Would these things put you off from viewing/buying a house?

[howdyetti]

In the process of selling our home and have an estate agent coming over to take photos tomorrow. There are a couple of things that DH and I disagree on, so your opinions would be much appreciated!

Firstly, we have a miniature dachshund (sausage dog) and have read that we should remove any traces of having a pet for photos/viewings such as dog bowls etc, which is no problem. The house itself is kept spotlessly clean so I don’t believe it shows that we have a dog at all. However, we do have a number of (tasteful!) dachshund related things around the house such as a framed piece of artwork from John Lewis, Emily Bond sausage dog bedding on two of the beds, a door mat, coasters etc. DH thinks that leaving these things around will put people off when it comes to viewing the house as it would look like we are crazy dog people with a potentially dog smelling home! The house is painted white throughout and all neutral furnishings, very minimalistic. I really don’t think it necessary to remove these things?

Secondly, though our house is only 15 yrs old it was rented before we bought it 2yrs ago and was in need of a lot of TLC. We had to strip everything out and redecorate. It’s a large 5 bed over 3 floors and 3 of the bedrooms aren’t used. Whilst they’ve been decorated, furnished and have had blinds fitted, we never got around to having light fittings or a light shade in those spare bedrooms. DH thinks that having the bare light cable hanging down will look off-putting in our Rightmove photos. At the moment we are saving every penny towards our next home and this seems like an (albeit small) unnecessary expenditure when we have already spent so much on the home. AIBU to think that surely these little things won’t put prospective buyers off, or am I the one who has it wrong?!

i wouldnt like a house smelling of dog - and i have two dogs myself.

I would also be dubious about exposed lights.

It's not who lives there but the house itself which matters to me. You are not leaving your dog there after all. I disliked houses because of:

• low ceilings
• paved over garden
• small windows
• tiny kitchen

I don't like wood burners and prefer open fire (even if it's gas one). I honestly have no clue what shallow stupid people get influenced by the photographs of the interior decorations or the furniture. It's not as if the owners are leaving it all behind!

Not RTFT but if you think the bedding might put people off, just flip the duvets over while the photos are being taken . Sorry if someone may have already suggested this .

If you get viewings from people of other religions they can be very funny about animals, we used to get asked at the door if we had a dog! We used to make sure that the cat was out on the tiles and all his bowls etc were away.
It sounds like a lot of doggy paraphanalia, I'd lose some of it.

I think you should remove dog and bowls etc from pics. Your bedding is fine though. Just get a couple of cheap lampshades

I think Dh is totally right on both fronts: remove dog stuff and get light fittings.

As long as your house doesn't smell of dog I would think it were a plus, but I want to get a pet when we buy a house so a house that accommodates one would be something I want.

I would say the shades are more important, you can get pretty cheap ones from Wilko or similar.

The bedding looks fine but i’d lose the trinkets. The photographer said for photos to keep surfaces clear, take away draining board in the kitchen, in the bathroom put away toothbrushes and paste, soaps and bottles. Just for pictures, ‘people know you have these things but they don’t need to see them’. I had a Box inside the cupboard to just throw everything in.

Sorry but I wouldn't want to see any dog stuff. Def lampshades.

None of it should matter but unless you are lucky people will come and view and not want to buy. Some will give (semi) logical reasons why, others just give silly reasons or won't give feedback at all. You will then wonder what has put them off and if there was anything you could have done.
By putting the shades on and flipping one of the quilts to give that room a different identity and removing the small dog things, you know that you have given it your best shot and if people don't put an offer in it isn't for a stupid reason that you could have easily rectified.

Some buyers really are stupidly put off by things that won't even be there if they moved in.