Can you see through the decor on a house viewing?

[Diversion]

When you go to view a property, it has a new bathroom, a fairly new and modern kitchen and has been well maintained. Presuming it has pretty much everything you were looking for and is priced within your range could you see through the decor if it was not to your taste and realise that it just needed new paint or wallpaper? Or would it put you off?

It depends OP! If it was just a colour au wasn’t a big fan of, yes. If it was an absolute monstrosity, honestly that is hard to get past! Not least because you’d have to spend either all of your weekends painting to get rid of it before you could settle in, or because you’d have to spend £1000s on a decorator to get rid of it.

Yes, I have always seen through the decor. It's easily altered. I can also see past clutter.
It's the location and the price, the layout and no obviously major problems that would sell it to me. (And have done, several times!)

I would be able to yes. But I would be put off by wallpaper only because I could not be bothered stripping it all and it would probably need skimming too.

Yes- I’m all about buying the worst house on the best road. You can’t change where the house is. Everything else you can change over time. The house we just bought is pretty dated but it’s completely functional and we wouldn’t have been able to afford the one that’s already been modernised.

Surely the vast majority of people would see last any kind of decor, clutter, or minor repairs and just want a house that's structurally sound? I can't imagine ever buying a house that was decorated to my taste and that I didn't want to change.

Yes, absolutely. But I’m always amazed how many people can’t.

Agree with others here. Is the house structurally sound, in a good location and has potential to make it the house you want? The rest is not important. Once they remove their pictures and furniture, you'll likely see that you'll have to redecorate anyway as it will leave stains and patchiness.

Everyone who posts will of course say yes they see past that, but also on every “why isn’t my house selling” thread people talk bout how important the decor is as “people can’t see past that”

I think it’s always “other people” who are influenced by decor…

Yea I can see through most, but I once looked around a house and every room had been painted in a very dark colour think dark dark purple, dark dark blue that one I could just not get past , all I could think of was how much extra I would have to spend on paint to brighten it up, the colour made all the rooms dark and gloomy which was not helped by the really tall trees shading the garden and all back rooms

Depends... I can see past it and would generally buy a house assuming I'm going to completely redecorate to my taste. But if a house was all done up to the nines and expecting me to pay top dollar for their awful taste, then no I'm not going to pay extra for the pleasure of throwing all your grey tiles in a skip.

Yes. I can also see past bad fittings. The most important things for me are space, aspect, light, potential for change e.g knocking walls down, adding bathrooms, extensions, change of layout etc. The decor and fittings can always be improved.

My dh hated our current house because the decor was hideous and that made him hate the whole house, now he loves it and won't move.

I don’t think a lot of people can. When you’re buying a house you’re buying a lifestyle. If the house is badly painted is unfashionable colours, strong dark colours that will take a lot of coats to cover especially then it puts people off. If they walk in and think ‘this is just my style’ they are much more likely to buy and then be disappointed when they move in and the vendors take all the nice decor with them.

Yes for sure as I know my own style and could see how I would decorate it 😁

Yes I can. When we bought our house it had carpets with swirly 70s patterns, floral wallpaper and chintzy curtains. 25 years later it looks nothing like it did back then. The bathroom and kitchen were perfectly serviceable if not to our taste but lasted until we had saved up again.

If I know I’m going to need to strip several rooms of their awful wallpaper, or rip up carpets to replace with wood, or swap out all the navy blue cabinet doors in the kitchen, then my offer is going to reflect that. If the place is a tip and the owners clearly have no pride in their home then I’m going to assume they also haven’t been maintaining it very well, and my offer will reflect that, too. If I’ve viewed several properties I like and can take my pick of those with decor I won’t need to do much to, or which I can see are well-maintained, I just won’t make an offer on the others. I think that’s the reality for most people: most people can see past things, they often just have plenty of other options which don’t require them to.

Depends, i viewed a house entirely decorated in shades of grey and I remember thinking - this is being sold as a ‘done up’ house and I hate all the grey so to me it’s not worth paying for when i would have to re-decorate the lot. I actually like seeing a house with properly old décor because then there are so many possibilities it’s quite exciting.

See straight through it

My aunt didn't buy a house in Somerset because it was exactly to her taste. Everything. There was nothing she could do to improve it, so she couldn't 'make it hers'. The place she did buy was absolutely gorgeous after she had tweaked it.

I can, but it can be overwhelming when every room needs something doing to it.

I watched a property program once and the people were like, “Oh, I don’t like the lampshade…” Bitch, please.

It depends.

A house that is well presented but not to my taste; fine, I get a good impression of the house and I know I can redecorate bit by bit.

A house with dirty walls and carpets, that I will have to immediately rip out and redecorate from top to bottom before I'd feel able to live in it, is off-putting.

I think the main thing is that the house is clean and in decent condition, well looked after rather than neglected.

Oh definitely, but then I used to be married to an estate agent, and saw a lot of houses in my time!

I struggle. I’m awful at visualising things and find it very hard to see past the decor. If it was fairly neutral then maybe, but anything more I just can’t visualise and it would put me off.

I knew someone who was put off buying a house because she didn't approve of the sellers daytime childcare arrangements which were pinned to the fridge door.

Absolutely.
Both my OH and I are very proficient at looking through decor, furnishings etc and understanding how we would remodel, redecorate, extend etc. Somehow we both have the ability to visualise things and disregard things which are not important to us.

A relation bought a house a couple of years ago, we raised red-flags just by looking at the RM listing but were dismissed and unfortunately we were proved to be correct in practically every point (and then some!). Turned into a money pit putting right a whole host of repairs & "improvements" carried out by the previous owners who clearly had more enthusiasm than skill.☹️

Can see through the decor but then consider price and disruption to put it right. If a similar house has less of an issue with decor then I would not put an offer in.