If you describe a house you've viewed as "very tired"...

[abbey44]

...what exactly do you mean...?

I've got my house on the market at the moment, not for the first time, so I thought I knew the ropes. I had it redecorated inside and out, neutral (F&B) colours, decluttered, all the odd jobs done, professionally cleaned top to bottom, you know the sort of thing. Got it as close as I thought was humanly possible to show home state, booked the dog into kennels and me away for a couple of weeks. (So no chance of it being messed up!)

Had a viewing and the feedback was "has everything we're looking for but very tired, needs completely redecorating and recarpeting to our taste, concrete dug out between flagstones (???), will think about it and let you know"

Now, I know you haven't to take these things personally, but I'm quite honestly baffled by this. I can sort of see the redecorating and recarpeting thing, as everyone likes to put their own mark on a place, I've just come back home, and been over the flagstones to look for these dug out bits, no sign, so I don't know what that's all about, but it's the "very tired" that I'm a tiny bit miffed about, if I'm honest. To me that says it's tatty and outdated, avocado bathroom and swirly carpet territory, but it's a world away from that...

Anyone got a grip to hand to me...?

I would say that tired is clean and tidy but a bit old fashioned. Your house doesn’t look tired, I might want to change things but I wouldn’t expect to reduce price just because it’s not to my taste.

Your house looks gorgeous, I would buy it if I had any money! It looks the opposite of tired.

Your house 🏠 s really impressive. I’d say they will come back with a lower offer.

I love it(where is it? Vaguely?)

It means a bit dated and needing cosmetic work

Your house is beautiful and I'd describe it as a classic style. It's not to my personal taste but I can see what I could easily do to make it my style. I have been helping some friends house hunt recently and I've realised how poor some people's imagination can be. I think these buyers will probably crop up on LLL in 2 years time having looked at elevety million houses and can't find the perfect one. Honestly I would just disregard what they said.

Your home is beautiful.
They are nuts.

I’d be tempted to reject whatever offer they come up with.

I viewed a “tired” house. It was full of clutter. Every single room in the house was a shade of blue - ie living room was pale blue wallpaper with a navy blue freize (sp?), navy blue carpet, airforce blue old leather sofa. The kitchen units needed replacing. One of the bedrooms was full of clothing from top to bottom. There was loads of stuff piled up on the floor everywhere. The bathroom suite was all blue with a glass dolphin on the shower screen. It was clear there was work needing doing on major things (plumbing, boiler etc). It was all very early 90s looking and the whole place needed gutting. Thats tired.

Your home is definitely nothing like that. I’d move into it tomorrow and do very little!

Penguins - that's what I thought, but the whole house was only converted ten years ago, and the kitchen and bathrooms are all pretty current. Internal doors and skirtings all freshly painted in antique white. Oh, I don't know, people....

Dippypippy thank you - that sounds much better than "very tired" - it's yours for fifty quid...

Guess I'll just go and open that bottle of wine that's in the fridge with my name on and give up trying to second guess them. Maybe they'll come back next week, maybe not.... I know barn conversions aren't everyone's cup of tea.

Well looking at your pictures ...you have a beautiful home. Obviously they just used that as an excuse or just crap at realising what a lovely house is.

Op your house looks amazing.
Ignore them, I too think they are trying to set the ground for a lie offer.

Low offer.

They are piss takers OP, ignore.
It's stunning!

God, I took so long typing that last reply that I missed a whole load!

Thank you for your comments - I feel a bit more heartened by them. Yes, it's a classic style - a lot of my furniture is inherited and I like it - and it's my age, probably... But I'm really relieved to think I'm not going completely mad. I really didn't think "tired" was an adjective that could be used, and it really got to me. Thank you to everyone who's said how nice it is - it is actually a really lovely house, it's just a family house and now my family have moved on and there's only me (and the dog) here, it's time to let it go and downsize. If anyone will buy it

Archie I'm in the north-east, just inside North Yorkshire....

Eleanor I'll leave a key under the mat - you can share it (or fight it out) with Dippy

Your prospective buyers are muppets. That is beautiful and looks almost exactly how DH and I want our “forever home” to look (we’re early 30s and realistically 8-10 years off being able to afford what we’d ideally like in our area). I’ve tried to do aspects of that with our current house but don’t quite have the space.

Can I be nosy and ask where you got the middle sofa from please? Really like the shape.

Marina I actually got that sofa from someone on Freecycle. Cost me nothing to acquire, but I had it reupholstered in some ticking I happened to have bought a vast amount of, so it matched my other sofas. I fell in love with the shape of it too.

We bought a house that was ‘tired’
It looked like this:

Yours isn’t to their taste. Maybe they want ultra modern new build style, maybe they have limited vocabulary but either way, I wouldn’t sweat it because the house looks lovely

"has everything we're looking for but very tired, needs completely redecorating and recarpeting to our taste, concrete dug out between flagstones (???), will think about it and let you know"

Um, I thought redecorating to your own tastes when you bought a house was normal? That's what you do, it's one of the things that makes it your home. Silly buggers. It doesn't look in the least bit tired to me anyway, it looks very nice.

I wouldn't be totally surprised if you came back and said they'd made a low offer, tbh. I could be wrong of course! But it wouldn't amaze me if they did.

Yeah, I think they know it’s awesome and they’re negging you. Bastards.

OP, I wouldn't describe it as tired, but I have mixed feelings about it.

Personally, I dislike the grey paint - it's trendy but just not to my taste. Also, I dislike the flagstone floor. It was probably very expensive and good quality, due to the colour you can't tell whether it's clean or not, and I can sort of see what they mean about wanting to dig out the concrete between the flagstones, as it does look a bit dirty. But then again perhaps the mixture was stained to match the stone colour? I think it's a marmite type floor - some people would think it's really classy, while others would hate it, but I doubt it's worth ripping up as you can't please everyone.

On the plus side the kitchen is beautiful, and grey touches aside the other rooms are pretty neutral. The dining table and chairs have that distressed look that again is a bit of a marmite thing, the patterned upholstery and the chinaware set on the table is very old fashioned and gives quite a cluttered look, but those are all things that serious buyers should be able to look past.

I doubt that any potential buyer would ever love any house enough to think 'This is ALL perfectly matched to my taste, including the furniture!", but you could consider overpainting the grey, and replace some cushions with plain fabrics, perhaps in a strong accent colour, to liven things up a bit. Also, you could pack all that china away and just leave a vase of flowers in the middle. Just some ideas to try, if you keep receiving similar comments, but you can't please everyone so don't let it get to you.

Your house is gorgeous OP I love classic style and you have done it well, it’s definitely a house I would buy. The viewers probably like interiors that look like something out of Real Hosewives of Cheshire, all shiny and bling, bleurgh! and yes they are probably doing it to make you feel insecure so you will accept a low offer, ignore their comments, it’s beautiful.

I'd live there!

I think they’re leading up to a low offer. Your house is beautiful, even if your furniture isn’t to my taste, it’s neutrally decorated and none of the decor is tired. I really wouldn’t give their comment a second thought.

@Expressedways I'd agree, they will want a low offer.

OP your house is gorgeous!

Defenbaker Thanks, that's food for thought. There isn't actually any grey paint on the walls, though it may have photographed like that. Most of the house is F&B Skimming Stone, which is a cream colour, and the main room (the one with the dining table) is a pale duck-egg blue. The flagstone floor was in when I bought the house, and yes, it probably was expensive, but it has underfloor heating, and to replace it with something else would be prohibitive. I don't dislike it enough to change it, but if someone else wanted to, that's their choice. It's a stone that has all sorts of colours in it, the mortar between the flags just is what it is, mortar coloured. Actually, I don't think they meant they wanted to dig out the mortar - I think they were suggesting my dog had done that in places, though I can't see where myself.

I will be putting the china away and just having a vase of flowers - I thought I'd leave it set up like that while I was away, as it was something different, but when the dog comes back from kennels tomorrow, it won't be practical to have it out on show.