House on the market ....

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!

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’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

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

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

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!

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!

Shandy57

All these months later I regret being so sympathetic towards my vendor's apparent nervousness due to Covid.

She ushered me so quickly from room to room I missed lots of things I should have asked questions about.

She shouldn't have been in the house at all, Shandy!

People we know were selling their house and they went to stay with relatives while the estate agent took charge of the viewings. They weren't allowed back straight away afterwards.

All these months later I regret being so sympathetic towards my vendor's apparent nervousness due to Covid.

She ushered me so quickly from room to room I missed lots of things I should have asked questions about.

Coastpath I'm glad I not alone with a fussy husband! Mine has one of those laser measure machines toys and points it at walls to get readings in alcoves and awkward corners where he sees the potential to extend!

Mr Coastpath views lofts Josieann. He's balanced on stools with his head amongst cobwebs and Christmas trimmings in many houses. He's also an electric socket counter and water pressure tester!! Aside from this he's a normal, interesting guy.

Germanshepherdsmum you're so right about the lack of storage in new build homes. I always feel they're designed on a computer to get the most out of every inch and that the person operating the computer has never owned a mop or a vacuum cleaner.

They certainly should. Lofts can hide all sorts of horrors.

On the second viewing -yes! That’s when you really poke about.

Got caught out when I was young by vendors who left a loft full of junk. Now I make sure complete clearance is written into the contract or a hefty penalty.

Does anyone actually bother to view the loft? Or only if you have plans to convert it?

Storage space is important to me too and sadly lacking in many new homes.

I admit it - I am a cupboard peeper. It's not purely that I'm nosy (I am!) but knowing how much storage space a house has is important to me so cupboard size is as important as room size.

We viewed three identical houses on the same estate.

We bought the clean and tidy one.

If the others couldn’t be bothered to clean we assumed they wouldn’t have bothered much with maintenance either.

My DH is fussy about shower pressure and I have to hold him back from testing the plumbing when we view houses.

I agree Coastpath. You can't openly discuss any changes you'd make if the owner is there or check out the cupboards (well, not unless you're a rather rude person!).

I'm eager to know how things went too hazel93.

My pet hate when viewing houses it the owner being there. I always go out when people come to view, I think the owner being there is a distraction and stops you visualising the house as yours.

Oh yes, how many viewers did you have? Did they show any interest, do you know? We had immediate feedback from the agent on the day, and the offers came in on the Monday and Tuesday.

hazel hope everything went well with your open house and nothing was damaged.

Yes, someone broke the catch closing a window on our 5 year old townhouse in London. I hadn't accompanied them up to the top floor. I assume they wanted to see the full view.

Hope it goes well for you today and do follow them around. I was cross to find someone had broken the handle on my Aga.

Dig out any paperwork on planning permission for future projects.