Sell Furnished or Unfurnished: Is That The Question?

•  Furnished – All furniture stays with the house
• Partly Furnished – Only some furniture stays with the house
• Unfurnished – No furniture stays with the house
• Turnkey – All furniture and furnishings stay with the house
• Negotiable – Some furniture may stay, all furniture could stay, everything could stay, no furniture could stay. It will depend on the price.

If any furniture is to stay, an inventory list will be drawn up and signed by both parties.

Will selling your home furnished help you sell your home faster?  The answer is maybe.  More importantly, I believe it is more important to have furniture in the home while it is being sold. Let’s take a look at the following photos:

 This is a living room that is unfurnished.  It has been freshly painted and has new carpeting but there is no furniture in this unit.

 This unit is the exact same model with furniture.

This is unit is also the exact same model as the two above.

All three of these units are the exact same floor plan but look at the difference paint and furniture can make!  If you are a Pelican Bay Seller who is attempting to sell a unit that has no furniture in it, you may want to consider renting some furniture while you are selling your unit.  Renting furniture and staging the furniture could help your unit sell faster.  In the 31 years I have been selling real estate, I have found that most Buyers have a hard time picturing how furniture can be placed in a home.  When a home is void of furniture, it is less "homey" and welcoming to a Buyer.  Take a moment to look at these three photos again and think about which photo in more inviting to you. 

 All that being said, let's take a look at some real estate statistics in Pelican Bay.

 Let's compare the numbers above with the last months stats:

While the number of active listings seem to be decreasing, the number of unsold listings are increasing.

Thank you for visiting my Pelican Bay Blog.  If you are in town during the month of August, you may want to visit Naples Tomato and use this coupon.

Should you be thinking of selling your home in Pelican Bay and would like a candid assessment of what it would take to sell your home in today's market, I would be happy to provide you with a free market evaluation.  Feel free to give me a call at 239-594-2780 or e-mail me at Lynn@NaplesBuys.com.

Would you like to own home in our unique beach community?  Search here, once at the search page, you can search by development, save your search and new listing updates will be e-mailed to you.

Care to share a comment about living in Pelican Bay with us?  Just click on the Add Comment link at the bottom of this blog entry.  Comments are always welcome. 

About the author:

Lynn Wilber is a Real Estate Professional who lives in Pelican Bay.  Her 31 years of real estate experience and her area expertise have been valuable resources for Pelican Bay Sellers and Buyers.  For more information, please contact Lynn Wilber or call 239-594-2780.

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Today's open house at 400 Lambiance Cir #202 was pretty steady.  99% of the people coming through were working with a Realtor or have been looking at real estate in Pelican Bay for years.  I did meet a nice couple from Chicago land.  They had never seen Pelican Bay before and I enjoyed showing them the amenities that Pelican Bay has to offer.

Speaking of amenities.......yesterday my husband and I headed down to the Sandpiper Restaurant at the beach in Pelican Bay for a late lunch.  We just made it to the restaurant before they stopped serving.  It was a crystal clear day.

As we were eating our lunch, we spotted FOUR manatees out in the Gulf.  I wish I had a better camera with me than my cell phone. That would have made a great photo!

After lunch, the Gulf water was actually warm enough for us thin skinned Floridians to go in for a swim.  The photo below was taken with my cell phone but you can see how clear the water was yesterday.

As I sat in my open house today, my first question to all the people who came through was, "Are you familiar with Pelican Bay?"  Unless someone is familiar with all Pelican Bay has to offer, they may have a hard time justifying the prices of real estate.

Naples has many beautiful places to live.  If you are a "beach" person, you many want to consider the community of Pelican Bay.

The Pelican Bay Foundation has recently sent out a survey to randomly selected property owners.  This survey asks questions on how owners use the amenities in Pelican Bay, how often they use these amenities, and which amenities they feel are most important to them.  It is a detailed survey that will take you a bit of time to fill out.  When you recieve this survery, please try to take the time to express your opinion.  It is important the Foundation understands how the amenities are being used and which amenities are important to our home owners.

Our Gulf water temperatures are finally starting to warm up.  Once the water finally hits 82 degrees, you will find me enjoying the water.  Living here full time has spoiled me.  I actually love the Gulf in the summer time!  There is nothing like taking a dip in the warm Gulf waters after a long day of showing houses.  Forget the saying "Calgon take me away"!  I like the saying "De-stress at the beach in Pelican Bay"!

Pelican Bay will be having it's annual meeting on April 7th, 2008 at 10:00 AM in the Community Center in Pelican Bay at 8960 Hammock Oak.  All Pelican Bay owners are encouraged to attend this meeting.

Recently an e-mail was sent from the Pelican Bay Foundation announcing the results of the vote for the new leadership of the Foundation.  This e-mail was sent in error.  According to the Foundation the new board members will be announced at the meeting on April 7th.  Apparently there was an error in the vote count.

Have you signed up to receive e-mail from the Foundation?  If you are not in residence year round, you may want to do so.  You can register your e-mail address by signing into www.PelcianBay.org  If you are confused as to how to register, owners can call the Foundation at 239-596-6180 the Foundation will walk you through the process.

Some of our Pelican Bay residents may be aware that our Collier County Commissioners are trying to build a pier at the Vanderbilt Beach access.  People have asked me my opinion is of the Vanderbilt Pier project.  I have to say that I am not in favor of building this Pier.  My main reason for being against it is that we already have parking problems in that area.  Where do the commissioners think people are going to park?  I would encourage you to e-mail everyone on the Board of Collier County Commissioners your opposition to this project.

Sunsets are occurring around 7:45 PM now.  There is not much that beats a sunset at the Sandpiper or Sandbar restaurants.