You only get one chance to launch a property. So why would you launch it empty and hope for the best?

We speak to property investors and sellers all the time who are thinking about staging, but aren’t quite sure whether they need to do it before the property goes onto the market.

The thinking is usually something along the lines of:

“Let’s put it on empty first and see what happens. If we don’t get much interest, we can always stage it later.”

It sounds sensible.

But actually, it’s one of the biggest mistakes you can make.

Because you can’t recreate that first launch! 

You Only Get One First Impression

When a property first goes onto Rightmove, buyers who have registered for alerts will see it.
They’ll look at the main photograph, scroll through the other images and make a very quick decision about whether the property is worth looking at.

If the photographs show a beautifully presented, staged property, you’ve got an opportunity to make them stop scrolling.

If they show an empty house with bare rooms and very little to make it memorable, you’ve lost that opportunity.
And once a buyer has looked at the property, decided it’s not for them and moved on, getting them to look again is much harder – that’s why the first launch matters so much.

Don’t Waste Your Rightmove Alert

Think about what happens when a buyer receives a Rightmove alert. They’re probably looking at several properties at the same time.

They open yours. They flick through the photographs. They might look at the floorplan.

Then they decide:

“Yes, I like it.” or “No, not for me.”

If your empty property looks just like every other empty property they’ve already seen, there is nothing to make it stick in their mind. They might not even realise how good the house actually is. This is particularly important if you’re selling a refurbished investment property.

You’ve potentially spent weeks and thousands of pounds creating a fantastic property, but if the first thing your buyer sees is a series of empty rooms, you’re asking them to imagine the finished product themselves.

Why make the buyer do the work?

When you can show them.

The Initial Viewing Rush Matters Too

It’s not just about the online listing.

Properties often get a flurry of interest when they first launch, and those initial viewings are incredibly important.

You want those buyers walking through the door and immediately thinking:

“I love this.”

You don’t want them walking around thinking:

Where would the sofa go?

Is there actually room for a dining table?

Would my bed fit in here? 

What on earth would I do with this room?

Staging answers those questions before they even become objections. It gives the rooms a purpose and helps buyers understand how the property works. And most importantly, it helps them imagine their life there.

Don’t Test the Market Empty

“Let’s test the market” is something I hear all the time. 

But what are you actually testing?

You’re testing the market with a property that isn’t being presented in the best possible way. If it doesn’t perform, you don’t necessarily know whether the price is wrong, the property is wrong or the presentation is wrong. And by that point, you’ve already used your first launch!

The buyers who saw the property when it first came onto the market have already made their decision and unfortunately you can’t recreate that excitement.

Launch With a Bang

We always say launch with a bang, and we mean it.

Before the property goes live, get it looking its absolute best.

That means

• Stage the property
• Get the furniture and styling right
• Don’t forget curb appeal, it needs to look fab from the street too
• Have professional photographs taken
• Make sure the photographs showcase the property properly
• Create a listing that makes buyers want to book a viewing
• Then launch it

You want your property to appear on Rightmove and make people think:
“Ooh, what’s that?”

Not:

“Another empty two-bedroom house.”

Your property needs to stand out from the competition, particularly when buyers have lots of choice.