Professional house flippers are an independent minded community. Everyone has their own preference for properties to flip, favorite contractors to work with, and personal vision for renovations. With this incredible diversity between styles and methods, it’s no wonder there are dozens of unique tips and tricks for choosing, renovating, and selling flips out there but some are stranger than others. While you may all go through the process differently, from property selection to the final touches, every flipper finds themselves at the final stage with all other home sellers: the housing market. Selling your flip is the last hurdle to overcome and sometimes it’s harder than you think it should be, given how much work and creativity you’ve already put in. That said, nothing sells a flip better than beautiful pictures, which look best with some cozy furniture to help buyers imagine themselves living in the space.
“But furniture is expensive,” you say, ”and I’ll only have to move it out for the buyer anyway.”
This is exactly the point! Buying furniture to stage a flip isn’t as crazy as it sounds because you don’t have to leave it with the house. This trick works especially well if you tend to work on properties that are all in the same region, say, no more than a two-hour drive from the city you primarily live in. This trick even works if you tend to live in your flips during renovations because it makes them look nice and clean instead of actually lived-in. Here’s how it works:
The Furniture Staging Scheme
For this trick, all you need is a set of nice-looking but fairly generic furniture and a self-storage locker. While you’re renovating, store the furniture in the locker and make sure it’s climate-controlled enough not to damage your furniture investment. Work on the home and even live in it if you want, with no obligation to use nice things that will stage well later on.
Then, when you’re ready to take the promotional pictures, move all the renovation supplies and your personal stuff out, store it in the locker, and bring out the staging furniture. Snap the pictures and leave the furniture in place for viewings and just in case buyers want follow-up detail shots. Then, when you’re signing the paperwork, move the staging furniture back into the storage locker for the next project. Rinse, repeat.
What You’ll Need
You know your style best, and this should inform the kind of staging furniture you buy, but the set will need to include a few housing basics. Ikea, Walmart, and other discount furniture venues are your friend here because the items don’t need to be sturdy, just attractive. You probably want to include:
- Bedframe, Mattress, and Bedding (skip the box springs)
- Couch, Chair, and Coffee Table for the living room
- Bar Stools for the Kitchen
- Shower Curtain
- Dining Table and Chairs (can be small)
- Deck Chair for the Patio
Finally, don’t forget the usual staging-trick accessories like wooden spoons and hot-pads for the kitchen, a toothbrush for the bathroom, throw rugs, picture frames, curtains, and a book or two for flavor. These are all easily stored in a single box along with your furniture. As long as you choose universal materials like wrought iron, the items will look good in any flip you want to sell in the future.
Flipping old houses into something any family would love to live in is a unique combination of skill and art. While you may be a pro at selection, design, and renovation, selling is almost always the final slow-down. With this awesome little trick, you can spend a thousand or two on cheap furniture once and significantly boost the ease with which you sell every flip after that. For more intriguing and helpful advice for selling your next flip, contact us today!