to ask house viewers to remove shoes before going upstairs?!

[HollieHelen]

I am really new to this as have never sold a house before. We are having the first estate agent round today to value our house, and then I want to get it on the market as soon as. Just thinking ahead to viewings ... would it sound awful to ask prospective buyers to take their shoes off before going upstairs?! It's bound to be terrible weather when they view and muddy etc. We have beige carpet ... fairly forgiving but does show marks. As a family we do no shoes upstairs but I know that might not be fair on visitors!!

???? Flowers were to say sorry obviously

maybe it is because working class people save hard to buy nice carpets and have to clean any mess on them their selves.

Where someone with more money and a cleaner can afford to replace them when they get minging and it is the cleaners job to deal with stains and much on a day to day basis?

I think so cantspel

And a fir bit cleaner IME .

Also posher homes tend to have a lot less carpet. More wood, tiles etc. So a lot easier to keep clean.

Yanbu

I live in Sweden where it is the height of rudeness to wear your shoes inside ( even in your own home if you so choose) despite everyone having hard wood floors.

When you go to look around someone's house or if you go into a public building ( doctor's surgery, hospital or school) you get given little plastic bag/shower cap type things to put over your shoes. Maybe you could buy some of those online?

I must say the idea of buying a house with carpet feels very wrong to me, almost like wearing someone else's underwear.

Froken OP doesn't live in Sweden. So can't judge her reasonableness on basis of what they do in Sweden.

The is it rude to wear them/is it rude to take the off debate will simply never be resolved. As countless threads on here will demonstrate.

Yes but op could buy the shoe covers that people use in Sweden.

Lordy, let's not bring class into it or we might as well ask whether we'd be unreasonable not to let them park near our door, and not to come in if they smell of smoke, and would it be unreasonable not to sell them it if they're not going to send their childrent to the local state school!

It annoys some people and makes them feel unwelcome and uncomfortable: this is manifestly true, whether it is reasonable or not. All the OP need do is decide whether she'll take that risk for the sake of her carpets, really!

I am wildly middle class and always remove my shoes as does DP but then we are a bit Forrin.

Wearing shoes indoors makes me feel gagged. (I believe the divine Mizz Monroe said the same thing about wearing pants.) But if other people want to do it that's their pervy thing.

I take mine off at home usually, though might keep boots on if not too dirty and I was coming straight in needing to cook or something. I think I associate kicking shoes off at my door and putting slippers on with the sort of 'aaah I'm home and it's evening, now where's that wine' feeling that I don't always actually have!

I would offer in another house, for a social event/coffee/lunch or whatever. But not for a house viewing, because I'm there to see if I want to buy the house or not, not kick off my shoes and relax or fret about their carpet-related neuroses!

The blue plastic bag overshoe thingy is a JOKE surely....
You would look like a load of Scene of Crime Officers gathering forensic evidence after a murder. Why not kit everyone out in paper boiler suits whilst you're at it?! That way you won't have anyone shedding hairs or fibres on your pristine house!

I would find it really anal to be asked to remove my shoes (especially if I had wiped every trace of outside on to the doormat on entering) and I would actually think that the buying process might be difficult with someone who did this. The blue shoe covers would have me running for the hills!

Yes I'd suspect the purpose of the shoe covers would be so that CSI wouldn't find any DNA evidence that I'd been in the Shoe Covering Serial Killer's house.

The blue covers thing would turn house viewing into a joke.

And while it might make your house stand out from others, the reality is that potential buyers wouldn't be concentrating on the house. They'd be nudging one another and chuckling.

I think the paper boiler suits come with hoods. If not disposable shower caps can be provided!

Well... I'd be wetting myself at how ludicrous it was! The house would certainly stand out, yes! It would become My Story To Tell At A Dinner Party.

The boiler suits do come with hoods. But for extra protection hairnets could be provided, like in food factories. And silicon gloves.

In fact, OP could install one of those decontamination showers in her porch!

The shoe covers are very useful!

I am very forgetful and have often left the building wearing the shoe covers. I look ridiculous.

I've never encountered anybody that asks guests to remove shoes. It's bizarre, and certainly not appropriate for someone you're trying to sell a house to.

wordfactory... hahahaha, yes! Every home should have one!

Froken out of interest, do folk in Sweden take their shoes off at work?

I've been brought up to take my shoes off in the hallway, I thought it was rude to walk around a house in your shoes? I'd definitely ask people to remove their shoes - even more so if you have carpets!!

This didn't bother me either way, if someone comes to my house I don't ask them to take off their shoes, but I've been asked when I go to other places, it's not weird.It would be weird to wait until their gong up the stairs, you should probably do it at the door, and it could possibly make looking at the back garden awkward, so that may put me off if I'm wearing boots.

Oh, what IS strange though is going round to someone's house and just taking your shoes off without being asked, I would find it weird and uncomfortable, like they were trying to make themselves at home in my place...

Sooo... you are having a 'Do'. A very special party, and there are women there who are wearing fab dresses with high heels that set off the outfit they are wearing. They are forced to walk round in bare feet? I would actually turn round and go home because I care what I look like. I would make sure my shoes were clean and if necessary I would bring my shoes with me in a bag and put them on inside the house (I have high heels that have never been worn outside because the soles are soft leather), but I wouldn't be removing them.

wordfactory people who work in public buildings ( teachers, librarians, doctors, nurses) have indoor shoes which are often clogs or comfy almost slipper type shoes.

I am not sure about office workers I will ask my friends who work in offices.

I think it's fine. I went on lots of house viewings, in winter, where we were asked to do this. It is a bit irritating (and embarrassing if you are wearing socks with holes in) but totally understandable and fair.