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In all honesty, when I was house shopping for my last purchase, I actually preferred empty houses. If the house isn’t empty, I prefer very little in the home. Some houses were so busy, I felt like I was walking through a Consignment store.
I'm the same - give me an empty house any day! Easier to see how I would change/renovate the house, how I would use it and where my furniture, art etc would best work. For me a house that's chock full of furniture, knick-knacks, and over-decorated walls (whether it be art, family photos or dead animal heads) is a real turn off. And for goodness sake, take those magnets off the fridge, and not every bed or chair needs a damn throw!
With an empty house you can't hide the flooring stains by throwing down a rug, or cover up damage to walls with a few well (or badly) chosen pictures!
Agents tell me I'm in a minority - that most people find it easier to visualise where their things could go when when a house is furnished or at least minimally staged. Oh well. I've made several good purchases over the years of houses that were empty and which other buyers likely couldn't easily evaluate.
When we first looked at the house, we were not allowed inside. we asked to see the inside and we were told that would not be allowed. They were selling as is. Our realtor said their realtor suggested we make an offer, and then we might be allowed to see the inside. they were not going to clean up just for looky loos. We told them we were interested but could not make an offer without seeing the inside. they finally relented, so the condition we saw was the "Cleaned up" condition.
Needless to say, it was a fixer upper.
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Turned out to be a really awesome house in the long run. We bought it for $175,000 and sold it for $757,000 nine years later. we put about $30,000 and lots and lots of sweat equity into it. it was truly stunning inside when we left.
I love stories like yours! When DH and I sold our last house it was in very good shape but didn't have all the latest upgrades although we'd put in granite countertops, bamboo floors in the kitchen and tile floors in the bathrooms and had stripped off the odious popcorn ceilings. Feedback included complaints that the light fixtures were outdated and the appliances weren't all stainless steel. The HGTV crowd can be pretty merciless. When we bought our new place, an architect's original on a lake in a beautiful setting, I joked that the wallpaper was ugly so let's go on to the next house. We bought it, of course. I'm pretty good at removing wallpaper.
A house down the street from ours sold faster- similar floor plan but they'd painted the 2-story floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace in one of the "must-have" colors that year- mustard yellow.
One oddity in our home search when we first moved to the area was a place that advertised a "Caesar's Palace Bathroom". Well, it did draw us in! Pretty ordinary house but the attic loft had been turned into a giant bathroom with Jacuzzi, luxurious shower, etc. Totally out of character with the rest of the house and with the neighborhood.
I read once a buyer should not be able to determine your religion, hobbies, where you work or what your kids look like by walking through your home.
If it were obvious, by virtue of an art studio, for example, that a person's hobby were painting, that would get my attention right away. I would love to have an art studio.
In all honesty, when I was house shopping for my last purchase, I actually preferred empty houses. If the house isn’t empty, I prefer very little in the home. Some houses were so busy, I felt like I was walking through a Consignment store.
Exactly. I can even handle suitcases, boxes, containers of stuff etc because I understand they're packing but a bunch of personal objects, pictures, paraphernalia, toys, stuffed animals, clothes etc is too much. I can move a box but I can't move 20 objects to see something. A room should be dull especially if one isn't going for a magazine cover. Even some of these staged houses are too much.
I know someone that left their 'stuff' out in the hope someone would offer to buy it. People aren't house shopping to buy flea market/collectable items. No one wants a dusty stuffed animal or beat up furniture. And I will judge and assume those really messy people have issues and will wonder how they treated the house.
Cool stories, some scary stuff as well! We haven't seen anything really shocking but in the house we ended up buying, there was a strange set-up of mirrors and lights in the attic. The inspector commented that it was a not-so-great DIY job. We found out later that a well-known musician lived in this house when he was young and kept his guitars in the attic.
This is a fun thread! I never heard of a Tuscan kitchen, and unbeknownst to me, the kitchen I renovated in one home would (per the pic search I just did) have been called Tuscan. I love them. Now back to reading...
This is a fun thread! I never heard of a Tuscan kitchen, and unbeknownst to me, the kitchen I renovated in one home would (per the pic search I just did) have been called Tuscan. I love them. Now back to reading...
I am pretty sure at some point that they had a wallpaper border with bottles of wine and chefs on it! LOL
I don't care for that, and I don't care for word art, but I do have a big wooden sign above a window in my kitchen that says "VINO." LOL
Used condom on kitchen floor, bottle of lube on nightstand beside bed, graffiti on door to garage, walls looked like someone opened cans of coke after shaking, carpet that looked like they changed oil on it. It was an occupied home, and disgusting.
Different home...8x10 naked framed photos of sellers on coffee table and bookshelf in living rm. Like they were at a nudist camp park. Not doing anything, but standing there posing for a photo.
Dog poop all over carpeted floor in bedroom for showing.
Attack cat in another home that would growl and charge you when you tried to go thru dining rm.
Hey, my husband and I went to see a house that had this going on:
Interior all painted dark brown. DARK brown. I do not get that.
Window blinds all closed. Blind, elderly dog that barked non stop (quivering, scared to death) from a chair, not secured, just sitting there barking, unseeing, etc. the entire time. I felt so sorry for that dog. It had to be scared to death.
No fence, right next to a road. Oh, and it was dirty and smelled bad. Actually it smelled like old dog, dog pee, etc.
I mean, the photos of the house looked fine (though I should have known that there was a problem when they didn't show a wide shot of any room, and only closeups of the kitchen - because the kitchen and living room were open and both were painted dark brown). The exterior looked perfectly normal. It wasn't till you went into it that you thought, "OMG." And it was a house that is only about 4 years old!
It was on the market forever. Finally I think the owners just stayed there.
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The HGTV crowd can be pretty merciless. When we bought our new place, an architect's original on a lake in a beautiful setting, I joked that the wallpaper was ugly so let's go on to the next house. We bought it, of course. I'm pretty good at removing wallpaper.
