Maybe gluing the mannequins to the celiling was their way of spiffing up? 
New things in our RE market the buyers use to win a listing: a pass/fail inspection (meaning nothing asked of the seller if no deal breakers are found) and appraisal waivers for certain amounts…
Interesting thread! It does give me some pause about selling my home in the future. I will probably sell in 3 years, once the youngest is out of high school and I am no longer committed to staying within the high school boundary.
My home was built in 1981, and still has some very 80’s woodwork, lighting fixtures, etc. I would love to update it, but frankly do not have the money to invest in it. So I will probably need to put on the market “as is”. But this is a home on 6 acres with a very nice large barn. As a horse owner shopping for a home, the location, acreage, barn, fencing, etc would have far greater impact to me than having updated doorknobs, etc. I’m hoping that other people in the market for this kind of property would have similar priorities. But it’s hard to tell if that’s true. These kind of properties are so varied, it is really hard to get comparables.
@Mommertons , when you are in a kind of niche market like yours things are different. While I doubt that your buyer would particularly care about doorknobs, some aesthetic tweaking might be in order. You have time to begin to check out horse properties that are on the market in your region.
True! People looking for unique properties discount the dated looks etc. like we did with our “swamp house”! It is the largest lot in the area surrounded by trees, and that was what sold it to Mr. I just browsed the pending listings, and among them are a very dated rustic cabin style house on a private lake and a horse property with a tiny split level. Both went pending quickly despite steep prices and zero updates.
There is a company called Renovation Realty who work with Sellers. They have 4 packages…from paint/cleanup to major fixes. You do not pay their crew upfront, they record a lien against the house for the cost of renovation and it is paid out through the sale transaction. The catch is you have to use them as the listing agents for the upcoming sale. I’m not sure what geographies they are in (probably not rural). And the commission might be a little higher than normal. They are really breaking into my local neighborhood market, they have had 5 listings in the last year.
They are really popular with heirs trying to fix up old homes to sell. The heirs don’t have to fork up money they don’t have and I think it also takes away any infighting over how much to do and the costs.
Obviously, it only works if there is a lot of equity available to lien against.
Interesting concept! I think they might be local to your area, CB.
I was looking at a few listings here and it looks like the homes in under $1M range do not get professionally staged with extras brought in. Most use the neutral (and sometimes not so neutral) owners’
pieces or get completely emptied out for photos. Makes sense… those homes usually get sold in under 2 months.
Speaking of doorknobs… One realtor got really excited when Mr said that he could replace our solid brass door hardware for under $300 with the cheap brushed stuff sold in packs by Amazon. Mr. now thinks it is his next project! 
OK, just checked. Renovation Realty only operates in the Bay Area and San Diego so far. Gee, the two highest value areas in California!!
A house next to us sold for $85k over ask. Geez. Talk about underpricing.
Sometimes people way overbid on a house because they’ve been burned too many times and/or really, really want a certain neighborhood. I knew someone who bought a gorgeous house in our neighborhood and explained why he’d bid so much on it. I thought it was a good $100,000 over what houses were worth in the neighborhood at the time though prices were rising. Unfortunately he lost his job a couple of years later and ended up moving to Florida.
I poked some more on the web, and it looks like the house was seriously underpriced to trigger a mini bidding war. So the realtor can place an ad in the local paper and brag that their listings go above the ask. 
Bunsen, I remember when a family friend sold her pleasant home in the Mount Baker neighborhood during the initial wave of the Seattle housing gold rush in the 1980s. She was shocked that the buyers gave her the asking price, if not more. Back then, many Seattle sellers unintentionally under-priced their homes. Naturally, many of the buyers were fleeing high-priced California.
Several months ago, we spent an afternoon visiting 4-5 open houses primarily in the north Seattle suburbs, supposedly in our price range, just to see what was available. Checked recently and every one sold for 100 - 200k over asking price! So much for ‘in our price range’.