House on the market ....

My EA was unable to do all of my viewings Callistemon21, I hated it when I had to do them. I remember one man pointing at the D'longi electric radiator and shouting 'I see the boiler is inefficient'! I pointed out that we had single glazing on draughty sash windows, stripped wooden floors and very high ceilings - and the temperature had been 0. Idiot. As they were leaving I couldn't believe it when the man said they'd just 'missed out' on a house because the vendor wouldn't drop the price! Bye bye losers!

Definitely de-clutter and clean. I'm really put off by a dingy house view. I also prefer to view an empty house, find it really embarrassing if the owners are showing me around. An Open Day sounds like an excellent idea - get all the viewings over in one go. I suppose it depends on the current demand, though.
Best of luck with selling!

Barn conversions and period properties are also notorious for lack of storage space.

Our 1847 house had a recess in each of the bedrooms with hooks for clothing. I do miss my gigantic airing cupboard though!

I’ve got a friend who cleans before her cleaner comes and I’ve given my bathroom a thorough do this morning even though I did it well on Saturday in readiness for the plumber. So I probably would clean before viewings

yes....always clean house when I am selling ! the laughable thing is, when we lived in a large old house in Brittany, the Immobilier would call me to let me know when he was bringing someone round ............until one Sunday .....I was in the garden hanging out the washing, house not tidied, husband in gardening clothes digging something up ....me in my tatty cleaning clothes..........Immobilier turned up with a couple of Parisians looking to retire to Brittany ............excused the state of the place............they bought it, full asking price !!!!!!! now I did wonder if it had been pristine they may not have bought it ! Also in France, when we first bought that house, nothing was tidied away ....clothes over chairs in bedroom, beds unmade...but the couple we bought it off were lovely ...........there was a huge 4 acre garden and they were retaining half and building a new house on half of the garden for their retirement ! suited us perfectly ............so it just goes to show, no need to go mad ....but I know we all prefer to do it ! Sold my house in the UK before I went to Europe to live for 22 years...........had a phone call at work asking if someone could come round at 6.00pm ....I had to rush to get home by then, so nothing was 'prepared'......couple bought it on the spot (well, after the legal stuff was sorted of course !............

I moved from a small 350 year old cottage a few weeks ago to a 1960's very ugly house (because I had to for financial reasons) It's a bigger house on a huge plot (I only had a courtyard garden) but there are no cupboards at all in it other than one which has an enormous water tank in it which you can barely get to anyway! Not even room for a bin in the kitchen!! My cottage had cupboards everywhere as I had built it like that when I put in the new kitchen - this one is bigger but nowhere to put anything!

I agree. Clean house makes all the difference. NB I didn’t say “tidy” because that isn’t important.

I once moved into a rental house in Jersey CI from the mainland with a 12 week old baby. It was filthy! I just sat down and cried, before wiping my tears and getting on with it. Lesson learnt, I left each house pristine when moving.

I cleaned mine just before the valuation, never mind the rest!

How did it go hazel93? Fingers crossed someone fell in love with your house.

Definitely clean and tidy. Then people can visualise what living in your house would be like. If it’s untidy or needs a good clean that’s the memory people will take away, an unloved house. Clean the windows too it just makes everything seem brighter. The old trick of baking bread or cakes always helps too. Gook luck

Good luck, hope you have a quick sale. Clean and tidy but not obsessively so. Last sold 2009, financial crash kicked in as well as the stupid home report. Had thought it would take a year. House on market Friday afternoon, viewer on Saturday am, sold on Monday after second viewing. Did have other viewers booked for the week. Even offered more than the value which was determined at that time by surveyors. Couldn't believe it, scramble to find a new home.

De-clutte,de-clutter,de-clutter before putting the house on the market. Get the garden in good order, put some pots of plants outside, we had the front door repainted into a more modern colour from red to grey, kerb appeal is key here. We put our modest three bed bungalow on the IOW and received £30,000 over the asking price.

Not only clean and tidy but no unpleasant smell. When we were house hunting as soon as the vendor opened the door we knew whether they had a dog or baby. Also clean paintwork.
When buying a new caravan instead of going to a Show we asked people on a site if we could look at theirs in the morning when it was untidy and before the beds were stored away.

I hope the viewings went well.
I had a stream of viewers the weekend mine went on the market and cleaned and tidied for days before!
I sold it that day and was glad as I found the viewings pretty stressful!

Myself and DP ‘went’ to view a house on Saturday. But we were a week early DP hadn’t read the email properly ?
Both disappointing and embarrassing!

We have a lovely estate agent living and working from a village near us. If things don’t look right he advises the client to change the table around or move a piece of furniture out to give it a more pleasing look. I think it’s a great idea because most of us just get used to the way we like it and not someone else’s viewpoint.

I'm with you! Does he really want to sell? Don't sound like it! I wonder what fellas would do if we "left" cleaning etc as they moan at us to? Probably wouldn't notice the filth , it's genetic ya know?

Beanutz2115

De-clutte,de-clutter,de-clutter before putting the house on the market. Get the garden in good order, put some pots of plants outside, we had the front door repainted into a more modern colour from red to grey, kerb appeal is key here. We put our modest three bed bungalow on the IOW and received £30,000 over the asking price.

It's IOW dear , not Burnley!

Ds bought apartment 2 beds in 2007.... exactly. They allowed him to buy interest only without any means of repaying (endowment policy etc) scoot forward to 2022.? Stuck on negative equity apartment only one not for rent in area. Stuck seemingly forevermore and will hav to sell probably at a loss to repay when mortgage finishes.! Been for sale for 12yes12 years!!! Lovely and clean /tidy well maintained BUT overpriced by Barratt when he bought and cannot cover what he owes!! So! Short of do in g a runner or declaring h I'm myself bankrupt? In the north West of England this sad sorry tale is oh so common, and I'm sick to the back teeth of everyone saying how property markets are booming! Not here they're not

I would definitely be the same, though hubbie says it is because I am a Virgo! A friend sent me this recently which made me smile as it is so true ... of me anyway!
''I do not need to hire a housekeeper to get my house clean ..I just need a friend to text me and say they are stopping by in 20 minutes''

My daughter didn't understand my constant cleaning when we were on the market. I kept the whole house tidy and hoovered and dusted, sometimes not cooking the night before so the Aga was pristine! I always thoroughly cleaned both the kitchen and bathroom before every viewing. I had to hide the cat litter tray under a sheet in the airing cupboard (always clean!) and all of their food dishes in the kitchen.

So terribly disappointing when people cancelled, I missed quite a few events due to viewings. Lack of feedback always upset me too, although some of the feedback I did receive was tripe.

There are two of us rattling around an eight bedroomed Victorian semi. Ridiculous. It has to go. Then there are the three large hounds, a snake and four birds of prey. Both of us are chronically untidy and I stopped cleaning when I had to start working 10 years ago! Had a heart attack, so no longer earning, so cannot afford a cleaner.

Then what to do with all the "stuff". From family antique furniture, paintings, crystal and silver. Then 5,000+ books! My young are disinterested in heirlooms. Anyway, two no speakies and youngest in LA.

Envisaged things staying in the family for ever, as they did historically and in stately homes!!

Patently my life is now truncated. Offspring scattered with no permanent residences.

Any advice would be appreciated.

DD

A clean and uncluttered house does give a viewer the chance to see room proportions, and gives a better first impression surely. I've seen houses on Rightmove with unmade beds, duvets pulled up over lumpy items ( possibly somebody?) and kitchens with much grease in evidence and washing up stacked on the sink and drainer. Not to mention the grim bathrooms with black mould in the grouting - yuk. I wonder if it does make any difference? I remember one set of photos with an elderly person sitting eating off a tray on the sofa. Pehaps she refused to move!

Then 5,000+ books!
Oh yes, I know how you feel

I've started!
Today I got rid of the first 10 ?, only 4,990 to go through, wondering if I'll re-read or not .....

Everywhere looks worse now I've started to go through cupboards. 5 million photos to sort through (well, it looks like 5 million in various boxes).

My sympathies to you in your situation dalrymple. I have just cleared my mother's house that was full of my great grandmother (born 1860) s items. My father was an only child and only grandson who inherited a houseful. In addition there are Victorian photograph albums and autograph books and post card collections to deal with. I was surprised that a local auction house was prepared to take nearly everything with the exception of some 'brown furniture' of more modern vintage. The latter were taken by local charities tho some were a bit fussy. I had boxed up about 25 boxes of 'bric a brac' and other small stuff including some books and in the end one charity took them, again not easy to get organised. I used a local freecycle group and also sourced a charity that took tools and a sewing machine and another took garden tools. Sadly there are few people now who will remember my gran and the house she lived in which belonged to her mother. So there is little interest from the descendants scattered around the world and of course people now have smaller houses, smaller families and different lifestyles. For example no one wants silver due to burden of keeping clean and no one now has 'special' stuff/room to display such items.