To leave the house not entirely spotless?

[Amimissingsomethinghere]

On the day of completion how clean was the house / flat you moved into? Did the previous owners leave it in a clean state for you?
Seriously stressing about how to get everything done and moved and packed and cleaned.
I was going to hire some cleaners to clean for a bit to leave the property nice and clean but a friend said I don't need to?
I plan on deep cleaning and getting professional cleaners to clean the place we are moving into... so wouldn't really mind if it wasn't cleaned but what's protocol?

The house we moved out of was left "everyday " clean by us. The property we moved into was dusty, but that was because it had been empty for 18 months (probate sale) and the surviving family didn't live locally enough to clean it on completion day.
I packed the hoover in the car and arrived at the empty house ahead of the removal men. I was able to vacuum the empty rooms before they filled with furniture.

I would hoover, make sure the bathrooms are clean and wipe down surfaces - doesn't need to be more than that.

I have moved a lot over the years.
My advice is clean kitchen cupboards as you go, clean hob and oven. Clean the bathroom, bleach down the toilet.
Hoover all over. Tidy garden.
No matter how spotless you leave the house, people will always want to give it their own good clean once they move in.

Hired a cleaner for a deep clean and also got the oven professionally cleaned. To be honest it was probably the cleanest it'd ever been.

We hoovered and wiped surfaces and bathroom and kitchen were clean.
It was only when I looked around the empty house that I realised how nice my house was.

When we bought our house, we moved in 4 months after we last saw it/had offer accepted (solicitor hold ups, etc etc). I don’t think the seller touched it from that point.
I cried when I saw the state of it on moving day.

No matter what you do the new owners will moan so don't bother lol.

Then we must have been the exception to the rule. We came before the removal van arrived, a 2 day cross-country move, equipped with every cleaning, seeping, brushing aid known to man and the house was amazingly clean! I actually sent flowers to the previous occupant.

Filthy.
I left mine spotless and the house I moved into looked like it hadn’t been hoovered since we last viewed it.
The bit drawer in the kitchen hadn’t even been emptied & it took 4 hours of scrubbing to clean the grease and grime off the kitchen cupboards before we could put stuff away. I cried.

I've always cleaned my property before moving. I think it's only good manners. Most of the time our vendors haven't, to the extent of not even cleaning the loo.

I think they're disgusting but you don't get to give them feedback sadly.

When we moved into our house it was left in such a state. All bits of paper, food dust and dirt in every room. Not nice at all. And she took the curtain rails and chandeliers and cooker with her which we had stated that she would leave.

I always get professional cleaners in,could never leave a property in less than as good a state as possible.Would be scared my Grandma would come back and haunt me

I moved into a furnished flat (rented) to find a pile of vomit by the side of the bed! Realise this is irrelevant to the original post but thought youd like to know!

When we moved into current house it was not that clean ie dust where furniture and pictures had been but they did leave out all the take away menus!

Clean as you pack, then on moving day just whizz round worktops, floors skirting boards etc.

I have always left houses spotless, a bottle of bubbly and chocolates and some milk in the fridge. Where I knew a buying was new to the area I also left some information for good restaurants, takeaways etc. Now we have kids I would get a professional cleaner in.

Leave it as you would like to walk in to it......and yes you are getting cleaners for your new place so that case yes use cleaners to leave it nice.....although anyone can clean.....if you have time do it yourself! Just because some people don't doesn't mean you have to stoop to their level!

When I sold my mums house, we hoovered through, mopped through, wiped down the surfaces and the bathroom. Never touched windows or skirting boards etc.

The most important thing is that you're out of the house and you've taken everything with you. Though don't leave it filthy, of course.

We had a few weeks overlap when moving which was nice as we moved into the new place and then cleaned the (empty) old place. My parents, on the other hand, moved from Scotland to south of England last year. Having left at 4am to get there for midday so they could put the beds up and generally make the place habitable to sleep in that night, they found the sellers still there, only half packed up. They didn't leave until after midnight, kept coming back all week to collect things and left a huge pile of rubbish in the garden. My parents were livid!

I kept a handheld vacuum and a large pack of floor wipes back and spent 45 minutes buzzing round doing a basic vacuum and wipe over of the skirting boards and kitchen counter. My buyer sent me a message thanking me for leaving it in such a good state.

Depends how your buyers behave during the chain once you have agreed on a price (negotiating is normal)
🤷

CF with last minute attempts to drop price, unreasonable about timing, basically pain in the ass can clean as far as I am concerned.

Lovely buyers I make an extra effort.

My house is generally very clean anyway - windows, bathrooms, toilets are up to scratch so a quick hoover and wipe on the day is enough.
If they buy white goods, I have deep clean them 2 or 3 days before the move. A fridge or an oven don't get dirty in a day or 2
Once 1 room is empty, hoover and wipe skirting boards.

You can pay cleaners but it's unusual. Only you will know the state of your property. If it's in good condition, moving out doesn't make that much mess at all.

We got keys today for our new house and it was spotless. And the sellers left us sweets, chocs, a bottle of fizz and a lovely card. So thoughtful and we will be eternally grateful after hearing the horror stories of some people

Our house was left lovely and clean. It had been vacated 2 months before and we didn’t move in until a week after completion so I cleaned it all again.

DH and I are first time buyers and recently moved into a spotless home. It was so lovely opening the door to a clean home; we'll definitely pay it forward if we ever move and I'm sure your buyers will greatly appreciate it if you do the same.

I'm presuming you're buying, not renting, and leaving a property you bought, as if you were renting you (certainly used to) lose at least some of your deposit if you didn't leave it (looking) spotless.

Over the years I learned that places the checker-outers often pay extra special care to are the plugs in the bath and sink; and also the oven rack. Though I always used to give the whole place a hoover and clean thoroughly with bleach, washing up liquid/soap powder and hot water, Viakal, metal polish, and (these days) Pink Stuff, and give the counters and any laminate floors and bathroom fittings a thorough clean, though, also a quick spray of the windows, and then a really quick hoover right at the end.

And I've never, ever, left anything behind with the exception of one mirror that we couldn't fit into the bin. (I lived in a place at the time that didn't have a "large items" collection that I could sort out with the council and I was moving to another country. The landlord was aware.)

When I moved into places I usually gave them a similar sort of clean anyway though - some of them have needed it more than others.

The state of ours when we moved in was fucking grim. I had spend hours deeeeeep cleaning our rented property, to come here and be faced with filth was horrible. We had to spend the entire weekend bleaching and deep cleaning before we could move in (had to sugar scrub the kitchen ceiling). It was an elderly lady who lived here prior but she had family who we're helping with everything and there was no need for some of the stuff like (a cat food bowl full of old, mouldy cat food). She mustn't have cleaned from the second we viewed until we completed like. I wouldn't expect spotless but leave it as you'd want to walk into.

You are a good person to care!!

We just sold two houses and bought one. I’m in the US and was stressing also. My agent pointed out that the contract said “broom swept”. The buyers of both told our agents they didn’t want/need the cleaners to come.

I can tell you that anyone that really care is going to clean again no matter how perfect you leave it. We made such a mess moving in that it wouldn’t have mattered anyway.