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When looking for homes my husbands turn-offs were floral wall paper (too much work) and lack of a tub in the master. Pluses would be a huge garage, lots of accessible storage for seasonal stuff, man cave room and lots of land.
My turnoffs were small master closets, small kitchens, no gas in kitchen, small laundry. Pluses would be the spa master bath, beautiful kitchens, and hardwood floor or tile throughout. I was also the one picky about location.
Dirty homes, weird paint, or carpet did not affect our decisions. At the right price we would have been happy to update a kitchen or bath as long as the footprint was there.
Why in the world would someone's decorating style turn someone off about a house ? It's their stuff- when you move in you bring your stuff. Don't like the wall colors, wall papers, lighting fixtures, etc. change them.
If you can't see past other people's decorating or room use preferences, you're going to be passing up some great houses. Develop imagination. When I look at photos online, I'm trying to see such things as scale, how one room is accessed from another room, door and window placements and so on. Whether things are masculine or feminine is just fluff , not important to me.
Agree with this - I mean unless you're looking for move-in condition, literally.
What have you seen at showings or open houses or pictures online that made you reject a home 1) If you are a man, too feminine 2) If you are a woman, too masculine, to the point that you could not see yourself living there.
There was a house so "modern bachelor" that it would have taken hundreds of thousands to facelift.
I tend to like plainer, simpler things. I hate kitchen remodels with excessive granite/SS/etc in modest homes, or bathroom remodels that look like they belong in a 5 star hotel in Italy, not in a 1200 sq foot home in a metro area. I like new and modern, but some people take remodels too far.
I dont mind wall paper, bad carpet, weird paint, since all that can change with a weekend of work.
Honestly, in my opinion, the best aesthetically pleasing remodels are done by professional flippers, at least in my area. They don't go overboard with high end BS and usually do quality work (again, at least in my area).
The worst are the DIY remodels... selective high-end materials, mix of low-end materials, bad design, poor craftsmenship, and an expectation of a premium price upon selling. Ugh. I don't even bother following up on those homes unless they sit on the market for a few weeks and they're ready to negotiate.
Last edited by smarterguy; 04-30-2014 at 10:30 AM..
When my wife and I were looking, I saw things thinking, oh that is going to need to be fixed up and didn't really want to bother with it. My wife saw the same things and thought, that is going to need to be fixed up, but that's okay...because she knew I would have to do it.
It was things like old faucets, older water heater, paint, one place we saw needed new trim. We are moving from a house that was a fixer upper and I spent a lot of time working on it. These days I just want to enjoy my home and not have to do a bunch of work to it. My wife on the other hand thinks these small things are okay...since she doesn't do the work. But it seems like a lot of the house have a lot of small things to do.
That was our biggest male and female differences when looking at houses.
When my wife and I were looking, I saw things thinking, oh that is going to need to be fixed up and didn't really want to bother with it. My wife saw the same things and thought, that is going to need to be fixed up, but that's okay...because she knew I would have to do it.
It was things like old faucets, older water heater, paint, one place we saw needed new trim. We are moving from a house that was a fixer upper and I spent a lot of time working on it. These days I just want to enjoy my home and not have to do a bunch of work to it. My wife on the other hand thinks these small things are okay...since she doesn't do the work. But it seems like a lot of the house have a lot of small things to do.
That was our biggest male and female differences when looking at houses.
Hate to say it, but kind of felt like looking in a mirror when i read this about your wife. :-)
Lots of small, weekend projects don't bother me at all. It's the huge projects I'm afraid of, and those are the ones that appeal to my husband but never get done.
My husband too wants move in ready. He doesn't care about ugly paint but he wouldn't consider sinking a fortune into a house, I would if we saved that fortune on the purchase price. I'm more interested in location and he's more interested in details like room flow, closet space etc.
We actually are a pretty good team, I'll never allow him to get the McMansion on the tiny lot and he'll never let me buy the decaying old Victorian. We get better every purchase too. This time we have a twenty year old suburban house that needed some work but not too much and is on a great big lot for our area.
What have you seen at showings or open houses or pictures online that made you reject a home 1) If you are a man, too feminine 2) If you are a woman, too masculine, to the point that you could not see yourself living there.
One thing that helped when we sold our home was hiring a cleaning woman to come in a do a deep cleaning and having the windows professionally cleaned. Many comments on how clean and bright our 100 y/o house was.
When we looked for our current home, I tried to notice whether cleaning made a difference. I used to think I didn't care about cleanliness as I could always give it a good cleaning. However, I noticed that the homes I didn't really care for regardless of the nice kitchen, big garage, etc. were the homes that smelled funny. A good cleaning would have helped.
Absolutely right about a good cleaning and we did that, used the realtors cleaning lady and she and her team were awesome. I then went back and got all the door tracks on the floor as well as all the window sill between the window and screens.
Along with our house on the market my DH just had a house in an estate listed that I helped clean out. What a difference that made on a 1950's starter ranch home! It had a contract in one day, and the only stipulation was to leave the yellow breadbox that matched the yellow retro kitchen. Also wanted a couple of bedroom pieces which was perfect, less to get rid of before closing.
Great topic! I think there is a buyer out there for every house as evidenced by the wide variance of good/bad details already posted here. For us, the last 2 homes we purchased had jetted tubs and we never used them as both hubby and I have really bad arthritic knees and couldn't get in or out of them if we tried. So in our final retirement home in the south, I asked the builder to take out the free-standing tub and replace it with a large built in window seat with storage under the window. Hubby can easily look at the bones of the house, flow of traffic, how well it is constructed while I look at the kitchen and baths. The kitchen has to have enough cabinets, a large pantry and a good work field and prep space. I can always replace appliances. A big turn off for me is any evidence of water damage or water spots on ceilings/walls. I don't know what's behind or above that and I don't expect to tear out the walls to inspect it. Hubby has taught me to strip away mentally all the furniture, paint colors, and bad decorating in order to see the size of the rooms, flow, etc. I enjoy cooking so having natural gas is a big plus or if the previous owner put in a propane tank. I also like a light-filled interior and open spaces esp as we are getting older. I prefer hardwood floors everywhere but we compromised this time and put carpet in the bedrooms.
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