitability.

If you store your own household possessions and rent staging furniture, you benefit from the upscale presentation of strategically placed items and a fresh, on-trend appearance. Even if you don’t increase the dollar value of your home with staging pieces, home staging can help buyers visualize a house as their future home and you may get more offers and sell your home faster.

Furniture Can Make a House Feel Bigger

You’d think that a room with sofas, tables and/or wall units in it would feel smaller, but the opposite seems to hold true. Furnishings can stir the imagination, such as a kids bunk bed in a room, a dining room table. Personal items like photographs should be stored out of sight, but clean, modern pieces add character and even depth to a room that a bare floor cannot.

Furniture can add impact to photos on your broker’s website, MLS, or printed promotional materials. An empty room doesn’t carry any emotional motivation, whereas a furnished room makes a buyer feel like they could move in immediately.

Before you make up your mind, be sure to review these five advantages of selling a furnished home, and five reasons you might want to load up a moving van and take all of your possessions with you.