Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think, if you're trying to sell your house for half a million...

131 replies

AndOutComeTheBoobs · 27/04/2019 19:45

..then you should really vacuum the stairs and hall way?

Seriously, it was absolutely covered in crap. I saw a toe nail.

Same goes for people selling stuff on Facebook.
"Could do with a clean".
Are you kidding? Clean it!

OP posts:
speakout · 27/04/2019 20:14

People sell houses for many different reasons- sometimes they just want shot of the place,
Perhaps a bereavement, an acrimonious divorce, sellers don't always have the emotional energy to keep the place tip top.

I split with my ex, he was still living in he place but we were forced to sell.He refused to clean for potential buyes by way of stalling for time, I sure wasn't going in to clean up for him.

My mothers elderl;y neighbour died- an elderly widow, heavy smoker, the place was a pig sty.
His kids were annoyed as he had left the entire proceeds of the house to only one of his children, an adult son with profound learning diabilities who lived in a care home, unable to spen money or even run a bank account. Trustees forced the sale of the house on behalf of the son, but the sinlings were so pissef off at getting no money that viewings were done with full trash cans and dirty laundry in the bedroom

I just use these two scenarios as examples of how selling houses don't always fit into the Kirsty Allsopp sell your beautiful home type thinking.

Original poster
AndOutComeTheBoobs · 27/04/2019 20:16

It was the open day for the house as well.

So it's not like we were one of many weeks worth of viewers.
We were the very first ones since it had been put on the market.

OP posts:
SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 27/04/2019 20:18

”I viewed a house with a sleeping teen in one of the bedrooms!”

I’d check the particulars very carefully - he might be included in the sale, @Beachbodynowayready!

We viewed a house once that was a total bomb site - it even had a used nappy on the floor. Apparently a friend/relative of the agent was staying there whilst it was on the market. I assume that the vendors had agreed to this - but I bet they didn’t know what complete slatterns they were. It did not give a good impression at all.

Mind you, it’s not as bad as the one that we viewed when I was a child - it was in a valley, and was basically a sponge for all the water in the valley - the doors were so swollen that dad couldn’t open the front door, and the back door was broken. The whole place reeked of damp, and when dad went upstairs, having told mum, dsis and me to stay downstairs e he was worried about the safety of the floors, he was proved right when he stepped off the top step and his foot went through a soggy floor board!

PurpleDaisies · 27/04/2019 20:18

Half a million pounds is exactly the same amount no matter what part of England you are in.

Well, obviously but it’s a mansion in the welsh valleys and a parking space in London.

OhTheRoses · 27/04/2019 20:20

We viewed one once for.£1.3m. No way wd we have taken our shoes off. Mould in the top floor bedrooms. Had to ask the owner to cage the three dogs. Turned out he was a hospital consultant as well as a filth merchant.

abcriskringle · 27/04/2019 20:21

I once viewed a house and there was rubbish EVERYWHERE. As in, on all surfaces and carpet there was rotting food, empty packaging, bottles/cans oozing their putrid remains, discarded / broken items...it was disgusting. The whole house reeked and all the floors were sticky. The weird thing was the man who lived there looked genuinely embarrassed when he saw us and started filling a bin bag with crap as we stood there. I found it odd because it wasn't like he'd just forgotten to take the bin out or had had a big party and hadn't managed to finish tidying - this looked like weeks and weeks of rubbish! Plus surely he'd have known viewings were happening even if he didn't know specific times?! Anyway, needless to say we got out of there as quickly as possible.

MagicKingdomDizzy · 27/04/2019 20:22

500k gets you a woefully average 3 bed terrace in London.

We sold our 5 bed (very boring and average) Victorian terrace in East London for £650k and I didn't hoover or scrub the bathrooms before every viewing. Perhaps if I had I might have got another £50k?

Missed a trick there obviously Grin

Original poster
AndOutComeTheBoobs · 27/04/2019 20:23

This makes my experience of the toe nail pale into insignificance in comparison.

OP posts:
BruceAndNosh · 27/04/2019 20:26

in the days before the internet....I once viewed a flat at very short notice with the estate agent.
We walked into the kitchen and he frantically started trying to distract me by insisting that I had a good look inside the totally unremarkable oven.
Mainly because he was trying to close the half dozen or so extremely graphic adult magazines strewn across the table with a handy box of Kleenex beside them which the vendor had left out

viques · 27/04/2019 20:35

A house near me has been up for sale twice in the last couple of years, it is rented out and I think the landlord want to get rid, but he doesn't get offers because a ) it is hugely overpriced b) the tenants dont make any effort to clear up (why should they) so it looks awful on the pictures.

NCforthis2019 · 27/04/2019 20:39

Reminds me of the time we saw a house that was so smelly - the walls were reeking of it - house was 1.5 million........ yuck!

CruCru · 27/04/2019 20:43

We went to look at a house where the kitchen was a total shit tip, there were full bin bags of rubbish all over the place, the children had been allowed to draw all over their fitted wardrobes, there were piles of laundry all over the floor so it was hard to get into the rooms and the estate agent didn’t want to let us in the garden because it was covered in dogshit.

Bloodybridget · 27/04/2019 20:44

It doesn't really matter what the asking price is, of course a property that is pretty expensive in one area would be cheap somewhere else (for all those saying rather sneeringly that 500k wouldn't buy a studio flat in Poshville-on-Pomp). Anyone selling a house or flat should make sure it's clean and tidy at least.

Fireinthegrate · 27/04/2019 20:47

We viewed a house with a sleeping teen but were able to view the bedroom even so!
Another house had a stroppy teen daughter who went round slamming doors, then shut herself in her bedroom and called her mother all sorts of awful things with awful language. The mother was a little bird of a woman who stood meekly by daughters bedroom door apologising!

bourbonbiccy · 27/04/2019 20:50

Any house should be as presentable as possible before viewings commence, regardless of its value.

LaCastafiore · 27/04/2019 20:52

500k is hardly a luxury house around here sorry, you are lucky if you get a bog standard 3 bed, not always detached.

So "half a million" might sound like a prestigious amount to you, but in most of the country it's just a very average property.

Why don't people clean and tidy their home when they put them on the market, I have no idea. In a seller's market, they don't need to bother so they kind of have a point, but when it's slowing down, their sale will take longer and they will get lower offers.

I couldn't live in a filthy mess to start with, but others seem quite happy like that.

bourbonbiccy · 27/04/2019 20:52

@Bloodybridget Poshville-on-Pomp, love it, that would be a great name for a village.

speakout · 27/04/2019 20:53

Any house should be as presentable as possible before viewings commence, regardless of its value.

If there is a motivation to do so, but that is not always the case

Flowerpower321 · 27/04/2019 20:53

I viewed a house containing a stroppy teen who left slamming the door behind her. Went into her room to find a pile of white powder on the glass to dressing table. Estate agent didn’t notice. Was for sale due to a divorce, filth, overlooked a busy roundabout and we left swiftly!

NoHolidaysforyou · 27/04/2019 20:56

Maybe the house has someone letting it, who does not want the owner to sell it?

policeandthieves · 27/04/2019 21:03

We viewed one where there were about a dozen large dog turds on the patio - funnily enough we didn't want to walk round the garden

JuniorAsparagus · 27/04/2019 21:03

Our DS (then in his 20s) refused to let anyone in his room if he was at home for a viewing. We tried to arrange them when he was out, but on at least one occasion he was unexpectedly at home. He has AS and really did not want to move.
The estate agent wasn't phased at all, so it must be more common than we think.

katseyes7 · 27/04/2019 21:04

A lad on my shift was looking for a house, and he brought a sheaf of house information leaflets into work.
One of the kitchens had a pile of dirty dishes in the sink, and there was a plate pie and a bottle of tomato sauce on the kitchen table. He said he was inclined to offer on it on condition they left the pie...

showgirl · 27/04/2019 21:07

I once viewed a house where there were piles of cat shit and sick everywhere and to make matters worse. The owners sat on the sofa with their toddler chain smoking while I walked around.

DollyRose · 27/04/2019 21:07

I suppose it would depend on the toe nail clipping.
Was it painted and clean or more dirty with fungal infections? 🤔