The lock,stock and barrel listing

Now she is trying the same approach with her waterfront contemporary in Westport,Connecticut. Freshly renovated and decorated,the house is for sale in the most expansive sense of the word. The price includes everything in it: the bright white furnishings,the billiard table,the rattan deck ensemble,and every single decorative item,from wall sconces to framed Buffalo Bill comic-book covers.

Long common in resort and second-home communities,the practice of selling houses with all the furnishings is turning up more frequently in the high-end market of Fairfield County,Connecticut. Buyers who are averse to spending time or money making over and outfitting a house are being offered the added enticement of not having to do either.

This way they can avoid the disruption of waiting 16 weeks for a coffee table, said Susan Engel,a broker at Brotherhood & Higley in New Canaan,Connecticut. You can always change it and make it your own later. Its a time thing; its not a taste thing.

Agents have long known that looks can sell a house hence the proliferation of stagers,who strip away clutter and personal items,leaving buyers room to imagine their belongings inside.

Offering a house fully furnished is,in effect,the opposite of staging,said Engel,in that buyers must project themselves into surroundings filled with someone elses carefully selected and artfully arranged belongings. And if it makes you look good, she added,youll buy into it.

She is currently sharing a listing on a historic colonial in downtown New Canaan that failed to find a buyer when it was offered for more than $4 million in 2008. The place intimidated some buyers who couldnt easily envision decorating an antique home themselves,said Engel.

So she has made it less daunting by offering the professionally decorated five-bedroom house,listed for $3.295 million,with its traditional American décor in place. This time around,the old-timer comes complete with wingback chairs,the wall of leather-bound volumes,the floor-length floral curtains,even the kitchen cookbooks. Everything is included but for the sports car in the garage. If the décor is not to everyones taste,Engel said,at the same time,nothings ugly.

Houses sold completely furnished account for a sliver of the high-end market in Greenwich,according to Barbara Wells,a Realtor at Prudential Connecticut Realty. But if lock,stock and barrel purchases are unusual,offers on individual items the brass carpet rods on the stairs or the dining room chandelier are not. She was recently involved in the sale of a 10,000 square-feet house in Greenwich in which the buyers negotiated to keep not just the light fixtures and the draperies,but also the seating in the theater room. It just makes life so much easier, she said. They have to have great jobs to afford these houses,and theyre very busy.

A difficulty in marketing a house that comes fully decorated and furnished is finding the right terminology for her sophisticated Fairfield County clientele,she added. Engel doesnt want words that suggest the bland hotel décor of furnished vacation properties in Florida.

Local multiple listing services dont have a category for ready-to-move-in,just-bring-yourselves houses,and she is trying to come up with the language.

If I put a banner on my ad that said fully furnished, she said,buyers would recoil. It would be like saying,Fast food.'”