Buying or Selling Your Crested Butte Home Furnished

Buying or selling your Crested Butte home furnished is quite normal. This is because the majority of Crested Butte homes are second homes. The seller is not “moving out,” and typically doesn’t have a use for the furniture. What is the value of the furniture in a home? It depends. Most luxury Crested Butte homes have luxury furniture. Yet the reality is that the furniture has close to zero value to the second homeowner seller. There is usually not an after market for the owner to sell their furniture. If there is, they may get 10 cents on the dollar after they pay lots of people to move it, store it, and sell it. Net net, it is not worth the hassle to the seller; they should want to “throw it in.”

However, furniture represents value to a buyer. Even if the furniture is not great, it is functional. The home is move-in ready. The buyer can close and sleep in the house the same night. Go price out some average furniture and furnishings for a four-bedroom 4,000 square foot home that is bare. I think you will come up with $100,000+ pretty quickly, more for quality stuff. Unless the buyer hates the furniture and decor, they will usually get a better net deal on the home that is fully furnished.

Buying or selling a home can be an emotional time, and there are lots of moving parts. Some things may not be considered a “big deal” to one party, but may be unreasonable to the other party, and may violate the terms of the contract. This is where a good real estate agent can anticipate potential conflict. They can also provide advice to help create solutions to small issues before they become big problems.

Determining What is Included and Excluded

Buying or Selling your Crested Butte home furnished means finding out what the furnishings actually are. As a seller, you should put together a detailed list of what is included or excluded and provide this to your real estate agent. The home should be listed and marketed as either fully furnished, partially furnished, or none. If there is a special chandelier in the home you want to take with you, then take it down and buy a replacement so there are no conflicts.

As a buyer, if there are lots of items you know you don’t want, you should state that in the contract. “XX, YY, and ZZ shall be removed from the home prior to closing”. Otherwise your first task and expense will be to hire a mover to clean the junk out of your new dream home. For included items it is a good idea to take quick photos or video of the home and the furnishings. This way you can ensure that those items are actually included. Similarly, just because a home is listed as unfurnished does not mean the seller won’t part with anything. You could submit your offer with a list of the items you want to be included. 

Fixtures Stay

When buying or selling your Crested Butte home furnished this implies that fixtures are included. This also means anything that is attached to the home. If the home is listed as “Fully Furnished,” then unless it is excluded in the contract, decor items should be in the home when the buyer walks in as the new owner. Buying or Selling Your Crested Butte Home Furnished

Examples of fixtures that will usually stay in the home: a range, a built-in microwave, a dishwasher, a water heater, a furnace, a flat screen TV mounted to the wall, surround sound speakers built into the wall, window blinds, carpet, etc. The washer and dryer and the refrigerator are not fixtures.

Overlooking Items

Sometimes items can be overlooked and it has certainly happened to my clients. After the fully furnished home was under contract for more than a month, my client, the seller, decided they wanted an item that was overlooked and previously “not excluded”. I doubted anyone would know if it turned up missing. But the seller said it was an expensive decorative item they wanted. They said it was probably nothing the buyer wanted anyway. Since it was not listed on the agreed to exclusion list, it was deemed “included”. The buyer asked for a concession and we added this newly excluded item as a part of the amendment to the contract. Thankfully it was agreed to without incident.

Avoiding Confusion

Buying or selling your Crested Butte home furnished can lead to confusion as to what is included. I represented a client who was selling a townhome and buying and moving into a single-family home. The townhome was being sold fully furnished, except the furniture that was in the home was not exactly the furniture that was staying. The seller was bringing furniture from their permanent residence as well. This was very confusing because we had furniture and furnishings from two homes that was being moved to the new home, and the leftovers were on the Inclusion List for the townhome.

I wanted to ensure that it was crystal clear what was what. Previous scenarios where there were conflicts created about what stays and what goes taught me that. I had my client send me photographs of the items that were not in the townhome, but that would be part of the inclusions. I also photographed all of the pieces in each room and used the photos to create an inclusion and exclusion list. This way there would be no mistake for agents and buyers who toured the home.

This handout was in the townhome, in the MLS, and I emailed it to the other agents. This also became an exhibit to the offer and the contract. When the offer came in from the buyer, they of course wanted some of the items that were excluded, and did not want some of the items that were included. There was some last minute horse-trading and all went smoothly and it was a win-win.

Buying or Selling Your Crested Butte Home Furnished Final Thoughts

If you would like to know more about what to do when buying or selling a furnished home, contact me.

I hope you see the level of detail and time and effort I put into this candid article Buying or Selling Your Crested Butte Home Furnished. I have become a Top Real Estate Agent in Crested Butte by helping my clients to make informed decisions.

This is representative of what you can expect from me as your agent.

If you’d like to use my knowledge and experience in Buying or Selling your Crested Butte home – call me.

Thanks,
Chris.

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Chris Kopf
Broker / Owner
Global Luxury Property Specialist
Coldwell Banker Mountain Properties
chris@chriskopf.com
(970) 209-5405