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We will be selling our house in the next month and I'm wondering if I should pay to have our TV wall mounted. Right now our TV room is very small and the table the TV is on does take up an extra foot of floor space. Just wondering if it is worth the $250 to spend to get it done, or if it better to just sell TV and show room without a TV and let them imagine. Thanks!

Unfortunately, in general, IMHO, buyers don't always have the best imagination.

Great that you're working on staging your home. Although it's important, I would definitely attempt to limit my cash outlay. $250 to mount a TV?? Don't know if you're close to NYC so prices are higher. If you have a number of handyman-type tasks, it might be a good idea to combine them all and obtain a few other bids.

Personally, if I no longer needed the TV and could sell it (or donate), I would. For staging purposes, however, try mounting a faux-TV so buyers don't simply enter the small room and believe it's unusable. That way, you won't need the bulk of either the table or some other TV stand for the components. In addition, the faux TV allows you to show buyers the optimal TV placement and best furniture arrangement for efficient use of the room.

In fact, if you ask your realtor, he/she might work with a stager willing to loan/comp a faux-TV. Although some people worry that a home appears too staged when you use those props, I wouldn't worry about it. Staging works, IMHO and it's o.k. to put your best foot forward at minimal cost.

Best of luck with the sale of your home!

P.S. You might need to stage something else under a faux-TV or other wall-mount, e.g. angled piece of furniture?? Hard to say w/o photos -

Myself, I wouldn't spend the $250 to wall mount a TV just because you are now wanting to sell - why would you since you never used it that way yourself? Might be potential buyers don't want a wall-mounted TV (I don't) OR like where you have decided to place it OR don't want one anywhere.

My philosophy when selling is DON'T spend money unless it is guaranteed to help sell your property faster than the competition or sooner than it would have sold otherwise. Take that $250 and put it into routine maintenance (every house has some) and then clean, scrub, clean and then clean some more....

Hi emelfr, returned to add a few staging comments.

In general, most of us have too much stuff! We usually figure most homeowners need to remove at least 50% of all their household goods, either by moving, storing, donating, selling or trashing them.

I try to reduce the volume of items/furniture in rooms - that's why I suggested removing both the table and actual TV. The faux wall-mount isn't 100% necessary. You could easily stage the room as a sitting room/den.

Most people also have multiple TV's and viewing rooms. It's not necessary to retain and stage them all, IMHO. Unless that's truly the only/optimal place for that TV, it's great to eliminate both the table and TV without even worrying about a faux wall-mount.

Agree with Idaho about routine maintenance - that's why I suggested obtaining a bid and using cash from your sale to cover at least some of your r/m punchlist. Besides cleaning and maintenance, consider curb appeal as the other, best place to invest either time and/or **$.

If you return and add photos, I'm sure you'll receive many terrific suggestions from other posters.

It's all JMHO. Best of luck with your sale -

This message has been edited. Last edited by: AguaBella,

I sure would not.
Someone else can always do so...and they may have/want a different size, than the one you mount.

Not everyone wants a TV room either. Best to keep options open and not spend the money on a "maybe".

I wouldn't want a mount on the wall either; I think they are not eye appealing. However, it could be a bargaining tool for you perhaps.

You can buy a wall mount for about $25, they are simple to install. Can you do this yourself?

I vote NO. I personally don't like wall mounted televisions. That is a definite repair you'll need to make upon selling IF the buyers don't insist on keeping the television in the negotiations.

I wouldn't damage the wall on the off-chance that a buyer may want to place their set in that location. Most buyers have plenty of TV's so I also wouldn't assume they'd want yours. Moreover, I seriously doubt it would swing a buyer in your direction between two competing properties, all else being equal.

For staging purposes, if that truly was the best TV location and it made sense to set up the room that way, I'd go for a free faux TV and lose any extraneous furniture.

It's only MHO -

If it is a small room and most of us these days are moving to larger and larger screens why keep it as a television room? Surely there is another place in the house where all can gather to watch?

If the room is indeed small, remove all the furniture and if you have the pieces, set it up as a small home office. Place a small desk with a lap top, maybe a small chest and a couple of lamps with a small chair.

That removes the computer clutter from where it is now.

I think Charming has a great idea.
A home office is probably going to appeal to more buyers than a small TV room.

Charming has a good idea..or set up as a small BR.