To hate sellers 'sprucing up' properties to sell, with hideous effect?

[pandarific]

...and then of course putting the price up to a turn-key condition level, when you know you'd need to rip out half of it. Honestly, a nice bucket of white paint applied throughout would be fine!

You don't need to install a nice new bathroom in floor-to-ceiling beige-brown tile. Or deck over/concrete over every blade of grass in otherwise substantially sized garden. Or install 'fancy' kitchen cupboards in the well known poplar neutral shades of gloss red and black. Or paint dado rails in matching fancy colours.

Augh!

Yes!! The people we bought our house from painted the main bedroom terracotta orange. Took 2 coats of white paint to cover it before we could put our colour on, and there's orange paint over the wardrobes

If I see another black and red flocked wallpaper 'feature wall" I shall scream.

Some people in our street spent loads of time and money installing decking to sell. The new owners ripped it all out the first day 😱 we didn't dare tell them.

@GerdaLovesLili YES. And the matching black shiny chandelier thing with the dangly bits.

WHY.

When we bought our house the owners had spruced it up. No they didn't get rid of the manky dog carpet or clean the ancient kitchen. They covered the walls in that awful embossed wallpaper that is a complete fucker to get off then painted it too.

Yep. Agreed!

Pandarific I think might be talking about the house at the end of my road that's just sold. My face was when I looked it up on rightmove.

I have half an eye on the market at the moment. My God there's no limit to the vulgarity is there?
Cat litter gravel all over the garden, plasticky beech laminate, baroque fireplaces in 70s council houses, hideous shocking pink shiny wallpaper..I think I'm eventually going to buy a house where the lady has died but left immaculately kept flowery carpets and the original 1950s kitchen.
At least then it will be reflected in the price. And I might keep the kitchen.

@Bobbiepin that could have been my old house lol
When I was selling mine, the estate agents kept saying it needed a new bathroom and kitchen, bu what's the point, the seller is only going to put their own stamp on it.
My house took ages to sell, so I decided to start painting to cover the questionable colour choices (including the terracotta bedroom). The same day I started painting, I got two offers for the asking price.

We viewed a house where the owner had fitted (bodged) a shower in the corner of the main bedroom. The agent was trying to tell me how fantastic it was while I was trying to work out how much it would cost to rip out and if it was likely to have done any structural damage.

MIL is trying to sell her shithole. Kitchen has been jazzed up with black gloss doors, peach walls and some lovely vine leaf stencilling. She's added thousands.

It broke my heart to replace my beloved but knackered lilac carpet with the shittiest beige available. It was such awful quality the new owner must have had to redo it straight away, but the agent advised it strongly and the house sold in a week, so I guess he was right.

@DameDoom peach walls?!? Who's painted anything peach since 1990?

MIL is trying to sell her shithole. Kitchen has been jazzed up with black gloss doors, peach walls and some lovely vine leaf stencilling. She's added thousands

LOL! But it can't be that bad if it had indeed raised the "value" iyswim?

In 10 years the kids of today will be complaining about growing up in grey houses with chevron fabrics. And rose gold planetariums.

Madness, isn't it?

Get rid of clutter
Clean it
Paint it white

Job done

I would agree, but someone I know just described, with delight, the house they've bought with decking, a car port, granite-effect worktops and brand-new laminate throughout. Every surface is wipe-clean and/or weed resistant. The garden has that fake grass you get on hockey pitches. You have to remember that you may think something is hideous, but there are plenty of people who will love it.

pandarific I know. It does compliment her Grecian arch though - which isn't new but surely a selling point?
She has also framed some of her own art to thriftily add interest.. crap sketch of Tony Hadley belting out Gold next to the knackered front door?
Added thousands.

Get rid of clutter
Clean it
Paint it white

This ^.

We are looking to sell next year and this is all we are doing, (plus a little bit of essential DIY) because I'm guessing whoever buys it will want to make it their own so we are going for neutral and tidy.

@NeeChee funnily enough we added a new bathroom and kitchen within 9 months and there was someone else who bid on the same day as us! The bathroom was much needed, especially considering the shower door came off in my hand the day before the builders came to rip it all out. I'd hope our work would have added value but unless we move pretty soon I doubt it.

Our vendors put laminate down everywhere, upstairs and down, and we've ripped half of it up - bedrooms, landing and stairs are all carpeted now, and we'll do the sitting room as soon as we can spare the cash.

We’ve just bought a beautiful house that has 3floors of wood chip. New looking wood chip. Why oh why.

@Runawaycat I'm an estate agent and I should put that in our terms of business! It's so simple and makes such a difference but very rarely does anyone do this.

Get rid of clutter
Clean it
Paint it white - yes! We're considering moving in a couple of years and I'm already refusing to replace anything that's not vital. eg. The vinyl in the kitchen has a few tiny chunks out of it where sharp things were dropped, and they show because it's plain black with a white backing. But I can live with it and will happily knock off the price if we do sell.
Having said that I once spent a spell house hunting with a friend. We were looking at a similar area and price so it made sense to go together and short-list some each to re-visit with spouses. I was amazed how many she rejected due to dodgy decor or dirtiness yet didn't notice things like windows that needed replacing or old-style electric sockets that suggested old wiring etc. And she wasn't a young first-time buyer.

We’ve just bought a beautiful house that has 3floors of wood chip. New looking wood chip. Why oh why.

To hide dodgy walls usually - cheaper than replastering.