Moving Soon - Should I Pack Up Everything Now??


I am getting ready to list my house. The photographer is coming tomorrow to take pictures for the listing. 

What is the consensus on if I should pack up everything so they are no in the photos. I listen to my system every night and really do not want to but I get the security aspect of things. I am home all day every day if that matters.

Two monoblocks, Wilson WATT/Puppies, streamer, DAC, Preamp.

I guess I could pack things up for the pictures and then bring them back out, but that would be a PITA.

Thoughts on this?

zerofox

Determine what is your highest priority -- selling the house and moving or listening to music for a few more nights?

The emotional basis of someone buying your house is that they imagine themselves living there.  Do you think the average buyer will make an emotional connection with your system and imagine themselves listening to it?  The average consumer can relate to a big screen TV, a treadmill machine in the basement or a double oven in the kitchen, but not to audiophile systems.  Most will consider it an eyesore and as such it won't help the sale.

If it helps sell the house leave it up. Highly doubt you will get burglarized unless you have Gucci displays  and ATM's in your house.  Most will be clueless. 

@zerofox 

If you're moving due to a dissolution of marriage, I'd recommended packing up everyting NOW.  And, anything else that has value to you.  Including the water out of the waterbed.

I agree with @bigtwin.  If you are going to be living there for a while, then leave the system set up so you can listen.  Mostly potential buyers want to be able to visualize what they would do with the various rooms in a house.  Your system does not clutter up the room and should not have a negative impact. 

If you are concerned from a security aspect with pictures of your system being posted in the listing, then buy some dark sheets and cover the speakers and components when the pictures are taken.  Open houses are another consideration.  Unplug your system, put the speaker grill covers on and, if you don't have speaker covers then, maybe buy a couple of heavy duty winter AC unit covers to put over the speakers.  You don't want somebody or their kid poking their finger through your drivers. 

At the very least, definitely put the grill covers on the Wilsons. If the speakers in any way protrude into a walking path, consider moving them closer together or closer to walls. Open houses can get busy, and there are often growing families where children are not always monitored. All it takes is one toy scraping on the side of your speakers to make you regret not packing them. 

I agree with others that a staged environment helps more than hurts, and your setup is fairly minimal and looks sophisticated. Little details like that gives prospective buyers a quality of your character, which adds to the confidence of buying the property. 

Best of luck!