Viewing Minging Houses

[Smokeahontas]

I’ve only been viewing for two weeks, but my God, the amount of houses that need a clean have shocked me. I know it can be hard juggling WFH with kids, but for the love of Christ, run a Flash wipe over the kitchen counter & rinse the bath pubes away.

We angered our seller by daring to query why he hadn’t settled a £15,000 bill with the council. In return he wrenched off every curtain pole, light bulb, and left the flat utterly filthy.

The melted soap (complete with pubs) in the scummy sink was a particularly nice touch.

I spent a day helping my ex clean his minging house as the EAs had only quoted him a low asking price. Once Id hoovered away the horror film style dusty cobwebs from every room (I had to take my own hoover as he doesnt own one), cleared 30+ empty bottles and loo paper rolls out of the bathroom, chucked out the decorating crap in his spare bedroom which hadnt been touched for 5 years, including a bucket of solid wallpaper paste, and recycled loads of empty beer and whisky bottles and pizza boxes which were hanging about in the kitchen,the asking price was £7.5k more. I feel sorry for whoever buys that place, his idea of decorating was to paint the walls grey to hide the mould.

@Pandapawson

bluntness I wonder if I know the same person? Was she getting a divorce?

Always immaculate in her dress and obviously spent a lot of time on her appearance but her kids and house were filthy. I never could understand it, she had plenty of money.

Yes she was getting a divorce. It was just so odd.

If it's really bad the filth doesn't come out though. The smell gets into the wood and plaster.. so walls and ceiling and floorboards all have stench that varies with the weather and can't be got rid of. Our first house was a full reno Victorian terrace. Having watched tons of renovation TV shows I naively thought it looked quite straight forward to do. The house had original wooden sash windows rotted away and boarded up, kitchen units literally had a layer of soil underneath complete with woodlice, some walls the plaster had fallen off, layers of grease on ceilings and walls.

We did the work and cosmetically looked great. But soon the smell of fresh paint and new carpets faded and... I dreaded waking up on damp rainy mornings because by the end of the day the downstairs of the house would be filled with a grim smell. It's a very specific smell that only old Victorian or older houses ever have. Not the smell of damp and not mould, the house had neither. Just... grimness. Windows open, plug in air fresheners, Febreeze, nothing made any difference. It got into clothes, shoes, my hair...

Had to sell, I was desperately miserable by the end. Absolute nightmare!

When we viewed our house (probate) the carpets moved when you stepped on to them, the joys of moths and larvae.

The en suite bathroom was a particular joy. We had to replace floorboards as the crystallised piss lakes had started to eat away at the wood. Thank Christ the walls were tiled, significant amounts of bleach took care of that element of sprinkle damage until I could rip them off 🤢

An ex of mine bought a house for a great price. Problem was it filthy. He soaked the bath for days and the layers of filth came off in layers like dead skin It’s an impressive layer of filth

@SlipperTripper thank fuck for bleach! The toilet of the first house l bought was vile. I literally soaked it with different concoctions for days to get the stains off e.g. bleach, coke, soap crystals etc

We viewed a house that stunk of dog. Not just a little but to the point we literally wanted to vomit and couldn’t get the smell out of our noses when we left. And that was with masks on. So, so bad. Male, intact dogs that must never have been washed and the smell permeated everything. Maybe other smells contributing but wow. It was on the market a long while as also over priced for what it was. Got taken off without a sale

In America the will be upfront and tell you to clean it.
I'm always amazed at agents here. I've seen my fair share of ptibste hoyses and the families, maybe living at a distance, have not cleared any of the owners possessions. But it really would only cost a few hundred to get a clearance company in and then give it a good clean- adding thousands to the price. But no the agents seem worried about offending them.

This is a relief to read. We're on the market now and have two kids, I'm exhausted. Been running around keeping the place as clean and neat as possible. My DH keeps telling me to chill out slightly. This makes me feel like we've got half a chance of making a decent impression!

@Slub

One of the worst I viewed - house was generally untidy and a slobby sullen teen was laid out full length on the couch. Best bit was in the bathroom loo a massive unflushed turd the size of a babby's arm Didn't make an offer.

Oh Lord, that wasn't in Australia was it Slub, we were renting when the house was put up for sale just as my 6ft 4in nephew arrived for a visit, he conked out on the two seater sofa just before a viewing and afterwards my five year old who was scared of flushing announced he'd left one in the spare loo!! I was mortified. How funny if that had happened twice in the history of the world

My house wasn’t minging when it was open to viewers (open day) but when we returned, there was a floater in the downstairs loo. Still no idea whether one of my filthy kids left it at the last minute or whether one of the people views dropped it and and forgot to flush

I also had a dreadful experience renting a house in New Zealand. I was back packing but decided to stay in this area to look for work. Took possession of a rented house without furniture and slept in my sleeping bag on the living room floor. I was woken in the morning by the letting agent flinging open the door to show potential renters around! Guess someone forgot to pass the message on that it had gone. We were all mortified.

@YukoandHiro the fact you’re thinking about it and it concerns you. Says to me that your house is fine!

Loving you user name by the way. Do many people get the reference?

@AhaShakeHeartbreak12

We viewed one with mouldy food in the fridge. My MIL opened it because we smelled something off around the house and wanted to know what. Also had dressing gowns still hanging on the doors

Slightly confused why dressing gowns hung on a door would be an issue?

We've had our house on the market for a week now and have desperately been trying to keep the house clean and clutter free despite having two young kids and both WFH

Trying to get the laundry done throughout the week has been a challenge so that it's not on display while drying but I'm certainly not taking our dressing gowns down from the hooks on our bedroom doors!

One house the tenant did not want to move, he left the kitchen knee deep in crap when he had viewings, and was always in the bath so I never saw the bathroom before I bought it. Another one had student tenants, and when I finally bought it the sitting room was covered in old banana skins, beer cans, biscuits. And the bathroom ...

I believe she meant that the owner/tenants moved out and their dressing gowns had been left behind

We viewed a house once which was spotless - no clutter, well dusted, carpets hoovered. Until we reached the teen girl's bedroom on the top floor and there was one of those yellow plastic tampon applicators lying on the floor. My husband wouldn't have known what it was as I doubt he's ever seen one used. But once I saw it I couldn't unsee it. Put me off the house completely.

The house we did buy was spotless when we viewed it. It was spotless when we moved in too, because the owners had fortunately paid for professional cleaners to clean on moving day. It took 2 of them 8 hours to do the house from top to bottom and they said it was the worst job they'd ever done

Once when viewing, I opened a toilet door....there it was...over the seat and running down the outside of the pan....also a fridge in the hallway that stank...opened it and was full or rotting food..!!...vendor didn't seem to notice the toilet dripping in diarhea or the fridge...gross !!

"and are happy for dozens of strangers to view them in that condition."

I do understand the spirit of what you are saying, but surely the operative word in the above phrase is "strangers" and that is exactly how the seller of the house in question views you hence they do not give a monkeys what you think of the cleanliness of their house (or not)??
in their eyes (if they are intelligent) it just means (whether they realise it or not) that the house will take longer to sell if it is not well maintained.

unless the unhygienic state has actually ended up having potential structural or material financial implications (eg infestation of pests or rotting to a serious and urgent extent) surely they just think "well pay a professional cleaning company when you move in" in their own head when they put their property on the market.

some people really do not feel any attachment to the house they live in, particularly so when they are selling it and about to move out and never live in it again. Strange but true.

@Luxy I wish it was Australia but alas somewhere that is somewhat less sunny - Oop North in England aka Yorkshire

We also bought a disgusting house. It reeked of cigarette smoke and dog, and the owners must’ve cleaned it once a year (if that). It was vile.

Saved us a load of money though, although we did have to gut the place!

It would put me off because I’d worry that they’d been sloppy about maintenance also.

My mum bought a house where the floorboards were soaked in cat piss - the previous owner was an older lady with 2 indoor cats who were either ill or who had never had trays. Years later after multiple floorboard scrubbing and carpet replacement etc you would still occasionally catch a whiff of it. Once smelled never forgotten.

She did manage to sell at a profit (that was the 80s for you) but could never quite believe it. It was a horrible house but we were lucky to get it, the only place we could have afforded there.

I bought my first house with a lot of the possessions of the previous (deceased) owner still in situ. It took two skips and a month of bleach, jif and scrubbing before I could relax. But I paid a lot less than the house was worth, and doubled my money when I sold 8 years later.

As for old people and immaculate gardens, it is much easier to maintain a garden on a pension, than it is to renew kitchens, bathrooms, decor, carpets etc. because most gardening work is hand done and doesn't cost anything.