Help: to robe or not to robe?

[SuperDad]

Hi everyone,

I really need your help on this one.

My wife and I have having a disagreement, and have both decided that we will leave it open to you to decide for us.

Here is the situation. We have a property that we are going to put on the market soon. It will be completely renovated by the time it goes to market. There's one small problem. (Well, I think there is a problem, my wife doesn't.)

2 of the 3 bedrooms have no wardrobe space. We used to live in the house, and used small freestanding wardrobes. Storage was an issue.

I have suggested to my wife that we invest in two large, nicely built solid timber wardrobes, which will look very nice with the polished floors. These will be included as chattels, at a cost of $2400 to us. These will address the storage problem (which I believe to be one of the only "negatives" with the property), and will help present the house very well.

My wife disagrees - she thinks that people will see past the lack of storage, and will be happy to provide their own furniture. (By the way, I don't believe that wardrobe space is "furniture", but my wife made me describe it as such.) In short, my wife does not believe that we will recover the $2400 spent on "wardrobe furniture".

Please help save my marriage, and vote in this poll. And please feel free to add a few comments or suggestions to help us out.

Many thanks,


Paul.

[whitt]

umm.
did you forget the poll?
Can you just hire some wardrobes for the marketing period?

[SuperDad]

Thanks whitt.

No - you read my post before the poll was added.

I will look into hiring. I have spoken to a staging company in Hamilton - they don't have any such units.

Paul.

[cube]

The wardrobes will make the bedrooms look smaller, and people react more adversely (IMHO) to small rooms than lack of storage space - maybe the people who buy it will be a newly wed couple who haven't accumulated the flotsam and jetsam o live together (furniture, photo albums, luggage, exercise bikes, kids, that sort of thing) and your 'bedroom with no storage space' is their junk/guest room.

I vote no.

cube

[xris]

Hello Paul,

Although I can relate to your wallpaper stripping advice and agree with it 110%, on this one I'm with your wife.

By adding built in wardrobes the extra storage you will be providing will be outweighed by the sense of cramptness the wardrobes will create.

In modern houses with large bedrooms built in robes are nowadays almost essential.

But in older properties with smaller rooms they are not.

Allow the buyers to use their own imagination and don't decide for them. People like being able to use their own minds, imaginations and dreams. By creating space , removing clutter, and using plain neutral colours you allow them to do that.

They may choose to have robes built in themselves later, but that will be their choice, just as if they decide to do what you did and buy the older portable robes.

If you must provide storage then buy a couple of tidy free standing robes, put them in and offer them as free chattels. The buyers may not want them, in which case remove them and use them in the rental block.

xris

PS/ I post this before reading cube's post, so I'm not copying.

[SuperDad]

Thanks for your comments so far.

xris - I was talking about freestanding robes

[xris]

Oh yes, I see.

still I think my point still stands - I vote no robes. ($2,400 for two?)

[SuperDad]

So far my wife is feeling pretty smug. (One of those "yesses" is mine.)

[Carex]

SD - it's one of those well known facts (like chocolate and red wine contain anti oxidants therefore they are health foods) that women know best about houses. Get used to it.

[SuperDad]

Thanks everyone for your help so far.

Carex - I'm getting used to it

Paul.

[wenlee]

No robe

Half he people that walk through won't notice there isn't one there anyway

MY 2 cents worth

[spaceman]

Muphy's Law

You must abide by Murphy's most important law.


Never mess with Mrs Murphy.

Do whatever Mrs Superdad says.....or should that be Supermum?

Cheers
Spaceman

[Realtorman]

I side with superdad
Buy the portable robes and put them in.
Give the prospective purchasers the option of whether they want them or not with the purchase.
In my 8 odd years of selling houses robes in bedrooms removes an objection which is very valid in peoples minds when looking to purchase. eg where do we put the clothes? Remove the negative.

[Realtorman]

I forgot to add that most of the people who notice there is no storage in the bedrooms are the women and they do complain about it and we all know that it is generally the woman who make the decision to purchase or not. No matter how much the guy likes it if the ladies don't they end up walking away and woe betide the poor guy who says no to buying the house that his lady really likes.

[SuperDad]

Music to my ears realtorman.

I think that people typically look for reasons not to buy a house, and lack of storage space is a biggie (in my opinion).

However, it seems that I am bound to stick with the democratic wishes of the majority. (My wife is making me do this.

I will not resort to creating multiple user names just to vote on my own poll, no matter how much I want to be right.

Paul.