How "house viewing ready" is your house?

[Millana]

At this precise moment, if you were/are going to have people coming to look at your house, how "ready" is your house?

I'm not planning on selling but mine is a disgrace. 😔

It's been slowly dawning on me that if we were to sell, we'd have to put a lot of work into it so why are we living with the mess and clutter and half decorated rooms etc? Why would we put all that effort in for other people but not us?

Now I need to put that into action and change it.

This is where I am but I would like a bit more time to sort it out but struggle with energy levels and also a holding place while the shit is being sorted

Would take me 10 minutes to have everything ship shape. It's tidier than usual in here today.

My house is cleaner now I'm full time because no-one's around to mess it up! 🙃

Literally just had to get a builder out to quote us to get all of the unfinished jobs done so we can actually look to sell! We love getting a room to like 80% then giving up, but leaving the tools as ornaments around the house for when we finish said jobs. I’ve said the next one has to be already done

Right. So. This weekend I will sort the garden. It's free and straight forward.

That will involve cleaning up all of next door's cat poo, deciding what pots I want/need and putting the rest in my front garden with a "free" sign. They'll go in a few hours. My husband will moan about how much money I wasted on them but I can't get that back now and keeping them piled up in the garden is no better.

It will also involve cleaning the pond which is a horrible job.

The fence is half painted so that's on my to do list as soon as the weather improves. we even have the paint!

The render also needs work/painting so I will look into that in the summer. We keep putting it off because we want to have it redendered/insulated but that's really expensive but there is no need to live with it as it is.

I will also make a start on the bedrooms. They both are half decorated but I can't sort that with all the mess.

I am going to write a physical room by room list with deadlines. Im a project manager, I love me a good timetable!

And for the pp worried re the drum kit.
The reason it needs to stay in the dining room is that it is the furthest room away from the neighbours with the room. We're in a semi and there is room between the dining room and the joining wall.

The neighbours have said they can't hear it (and believe me, they'd let us know if they could!).

I absolutely take on board what you are saying though and I would never have even thought about that!

Ive caught this thread on a good day. The cleaner has just been and we recently redecorated a couple of rooms, so we are pretty ‘market ready’ should the need arise.

Your plan to get on top of things sounds good, OP.

I mean... People could view it, but they probably wouldn't make an offer!

The toddler, baby, and dog have been such a time-suck lately that cleaning is a pipe-dream. I would need 3 days (and a dryer) to get this place in order.

I’ve got 3 children under 6 including a velcro baby who won’t be put down, ever, all ill, I am also ill. Dh working away. House is usually reasonably presentable but right now looks like a bomb has gone off in here.

It took me two hours yesterday to get it presentable for having a friend over. We live in chaos, it drives me crazy but I am the worst culprit.

Well, except for the items belonging to everyone else that they will not take back to their bedrooms/wardrobes/etc.

My house is viewer ready, but I'm not. I'm sat here in a knackered old dressing gown, my DH four sizes too big slippers and hair that looks like it's had a grenade thrown at it.
If I answered the door, any potential buyers would run away screaming.

I could get mine guest-ready in a few hours (cleaner hasn't been this week). Viewer-ready is another whole ball game - we did a lot of decluttering over Christmas, but it needs new stair/hall carpet, floor in living room repainted, all the woodwork repainted, new carpet in the master bedroom, bits of skirting and coving repaired, and preferably almost the whole place skimmed (the plaster is really bad and we just painted over it out of laziness). And the garden is bad too - needs weeding everywhere, the grass looks awful just now, rickety trampoline taking down, returf under the trampoline, new door on garage because ours blew off two years ago and hasn't been replaced, general clutter picking up (dog toys, broken flowerpots etc). You could add in repainting the back of the house to hide the stain where there was a leak before we moved in. Fix the front door so it doesn't stick. And I'd still have to sell it as a do-er upper because it has really old PVC windows and needs a new kitchen and a new bathroom and a new backdoor and something done with the scruffy PVC conservatory.

If they ignored the dog hair on the floor and the clothes horse in one corner then its fairly ready. I do like a clean house though and have OCD tendancies.

Haha they would run away screaming.

We started this process in the Pandemic - decluttered first, then a big renovation each year. We did our hallway first, then refurbished the bathroom and this year will be refurbishing the kitchen (note, because we’ll be selling in a few years, we didn’t spend a lot - think new floors and in the bathroom, a new panel for the bath, too. And we did all the work ourselves).
I’d like to be able to put it on the market within 5 years and am hoping that by renovating and modernising now, the price won’t get beaten down too much when we do!

House nearly always neat and tidy.

Teenage bedrooms, not so much.

I try not to enter without a hazmat suit 😷

We moved in 2018, after several months of viewings at our previous house and a year or two of aesthetic improvements before that. Since moving, I am always conscious that one day we will move again, and every home improvement we do is considered in the light of how it enhance our selling process. However, the outcome might not be as obvious as you think. I have prioritised maintenance that might look bad on a structural survey over superficial things - e.g. I think buyers are much more likely to be put off by the need to replace the roof than they would be by an outdated kitchen. My previous house had a lovely new kitchen, but several potential buyers said it wasn't to their taste and they would replace it - people are very particular about kitchens and quite enjoy spending money on them, but the same can't be said for the roof!

About a year ago I started making a concerted effort to ensure my house was never more than about 30-40 minutes away from ‘guest ready’. It wouldn’t be spotless, but if an imaginary estate agent phoned now, I could have it viewable in about half an hour.

We're in the middle of redecorating so no - not atm. The sitting room is perfect and the dining room would be if it wasn't full of kitchen stuff while the actual kitchen gets done. 😂
We've been cleaning and decluttering as we go room by room
Upstairs was last done 5 - 6 years ago so it's not terrible but looking a bit tired and untidy. We'll get there.

I agree with OP. Surroundings are important and I prefer to keep up with this stuff and have a nice home for ME. Not guests/potential buyers. Not planning to move anyway.

Excellent perspective!

Mine is 50:50. The good 50% being either rooms I barely use or bathrooms/kitchen.

My sons bedroom would have to have Police tape across the door to prevent entry.

I also think about the things that (almost) put me off buying our house, and prioritise them. Ours is overlooked by a block of flats at the back, so within a year or so of moving in we removed a big shed and planted some lovely flowering evergreen magnolia trees. They will take about 10 years to reach optimum height, which will probably be in good time for our next move.

Mine too!

There are days when I generally think it would be more presentable if I just burned it down.

We've actually done a huge amount of work, spent phenomenal amounts of money and just have some finishing off to do. It's the kids... There are 3 of them under 6 and there's just so much stuff!

I'm not sure I could let a meter reader in without shame lol never mind a potential buyer! I have to sort it out though, an additional child plus unexpectedly having to have 2 adults working from home permanently (employer closed local office would now have to travel 60 miles instead of 10 each way) since we bought 8 years ago has made an already small house full to bursting no matter how hard I try. (Its a 3 bed but 1 double, 1 single and 1 box so toy storage and space generally is limited) not to mention botched DIY from trying to save money...