Dear person who's trying to sell their home,

[Delicateflower]

Please pick the dirty towels up from the floor of the bathroom before you take pictures to post on the internet.

Yours Sincerely,
Not Enthused By Your House

PS: I'd advise you to open the shower curtain before taking photos but from the look of the rest of the room maybe it's better off hidden.

[CariOfOz]

We're house hunting and If our locations weren't so far apart I'd assume we'd looked at the same house hehehe. Towels on the floor were the least of the offences I've seen really... try a LARGE pile of laundry (with upturned basket on top) just dumped ont he floor in the corner, and a picture *specifically* taken of it to post on the internet? : I wanted to make an enquiry to the agent asking if the pile of laundry was included in the sale price

[slsurface]

Oh god, you wouldn't believe some of the things DH and I saw while house hunting a couple years ago! : We looked at hundreds of houses online and actually visited 50 or more before finding our current house. Some people don't even pick up the mess when the know a stranger is coming over to look at their house! One of the grossest things I saw was a petrified brownie left on a stairway shelf...it was coated in a layer of dust and grime . DH and I practically ran screaming from that house! Other homes had 12 years of grease coating the wall behind the stovetop. Some didn't bother sweeping up mounds of dog/cat hair or hiding the roach motels and ant bait in every room. :Puke I could go on and on, but I'll spare you .

[Biscuits & Gravy]

Oh, man. House hunting is seriously eye opening in regards to how other people live, isn't it? We aren't hunting at this moment but were, and will be again soon, and I have yelled at the computer screen because of crappy photos. I really don't need a close up of your dirty, outdated oven hood. What I really want is a photo of the entire kitchen. I don't need a picture of the mirror in the bathroom. Show me the whole room! Pointless photos are so annoying and frustrating.

[rebeccalynn]

This just totally makes me scratch my head especially in this market. I would never buy a house like that. If that is how they let visitors see their house then I do not have high hopes in the quality of care that the house has had during their ownership.

[chiromamma]

When we looked at our current house it was clean but so cluttered full of stuff that we couldn't see the good points. Our agent saw what was underneath the ugly carpet, wallpaper and clutter and advised us to make an offer. We were the first folks to make one and the house had been on the market for months.
Sometimes it's good if the house looks like crap if it's structurally sound. It gives you leverage as a buyer.
OTOH, the sellers may not be that committed to selling.

[mags]

Ppl like that have no clue how awful their living space looks. My parents are like that. They have a nice house underneath it all... if only ppl will be able to get past the crazy clutter they have and how it makes THEM look like they are mentally unsound. I dread the day that they will have to sell their house and have a feeling that it will be after they pass away and *I* will have to deal with it. It's one of those situations where I would literally just get two big dumpters pulled up to the driveway and throw EVERYTHING in the house away...

[luv-my-boys]

omgosh that is one of our biggest complaints as well...oh and the pointless pictures that show you nothing about the house. Literally we saw tons and tons of listings that just had pictures of the bathroom mirror or say 1 closet yet had no pictures of the bedrooms or even say the "big backyard" they advertised.

[Amys1st]

Originally Posted by chiromamma

When we looked at our current house it was clean but so cluttered full of stuff that we couldn't see the good points. Our agent saw what was underneath the ugly carpet, wallpaper and clutter and advised us to make an offer. We were the first folks to make one and the house had been on the market for months.
Sometimes it's good if the house looks like crap if it's structurally sound. It gives you leverage as a buyer.
OTOH, the sellers may not be that committed to selling.

Our house was stuffed high w stuff. Also some crazy home repair. It was on the market for months than over a year or so. We watched it for 10 mos and then came in w an offer. My realtor saw it when it came thru her office and the listing agent made the seller declutter and clean it up. She talked us into seeing it again. We love taking it apart and putting it back together and we LOVE our new neighborhood.

[Delicateflower]

Originally Posted by mags

Ppl like that have no clue how awful their living space looks. My parents are like that. They have a nice house underneath it all... if only ppl will be able to get past the crazy clutter they have and how it makes THEM look like they are mentally unsound. I dread the day that they will have to sell their house and have a feeling that it will be after they pass away and *I* will have to deal with it. It's one of those situations where I would literally just get two big dumpters pulled up to the driveway and throw EVERYTHING in the house away...

But you'd think the realtor would say something, wouldn't you?

Sometimes it's good if the house looks like crap if it's structurally sound. It gives you leverage as a buyer.
OTOH, the sellers may not be that committed to selling.

there's a new house just been listed that is appallingly decorated. Four different kinds of wallpaper in each room, five items of bric a brac on every flat surface. I'll bet we'll be able to make a lowball offer on it in six months. And make them buy us a steamer for the wallpaper

luv-my-boys omgosh that is one of our biggest complaints as well...oh and the pointless pictures that show you nothing about the house. Literally we saw tons and tons of listings that just had pictures of the bathroom mirror or say 1 closet yet had no pictures of the bedrooms or even say the "big backyard" they advertised.
Today 01:31 PM

or one listing with five pictures of the outside front of the house and none of any of the bedrooms.

[CariOfOz]

Originally Posted by rebeccalynn

This just totally makes me scratch my head especially in this market. I would never buy a house like that. If that is how they let visitors see their house then I do not have high hopes in the quality of care that the house has had during their ownership.

THAT is it in a nutshell isn't it. If the place is that feral, chances are they haven't done a lick of preventative maintenance since the day they moved in

Originally Posted by luv-my-boys

omgosh that is one of our biggest complaints as well...oh and the pointless pictures that show you nothing about the house. Literally we saw tons and tons of listings that just had pictures of the bathroom mirror or say 1 closet yet had no pictures of the bedrooms or even say the "big backyard" they advertised.

Here a popular thing is to show LOADS of pics of the local area... like the park down the road etc etc. Those are things I could see doing a drive by on my own tyvm. Show me THE HOUSE dammit. And these are houses less than 5yrs old in a VERY nice reasonably new development, so the houses should be in good shape!

Originally Posted by Delicateflower

But you'd think the realtor would say something, wouldn't you?

there's a new house just been listed that is appallingly decorated. Four different kinds of wallpaper in each room, five items of bric a brac on every flat surface. I'll bet we'll be able to make a lowball offer on it in six months. And make them buy us a steamer for the wallpaper

THe realtor probably took the pics, and you are right, it amazes me they'll even sign a contract to sell a house like that! I wouldn't as a realtor, not without making them take a snow shovel and scrape that crap into a skip bin! and @ steamer... that'd be amusing hehehe

[mags]

Originally Posted by Delicateflower

But you'd think the realtor would say something, wouldn't you?
.

You'd be surprised. My own mom was a real estate agent (yes and her place looks like a dump), and she had some really difficult clients who would NOT listen to her. She recommended to one client, that they replace the carpet in their house (three kids and a dog that was not totally potty trained...). She told her to pick something neutral. Like beige. The client re-carpeted the ENTIRE house in PINK!!! My mom was pissed! There were other houses in the neighborhood that sold sooner and the client got PO'd at my mom (and my mom wanted to tell her, well YOU picked the pink carpet!). When my mom finally sold the house for them, she left a rose in a vase at their house as a congratulatory thing and the client complained that my mom was cheap and should have left an entire bouquet of roses... So, the point is, that some ppl, regardless of what they are told by their real estate agent will just do whatever they want to do, even if it's stupid. My mom had another client who insisted on frying FISH before an open house. You can only imagine how thrilled my mom was with having to show a smelly house...

[Ola_]

One of the places I went to see had dirty underwear and socks tossed on the bedroom floor, unmade bed, open closet with stuff spilling out - and we had made an appointment ahead of time, so it's not like they had no warning. From the signs of it the rest of the house was maintained just as badly.

The house we bought (not the one above!) was very dark, all the curtains were closed and some windows even had double curtains. Between that and the outdated decor it was on the market for a long time for this area - we've actually often wondered if it was because the agent didn't advise them to change it, or if they refused.

[SugarAndSun]

Wow! I clean my house ad nauseum for house showings!!!!

[rebeccalynn]

In reading all of this, I am just thinking of having to deal with my IL's house some day after they die (or hoping that we don't have to ).

[Adamsmama]

I have thought that too! Do the people that do that not have any knowledge of selling or marketing anything at all? Who would want to buy something messy and dirty -- at least create the illusion that it is clean!

[jnowacinski]

One house that we passed on had a whole medicine cabinet full of USED q-tips

[sapphire_chan]

Might not be their fault 100%. Our agent wanted to take pictures the day we signed on with her and we had to tell her to wait to list the house for a week so we could clean the house.

But, um they really should've taken the 20 seconds to clear that out no matter who was taking the pictures.

[chanibell]

Originally Posted by jnowacinski

One house that we passed on had a whole medicine cabinet full of USED q-tips

Yep that's pretty gross. You never know how some people live. And when you find out,its shocking! I'm both amazed and appalled when I watch that show Clean House. I saw one episode the other day where the parents had not slept in their bed in 2 years b/c the room was trashed....really?

[PapayaMom]

it goes both ways though. Our house is on the market and we get all sorts of people looking in our windows and wandering around our yard, it's very creepy for a SAHM to have people on my property and the pictures on the listing are clear that we still live here. Make an appointment people!