Is It Better To Sell My Home Vacant Or Occupied?

Hey there!!! So one question I get asked when I meet with my clients is, "is it better to sell my home vacant or occupied with me living in it?"

Selling While Living/Occupying a Home

I would say 95% of my clients are actually living in their home and occupying the home when we go live and on the market.  To prepare, they go through their staging appointment, the home looks great in photos, and then they're able to accommodate showings.

Having the home occupied during the listing process in no way negatively affects the chances of selling the home unless you are not able to accommodate showings and vacate the home during the showings.

If you aren't able to accommodate showings due to some kind of special circumstance, then it may be best to look at options to vacate the home during the listing process.

Rarely does this happen as we are usually able to come up with a solution for our clients.

Benefits of Selling a Home Occupied

If you are living in your home while it's on the market there are some benefits to both you and the potential buyers.  First of all, having your home professionally staged allows the buyer to see the home and really get a great sense of how they would be able to use the space and it usually gets them more emotional about the home versus just empty rooms.

A benefit for you would be that you're not disrupting your family before you sell your home.  Sure you have showings but those are generally on the weekend and a handful will be during the week or evenings but you'll have visibility into what appointments you have for the day and have the ability to accept, decline, or reschedule based on your availability to accommodate the showing.

Selling a Home Vacant

If for some reason, maybe you're relocating or you're moving into your new home before you close on your old home, or maybe you have the ability to move out and stay with family or friends, and want to sell the home vacant, that's totally fine too.

When we meet, we'll talk about our strategy regarding what furniture we recommend you leave at the house for photos, and if we recommend leaving that furniture in place during the showings depending on your situation.

Usually we recommend at a minimum trying to have some furniture in the photos so that buyers can get a sense of space, kind of like a model home and really see how you utilize the space in the home.  If that's not possible and the home is totally empty (some of my clients are landlords and their renters have moved out and the home is empty) then I'll have my professional stager come in and do what's called vignetting and she'll add some things to each room to "warm them up" for photos.

If we are selling a home vacant, I'll sometimes recommend that the walls all get a fresh coat of paint, and we'll want to make sure the floors are in great order because the thing you have to remember is that if you are selling your home vacant and there is no furniture in the home, the entire home is even more on display compared to if you had furniture in the home.  We'll want to make sure it feels even "cleaner and fresher" than normal so buyers aren't distracted by discolored carpet from where the sofa was or paint touchups that need to be made but that was behind a headboard.

Benefits of Selling a Home Vacant

If you are selling the home vacant, it can make it easier from the standpoint that you're not having to approve showings and grab the dog and the kids if you're in the middle of dinner or be out of the house for extended periods of time during high traffic showing days.

While you will be notified in advance of showings, selling the home vacant would allow you to alleviate any of that stress or just want to be out of the house and be done with everything, then showing a vacant home is no problem.

Regardless of if your home is vacant or occupied while it's on the market, rest assured that we'll guide you through the entire process and discuss your options so that we can market the home in the best way possible and have the best strategy to sell your home.