To think you ought to tidy to a reasonable basic standard before people come to view your house?

[LeapingUpstream]

Trying to settle a debate with DH. I'm not talking about making it look show-home perfect, I'm talking about making it look like a reasonably tidy and welcoming, albeit lived-in home.

YANBU: A basic level of cleanliness/ tidiness is both expected and kind of important to actually selling the place.

YABU: No, it's fine to let people look round whatever state it's in, even if the master bedroom floor is mostly invisible. (And therefore leaving it in said state for your heavily pregnant and not-very-well wife who can't currently bend over to deal with, having done nothing about it all weekend, despite saying you would, is totally acceptable. And she's being the unreasonable one for thinking it ought to be tidy and for being stressed and upset that it isn't.)

😡

There were poo stains in the loo of one house I viewed. Utterly bonkers no one there thought to chuck some bleach down.

How lazy is that..

It depends on how fast you want to sell your home. People need to imagine how they would live which, if being distracted by the state of the place and wondering what was hidden, maybe too hard.

Hire help to get the sorting out and to get the big tidy up done. Then have the on the viewing day hiding places for regularly needed bits and bobs - a car boot is a great temporary store.
You can't have an untidy rooms when you want to sell, it sets up too many questions about lack of care and viewers have to look harder for the space. I'd also say to keep the garden neat if at all possible. It's a slog, but necessary. Good luck with your sale.

Yes you absolutely must tidy and clean the house before viewings - assuming that you do want to sell.

When we sold our house after 35 years there was a lot of 'stuff' and we put much of it in storage (without actually doing any decluttering first which was rather stupid). Viewers must have thought we lived a very minimal clutter free life.

Mess and clutter is horrid and distracting. Shove it in those big blue Ikea bags and put in garage. Or in the car. Or those big plastic storage boxes you can buy and stack and pretend its ready for moving. We did the whole fluffy white towels in the bathroom, expensive soap, flowers etc (towels were whipped away after viewing and nobody was allowed to use them - I've still got them 10 years later, unused!). Lights on in dark rooms, windows open if weather suitable to banish any smells. Floors clean and hoovered, beds made.

Dog and me went off in the car with all the stuff while the viewing took place. Sometimes it was touch and go if I'd get the car loaded up in time though.

Mine was cleaned to within an inch of its life!! I had 5 viewings in one day, and I even put my laundry basket in my car and took it to work 😂 a laundry basket would make it looked lived in! 😂 it worked, we got 4 out of the 5 offers. If you make it look it’s best then at least you know you did everything you could.

Yanbu. I would offer less for a messy house as it implies a storage problem and lack of maintenance. Ours were always presented immaculately..... As long as you didn't look in the shed or even the car, which I filled with bags of washing on more than one occasion! See if you can clear quickly and hoover rather than sort properly if you're not well.

Would you eat at a restaurant if you saw them serving meals on dirty plates?
Clean and tidy is easier to sell than dirty and messy. It's also a question of showing respect for the potential buyer.

I feel I should apologise for how much I laughed at this! Mine is exactly the same!

Of course it needs to be tidy, unless he's not bothered about maximising your sale price. People can lack imagination - you need to show them the lifestyle they can achieve living in your house.

I can see past mess etc to see the potential in a house, but got stung once buying a messy house where it turned out the chaos was hiding all kinds of issues (damp being just one of them). Some things the survey picked up on, but the surveyor couldn’t get in to some places to make checks, and it ended up being v expensive to fix the problems he hadn’t seen. After that I wouldn’t risk offering on a house that was not tidy and clean, or if I did it would v low to reflect the perceived risks.

Two things would really annoy me here - one he wants to sell more than you but can’t be arsed to help make that happen and two the rude and dismissive way he spoke to you.
I would personally cancel the viewing until such a time the property appeared saleable.

IKEA bag in the car. Whack everything in it. Pay the kids to fill them. Done.

I will regularly tidy the house by imagining what I would want it to look like if the house was about to be viewed.

That is such a good approach! I have to constantly fight hoarding tendencies (grew up v poor and still tend to think “but what if I need it?”). I will try to remember and use this approach.

An untidy dirty house would probably put me off so yes i would

We went to look at a house the day after England had played the world Cup final. Appointment was 11.30am so not early. Lady of the house answered the door, showed us around downstairs then when we got upstairs her partner was laid on top of the bed watching TV & smoking & was hung over from the night before!
Another house we looked at had a downstairs loo but you couldn't see the toilet or sink & the room was jam packed with crap!