It's always nice to see a home furnished. Many people just can't visualize where furniture will go, especially if there are some questionable awkward areas.

When a house is empty, it tends to feel like it is on the market longer than it really is.

That said, if you can't leave furniture, it would not be a deal breaker if it's a desirable house. I notice that many realtors are decorating homes virtually.

You see the rooms empty, then you see them decorated, to give you an idea of the space.

Your home will have the pictures of it furnished, so buyers can still have an idea of where to put things.

Talk to your realtor. If it is a desirable house in the right market he may be willing to stage it if you need you stuff.

There is a service (Showhomes) that stages and moves a person into empty for sale properties. The person living in the house keeps it clean and ready to show potential buyers at all times. The person living in the house pays the utility bills and takes care of lawn care. The house next door to me is now staged and occupied by a Showhomes person. She is living in a nice home, the owner knows the house is always ready to show. Link below.

Showhomes article link

Thank you everyone for your advice. I think our home is fairly straightforward in regard to the function of each room. On the main floor we have well-defined living and dining rooms, kitchen and family room, plus office and powder room. Upstairs, we clearly have a master plus secondary bedrooms and one additional bath.

I do wonder if it would help if we left just a few things behind. We are taking our dining room table, but not the table in the breakfast nook, which is good sized. We could leave that table behind. We could also leave a couple chairs and maybe a few bookshelves. Just don't know if that would look more or less awkward than an empty room. I will speak with our realtor and ask for suggestions.

The Showrooms service sounds interesting, but after spending so much building a new home we're trying to watch our pennies. OTOH, it would certainly take a lot of stress off me, plus a little added security with someone living there and not having an empty house sitting there. I will look into it.

Just reporting back that Showhomes is strictly an East Coast franchise at this time. An interesting concept, but probably out of my league.

Get the house decluttered, and then take pictures with your furniture, effectively staging it. Then use those pictures for the listing, even after you continue to more your things out.

Unless you are selling a premium property, I wouldn't worry too much.

For the more median market, our realtor said that about half the house hunters out there actually prefer a sparse to empty house, spotlessly clean. So they can visualize their own stuff in there without distraction. But the other half seem to be unable to visualize space and need a little help. For example, if the bedrooms appear small, having a bed in there to show that, yes, this is a bedroom, and a bed fits. Likewise unusual shaped or sized spaces. We left a custom sectional in the family room to show how the odd shape could be made to work for tv viewing.

But in most cases, (i.e. not 'luxury' properties) it's easy to have too much. Better to have too little.

Why don't you stage it?

Just a warning...make sure to check with your insurance agent about your policy concerning moving everything out. Sometimes there is a vacant exclusion. If you move out of your property and don't notify your insurance agent or company that it's sitting vacant, even while trying to sell it, sometimes claims for property damage or liability under the insurance policy can be excluded or constitute insurance fraud. Of course laws are different in every state and with each insurer.

This happened to someone I know. They moved out to sell their house while living somewhere else. They didn't know to talk to their insurer, and the insurer dropped their insurance policy when they found out. It became very expensive for them to find another insurer, especially since it took months to sell the property. So, I would make sure to check with your agent so you don't have any problems there. The only houses I've seen completely empty are the brand new ones, and foreclosure. Most people leave a little something in each room except maybe the bedrooms.

The only houses I've seen completely empty are the brand new ones, and foreclosure.

I guess it depends on the market. I see empty houses for sale here all the time, but then our market is so hot that there's hardly ever time to stage anything unless you are hugely overpriced.

We moved out and then put our house on the market. We left just a few pieces of furniture behind as recommended by our realtor and things we could get along without for a while. We had all hard surface floors so we left area rugs, one bedroom, dining room, some loft furniture and a couple chairs and armoire in the living room. Our photos were taken after we moved. I thought it would look very sparse and bare but it was surprisingly good. I think a totally empty house exposes all the flaws. Maybe yours is in perfect condition. Ours was 40+ years old and showed some signs of its age. Yes you move twice but you're moving the same amount of stuff.

The only issue I had was that I had to go over there and turn off the lights that were left on after every showing. Lights on 24 hrs a day for days along with a for sale sign is a dead giveaway that the house is not occupied. I did have some lights in the house on timers so it wasn't dark all the time either - another sign no one's home.

I'm kinda opinionated-I think a furnished place(unless it's poorly furnished) will look better than the empty one. Empty places always look smaller. No exception. Except maybe for nature: fields and seas..:) Human eye needs something to stop and focus on, to register the distance..

Unfortunately we might need to list our place empty..I'm so much against it but my husband refuses to do everything at once..he wants to move, then to clean, prepare, list..

I might need to leave some things..maybe even just some decor. Or: we'll have to stage it. Even though I'm sure my place would look the best as it is right now:)

I don't know about putting photos with furniture, and then buyers see the empty space..I saw one space like this when house hunting. It was too small for us it was the main reason we didn't put an offer in; but it also became apparent the kitchen is in awful condition, and the whole place just was unkempt. It was expensive enough to buy it and then fix it up. I think I'd be less disappointed if there was no discrepancy between the listing and the real thing..maybe we'd be more open to work with it, after all(the location was fab, very desired neighborhood, and it was the cheapest house there). It took a long time to sell this one, and they reduced their price more and more until somebody bought it,

Having said that: I saw plenty of places that were shown empty, including in our own community..I didn't count their days on the market, but they were eventually bought at a nice price.

Just wrote and long response and neglected to click on "submit." Essentially, thank you for all the tips and reminders. I would prefer to sell, then move, but it's not an option in this case. We have a multiply handicapped child who would not be able to tolerate strangers coming in and out of our home.

Phoebe, thank you for the reminder about the home insurance. I am aware of this because I spoke with my realtor about our plans to build and relocate. We discussed that issue at that time, and I will discuss it again with him when the time comes to move into our new home. But I appreciate your mentioning it because that would not be something I would want to fail to attend to.

I am leaning toward leaving some furniture behind, but we will have to take at least some pieces (i.e., beds) to the new home right away. I'll speak with my realtor about that as well. We have some friends who have returned from living overseas living with us right now. It is possible they could stay here for a while after we move so that the house would still be occupied. Not sure how our timing for that is going to work out, though. Also, we won't be that far away in our new home, so we can easily check on the empty house at least once a day.

I'd just offer that being able to move to the new home at your leisure before listing the old home is probably the least stressful approach. I'd consider yourself fortunate you are able to go that route. Moving into temporary housing or a hotel with your belongings in storage is difficult. Trying to time the sale of the old house to coincide with the close of the new house within a few days is also stressful.

Talk to your realtor. I think there's a different answer on staging depending upon whether you expect multiple offers within a week; an offer within 30 days; or the house to sit for months until the "right buyer" comes along.

It really depends on the neighborhood and how the house is furnished. In my neighborhood, even the most beautifully furnished homes are hard to sell unless they're decorated like HGTV. Antiques? A deal breaker. Houses in my highly desirable neighborhood are being purchased by young buyers and they don't own or like antiques or traditional furnishings. They can't get beyond the furniture. So realtors tell their buyers to move everything out, remove ALL wallpaper (no matter how beautiful or expensive), and then paint all the room in neutral colors and refinish floors if needed (at least polish). Young buyers find that far easier to imagine THEIR furniture in the house.

The insrance requirement may be met by leaving furniture enough that a person could live there -- your table and chairs, a bed in one bedroom, a few clothes hanging in a closet, (maybe the fridge?), and then returning to the home periodically. It can't be vacant though. You have to be occupying it to some degree. Here, I believe a policy cancels after 60 days of being vacant, but your area may be different. The time you expect your home to be on the market AND get to closing, would need to fit within that time frame. You want to avoid losing the homeonwer's policy -- a fire policy or mortgage company's forced replacement policy will be more expensive for less coverage.

We bought our home when the previous elderly owner went to a nursing home. The only furniture left in the house was a comfortable chair and a standing lamp (which was on a timer for evening lighting). We would have bought the house empty or not, but the reading chair was a really nice touch. All that to say, if you just leave a few pieces, it can help if they make the place more homey.

Thank you, c9pilot. You have offered many useful suggestions that I will discuss with my realtor.

When I bought my smaller home I found it helpful that a dining set was still in the dining room, and a sofa was in the living room, even though the house was otherwise vacant. It gave me a sense of the space that might have seemed smaller (and it is a small place) without the furnishings.

Good idea, Raee. I could easily do that, as we are moving from a home with separate living room and family room, as well as an eating area in the kitchen plus formal dining room. I could leave the dining room table (which we could take to the new house later), as well as the one in the kitchen. I will be using both sofas in our great room, but could leave one in the dining room, plus a couple accent chairs in the family room. Then maybe use c9pilot's idea of fake beds in some of the bedrooms

My son staged his home with an air bed and headboard covered with an inexpensive but trending colors bed set Two chairs with cosy light and table in living room and dining table. He also left a few neutral but well placed pictures on some walls. Looked much warmer and welcoming than completely empty. Sold pretty fast at asking. Only took his pickup truck and a few minutes to remove after sale.