Does how tarted up a house is actually help persuade you to puchase it?

[GretaGip]

It's a slow sell here, on the market for 8 months, 9 views up to now, but for some strange reason there's 4 different appointments tomorrow.

I'm absolutely sick of staging the house a la Channel 4 housey programmes - fresh flowwrs, delightful fragrance, and the garden manicured etc.

The house will be clean, tidy and well-presented.

But do I NEED to dot my 't's and cross my 'i's?

Does it make a real difference?

We've just had this conversation in our house!
A house in our road had been up for about 6 weeks hadn't sold. It was inoffensive - quite neutrally decorated, but nothing to dislike. A house went on sale 2 weeks ago, £20k more and sold the day it went on. It was immaculately decorated - although certainly not to everyone's taste horrible I don't get it! It's basically the same house, but £20k more and decorating the cheaper, neutral one to the same yucky decor standard would not cost £20k.

The cheaper one has now sold - apparently to someone who went to see the more expensive one first. Seems they needed to see how the cheaper house could look.

It's something I will bear in mind if we ever sell.

Fauxlivia now I'd walk away from a house with laminate flooring as I hate it and would be ripping it out. I want the extra warmth and noise baffling of carpeting (kitchens & bathrooms excepted).

OP: Clean, tidy and fresh smelling for me. Neutral colours if you are repainting. Make sure your furniture is arranged well in the room to show off the space and declutter your worktops in the kitchen as much as you can.

Any house will sell at the right price. If your house isn't selling, it's because the space, layout, kitchen, bathroom isn't working for them, and the price doesn't allow for them to pay for the changes they need to make it into the house they want it to be.

I "house doctored" my house in order to sell it, and liked it so much, we decided not to move.

Well, personally I'm delighted so many house viewers are unimaginative, because we're getting this big, structurally-sound, well-laid out house which only needs paint, the carpets ripping out and the lovely original floorboards sanded, new tiles in the bathroom, and the kitchen cabinets and work surfaces replaced - and in a sought-after village with an excellent school - for 30 k under the asking price.

Patrician, I guess this just proves that we all value different things and so, when selling, you can't decorate your house in a way that's guaranteed to appeal to everyone. I also like twigs in vases and fairy lights and leather sofas, so will get my coat

No one is offended by clean, tidy and decluttered though, so OP can't go wrong if she does that

Gin, really?? That's funny - what was it that suddenly felt so different that you fell back in love with your own house?

We've just sold and I would say decluttered and clean is vital so people can see the house's potential. I would say a good bathroom/kitchen were selling points but not worth putting in especially to sell.

Yes I think it makes a difference to some people. Some people moving with little kids don't want to be bothered with major work and want to see a house they could live easily in straightaway. I moved with a baby and a toddler and wanted a house where I could just put my furniture in with nothing urgently needing doing. I would have liked to view houses that were tidy and functioning. I think laying a posh table is bizarre though.

We have bought three houses, all of which have needed 'modernisation' to varying degrees . After the first two I swore never again, but we moved into rented property and when the owners wanted to sell rather than move again we bought it.

The current property needs a bit of TLC but nothing too major, thankfully.

As I went to answer the doorbell to one set of viewers, my toddler tipped the contents of a large toybox all over the floor! Viewers don't like clutter but they are remarkably forgiving of toys!

When we were looking for a property to rent, I went round one where the agent warned us before he opened the door that they were not tidy (and were out at the time). I could cope with the toys and the kitchen, but stepping over dirty laundry on the landing was not nice.

I didn't 'stage' it to the extent of fresh coffee and bread - I have had people turn up unexpectedly on the wrong day or at half an hour's notice - but did try to keep all the paintwork wiped down, etc. I think that if the place looks fairly clean and tidy, viewers assume it has been well cared for.

Good luck with the viewings tomorrow!

For me, it really doesn't make a difference, as long as its fairly clean and tidy.

For dh, it makes a huge amount of difference. He just can't see past crap decor and it furstrares the hell out of me!!! He discounted so many houses because of it.

I agree with whoever said people think they can see past bad decoration or how somewhere might look that has been presented a as blank canvas but in my experience most can't.

I have seen loads of houses I seem to be the 'go to person' who goes with my friends and family when they are buying because I enjoy it and also look out for small things they might miss having done 4 doeruppers over the years.

You'd be amazed how they go an a gut feeling- and it can be something simple that makes them like it or hate it. So I think little touches help. My MIL refused to buy a wonderful house because 1 bedroom had a metal window frame. She bought another because she liked the cooker.

Doesn't make the slightest difference to me. I want bright, airy and spacious rooms, quiet location and a house I like the feel of. All things you can't do too much about, it's either like that or it's not. I would be put off by any evidence of damp.

I couldn't care less whether you have flowers on the table or even if you've got junk everywhere as you'd be taking all of it with you. It's purely about whether I think I would be happy living there.

As an aside if I see a place with an old kitchen or bathroom I'm quite pleased as it means I can put the kitchen or bathroom in that I want. I've seen places with new kitchens or bathrooms that are not to my taste and I'm slightly disappointed as I couldn't justify ripping out a new one and would have liked one which was in the style I like.

Good luck with the viewings.

I'm moving tomorrow. Into a house that we got for a relative bargain because it was oddly furnished. In that spaces weren't set up for how a family would want them.
Eating area in kitchen with no table, half empty big livingroom just looked cold rather than spacious, decking with no garden furniture....
It took us ages to think through why we didn't get a great feeling about it and decide it was the furnishing. And we got it for a good 20k less than identical properties sold for.

I've only bought three times, and the most recent two times have been houses that were cheap because they needed a lot of work doing to them and had been languishing on the market a while.

Location and size is more important to me than decor, and both times we went for the best we could get in terms of those two factors. For instance, our last but one house was on the market for £110,000 (and we got it for £108,000) while the identical house next door was on for £125,000 because it was so much cleaner and nicer inside. But we couldn't afford £125,000 then so gritted our teeth and went for the doer-upper.

A house up the road sold recently for a staggering sum. The owners had totally tarted it up for sale including installing a Smallbone of Devizes kitchen. New people moved in and about six weeks later I saw the kitchen lying all over the drive. That was at least £50k of kitchen smashed up.

I think decluttering is the biggest one. People like space, and big pieces of furniture (such as L-shaped sofas and fitted bedroom units) are not "flattering" to a house. Also very "lived in" bedrooms with too much personality of the children are a bit off-putting.

Interesting thread. We are on the verge of exchanging.
The house we are buying is going to needs lots doing, including unfinished building work, decorating and general scrubbing. When I viewed it, it was to "rule it out"
When I saw it I realised it is perfect for us, in terms of location, parking, generous size. It is going to cost us £3k to finish the building work. We have got a bargain. We have lots of reliable contacts for the jobs that need doing. I am excited and inspired at the project we have ahead.
However, I think far more people are the very opposite of us, and would be overwhelmed by the stuff that needs doing.

I can visualise and love a project. DH can't at all, and hates the thought of change and upheaval. It makes for interesting conversations .

However, whilst I can definitely see past clutter and mess, I also imagine further. I looked at one house and saw all their crap everywhere so took a good look at the light switches and sockets. As I expected, it was a total mishmash of styles and ages, making me think that the whole house was likely to need rewiring (some of the sockets were pre-70s). The mess made me think they were people who didn't take care of their house or have pride in it, therefore were unlikely to have serviced the boiler recently, which was also elderly, so likely to need replacing...

I could see the potential but mentally I had also allowed for the costs of rewiring and a new boiler as well as the reconfiguration and cosmetic updating, and IMO the house was about £200k overpriced. I think the point is that a badly presented house invites a search for issues that a well-presented one might not - even though the survey might throw up the same problems. But at that stage, people are a little more committed.

I don't think flowers are overstaged, I like having fresh flowers in the house whether or not I'm selling it! Tables laid for dinner at 9am though...

Nope. The house we currently live in had been empty for four months by the time we viewed it and hadn't been decorated for 30 years prior to that, but it was big and spacious and had a nice (if somewhat overgrown) garden space. I can visualise how things will look and so can DH so u.D staging doesn't bother us (though I always have flowers out anyway!)

Apparently not everyone is the same though as my late dad's house (empty) has been on the market a while as a fixer upper and had I the cash I'd be seriously tempted to try and pretty it up!

Thanks all for your comments.

House is very tidy, we declutter ed and painted 3 rooms before it went on the market in December.

Lawn was mown at weekend, van still see the stripes. Flowers from viewing last Saturday still look lovely, but I generally he flowers in one room anyway. I haven't immaculated it to the nth degree today as I'm pretty MEH and despondent about the whole process.

I'm a bit perplexed as to how we can have approx one viewing every 3 weeks for 7 months and then 4 in one day. Bizzaro.

A thread after my own heart. The three houses we have bought have all had hellish decor including avocado, bright pink/blue baths and sinks, carpets in bathrooms, swirly carpets. We always pick according to location, size and parking. I think though that if we were to sell I would repaint and have a major declutter. I don't like the show home style at all and my house is 1970's with an interior that is quite countrified looking. This would put a lot of buyers off in an area that seems to demand the show home style.

I'd be looking at size and layout of rooms (eg stairs straight into living room would be a real no no), how easy it would be to adjust to decor to fit in with our taste (I like my curtains on a pole, rather than swagged and tailed to death - not a deal breaker but I wouldn't pay a premium for a house where someone had gone to all that effort because I'd want to rip it out again), availability of or potential for storage and whether anything looks expensive to fix or maintain.

Flowers would probably make me sneeze.

In support of a laid dining room table, it stops people putting clutter on it, which is one less thing to deal with when people are coming round.

I struggled to visualize space in smaller rooms if there was nothing in them. I.e a bedroom which details said a double would fit in but no furniture at all to help see what space you had left.

We had cleared my partners place but left the matress on the floor in the bedroom as it did look small. We also went down the magnolia route for no reason other than he had a fondness for blue which made the flat also look smaller in all rooms so a coat of paint did open it up a lot - plus taking out most of the clutter!

When I sold my house I made sure things like washing didn't clutter the place up - hard when you are on the market for a while and can't predict the viewings! You don't want to point out the failings of a house not having anywhere to hang washing to dry!!

The 4 viewing might be due to them pushing it again all of a sudden - are you close to being able to switch agents?