Furniture pieces and fixtures help tell a story for your potential buyers when selling your home. Unfortunately, buyers may be led to believe that these are also included in the house you are selling.
Furniture and fixtures do a great thing of attracting potential buyers. As previously reported here on Realty Today, home staging is one of the things that sellers often do in order to boost their chances of selling their houses.
In home staging, you need to tell a story in order to invite prospective buyers into directly viewing your home. You also need to stage your home so that you can give the buyers a chance to visualize themselves living in your space.
Unfortunately, some buyers may visualize themselves living in your space so much that they even imagine owning some of the furniture and fixtures included in the images. As Trulia reported, some buyers may find themselves liking certain fixtures and may end up asking the sellers for it.
This may cause problems with sellers who are only looking into selling the house and not the furniture and fixtures in it. Fixtures, however, almost always stay with the next owner of the house because removing it may cause damage.
"The general rule of thumb is this: If it takes a screwdriver to remove the item, it is generally considered a fixture of the property," said real estate agent Jeff Knox.
In cases wherein the buyer may find themselves aiming for one of the fixtures and furniture, you may choose to sell the item at an additional price or you may choose to find another buyer altogether. These things can be coordinated with your real estate agent and the buyer's agent.
Knox, however, suggested on selling these items at the proper time.
"Do not ever advertise that you are willing to see or leave any items with the home until you agree to a price on the home during contract negotiations," he said.
