If you’re weighing the options of selling your home while still living there or after you’ve moved, consider the pros and cons of both. There’s no blanket right or wrong answer for all homes. Several key factors can make either option more advantageous.
Pros for Selling Your Occupied Home
1. Your home shows better. Buyers want to feel “this is it” when they walk through the door. A home that is well staged, free of clutter, clean, and bright typically sells quicker and often for more than a similar house full of empty rooms. Staging helps the buyer visualize living there. The more appealing and inviting the home, the more buyers will want it.
2. You’re there to handle repairs or emergencies. If an appliance needs repair or a water pipe breaks, you’re home and can handle whatever comes up just as you normally would. Emergencies do come up in vacant homes, which is more difficult to handle from a different city or even from a different neighborhood.
3. Your home is less of a target for criminals. Provided you do not have open houses (which can be invitations for crime), an occupied house is not the same type of target for criminal activity as a vacant home, which can face stolen copper pipes, vandalism, or squatters.
Cons for Selling Your Occupied Home
1. You need to keep your home clean and well-staged. It’s tough to tuck away kid and adult clutter around the clock. Also keeping kitchens spotless after preparing meals and eating there every day can be somewhat of a challenge. Every time you receive a showing request, you need to ensure the house is clean and picked up, which can be very challenging for some families.
2. You need to leave your home for showings. Buyers want the freedom to view your home without the pressure of feeling like they’re imposing. Every time you get the request to show, you’ll have to go elsewhere, even when you just want to curl up on the couch.
3. Unattended clutter or hoarding issues can’t be hidden. If you did not take the time to purge clutter or move it to another site, you might be better off selling the home vacant. Whether the clutter is moderate or extreme, buyers will be turned off.
Pros for Selling a Vacant Home
1. Showings are far easier to schedule. Realtors® juggle all sorts of logistics to get buyers to a property at a particular time. If yours is vacant, an appointment can usually be set quite quickly, even as an add-on if a list of scheduled showings were not appealing to the buyers. This could help your home get viewed more often by a larger pool of buyers.
2. You don’t have to keep cleaning. Once all your things are gone, you’ll give your vacant home a deep clean and mostly be done. There may be some maintenance issues to attend to regularly, but you won’t be interrupting your life daily as you would be if still living there.
3. You don’t have to adjust your schedule for showings. When you’re already living elsewhere, you’ll still be notified of showings, but you can stay right where you are. It’s nice not having the interruptions.
4. A vacant home is sometimes better for the buyer. Many buyers have a tough time visualizing their own things in an occupied home because the furniture is laid out poorly for them or it’s a totally different style than theirs. For such a buyer, the vacant home offers a blank slate and better reveals the promise for their individual style.
Cons for Selling a Vacant Home
1. Vacant may translate to urgent. Buyers assume that a vacant home means the seller holds two mortgages and is in an urgent situation to sell. When buyers sniff urgency, they start with lower offers. Everyone wants a deal, right?
2. It’s hard to convey hominess. Let’s face it—a vacant home can’t offer the warmth and good vibes that a well-staged home with furniture and décor can. Many buyers are able to look past this because they’re focused on layout and space. But some will leave with a blah feel because they were unable to visualize the possibilities.
3. Vacant homes attract crime. As stated previously, criminals target vacant homes. The For Sale sign is an indicator that the home might be vacant. It only takes a short time to confirm no one lives there anymore. Although you might think thieves don’t have much to get away with in a vacant home, they still go after copper piping (which is expensive) or other fixtures. Also, some just want to vandalize property or hang out in free space.
4. Buyers are turned off by too cold or too hot. Many sellers with a vacant home are carrying two mortgages and want to keep their energy bills low on the vacant house. So they leave the thermostat set too high in the summer or too low in the winter. Unfortunately, being thrifty could hurt the sale of your home because buyers are uncomfortably hot or cold. You’re better off heating or cooling the house in a seasonably appropriate way. Comfortable buyers will want to stay longer to appreciate your home’s value. Perhaps invest in a thermostat control device that allows you to automate temperature highs and lows.
5. You must rely on others to notice and report anything that goes wrong. If your home suffers any storm damage, flooding, or vandalism, you won’t know it until someone brings it to your attention. If you’re out of town or live a significant distance from your vacant home, it’s best to have someone you know (or hire) to check on it weekly. (This likely won’t be your Realtor® as he or she is in the business of selling, not maintaining your home.)
Remember, each option comes with responsibility on your part to make it worthwhile. If selling occupied, you need to keep the home in a neat, presentable condition for buyers. If selling vacant, you need to keep the home maintained and insured properly. Also, if vacant, ask neighbors to keep an eye out for crime and have someone trustworthy check on the home weekly. No matter what option you choose, a skilled Realtor® will be able to guide you on the best way to market your home.