Sellers - first impressions count

circuit

I wasn'y saying you should buy a house based on the colour of the walls. I was suggesting ways if MAKING THE MOST of your house when people come round so they remember it in a positive light. It does matter if your house smells and has huge pieces of furniture hiding important features.
As I said, we have are buying a structurally sound, damp-free house untouched since the 70s with absolutely nothing in it, magnolia or otherwise. Anyone moaning about not being able to sell should bear in mind that there are a LOT of houses available at the moment. Nothing wrong with making yours more appealing at FIRST GLANCE.

lana22

circuit wrote: »

I wasn'y saying you should buy a house based on the colour of the walls. I was suggesting ways if MAKING THE MOST of your house when people come round. No need to be so touchy. As I said, we have are buying a structurally sound, damp-free house untouched since the 70s with absolutely nothing in it, magnolia or otherwise. Anyone moaning about not being able to sell should bear in mind that there are a LOT of houses available at the moment...

Not touchy at all. I am just disagreeing with what you said. That's all.
You suggested that painting a wall a different colour was making the most of a house. I don't think it is.
I agree on the other points like smell etc because these tend to give an idea as to how the owner looks after their home. It is unlikely that people who leave holes in staircases are going to be the sort of people who maintain the rest of the property well.

We didn't actually look at the colour of the walls at ours - we loved the street, the neighbours houses were well maintained, the garden was amazing and south facing, there was a great garage, and it was just home when we walked in to it.
I didn't buy a house cos I remembered it, I bought it because it was what I wanted.
I wrote little notes about all the houses I saw on the details, including things like when the roof had last been done etc. I wrote the date that I saw them on and little things to jog my memory. I then filed them all in date order, and had a separate section for ones we weren't interested in. (Yes I do have problems with tidyness and order!)
All this however was entirely irrelevant, as we left the house we eventually bought and decided in the car on the way home that we were going to put an offer in the next day.
We saw about 65 houses in total over the course of about 3 months, and only one stood out. Believe me, it was nothing to do with the colour of the walls!

QTPie

lana22 wrote: »

Not touchy at all. I am just disagreeing with what you said. That's all.
You suggested that painting a wall a different colour was making the most of a house. I don't think it is.
I agree on the other points like smell etc because these tend to give an idea as to how the owner looks after their home. It is unlikely that people who leave holes in staircases are going to be the sort of people who maintain the rest of the property well.

I agree with lana22.... Circuit, I don't think it is good advice to "getting daring with your wall colours" to maximise the chances of selling...

Most people can live with beige, not everyone can live with a bight orange (or even a blood red and black) bedroom... :eek: .

So you may well say "beige isn't my colour, I will repaint it when I have time", but else will say "my god I can't live with that bright orange bedroom - I will have to allow for the money and time to repaint that IMMEDIATELY!"

Interesting to see one of our neighbours's houses... they had "feature" blood red alcoves with side of the chimney breast/fureplace in the first floor sitting room (the rest of the room was cream). The new owners have been there since end of October and I notice that the alcoves have been repainted cream... . Ok, the blood red didn't put them off buying, BUT I don't think that you should be advsing people to start splashing bold colours around...

QT

Imp

lana22 wrote: »

We saw about 65 houses in total over the course of about 3 months, and only one stood out.

I think this is the key message to get across to sellers. Everybody who has bought a house on this thread has done so because it has stood out from the others they looked at. To the sellers, what is there about your house that makes it stand out?

hamblettamaud

i'll be looking round properties to buy soon, & i'm glad that all the above tend to put people off.

i find it very easy to look beyond the decor to see the potential. so, please, keep the magnolia, wallpaper, laminate, washing lines, pets etc, it will mean less competition for me!

50plusabit

I looked at 1000's (well it felt that way) of houses. Some were disgusting they had 50 house rats, and the smell was gagging, even the agent could not stay in for long. Lots were immaculate, these were the ones that worried me, very few people live that tidy. Some had been brought and ripped out, painted magnolia, kitchen looked great till you opened the doors and saw that the cooker was very very cheap.
You have to look beyond the decor, and not be afraid to looking in cupboards, move things if necessary. My agents got used to me, and used to say things like, lots of cupboards in this one for you to open, you'll like this cooker.
I ended up with a house, that was structurally sound, needed a new kitchen, and total decoration, as an elderly lady had lived there for 25yrs, and her son had up-kept it, but she liked her blown wallpaper (every room different), and every room with different carpet, most going back to 1970's. But I knew what I was buying as I could see it ! not hidden behind half of B&Q.

domcastro

Over the years I've viewed 6 houses. I bought 3 of them (not at same time, buy sell buy sell buy !)

misskool

circuit wrote: »

No offence meant. Have the laminate and chintz if you like it, I was just pointing out what we, as typical 29/30 year old FTBs think about when recalling properties after viewing (apart from the obvious). This doesn't determine whether you buy or not (we have settled on a real project house that has literally nothing in it), but it can taint the buyer's memory of your home. If I was selling at the moment, I would give this some thought. I know at least 6 other couples who are looking or have just bought, so this is not a wacky train of thought.

I'm not saying everyone has to keep their modern flocked wallpaper up for 5 years, but are you trying to stand out or blend in? One wall painted a different colour WILL make the house look contemporary and WILL get you noticed. If you want to stick with cream, trust me; there are a hundred and one houses in your postcode that will look exactly the same as yours, and no buyer will remember (or care) which is which.

I know I should harsh but I meant this post with good intent, I promise you. It is sometimes worth getting feedback from someone on the other side of the fence.

I'm in the age group and HATE the feature wall idea. I detest people who think splashes of colour brightens up a room, especially the ones with flocked wallpaper and shagpile orange carpets. They just irritate me and detract me from the pictures that hang on the wall or the other key pieces of the room. Strange as it may seem, there are different strokes for different folks

The house and furnishings mean nothing, one thing to look at is how much DIY has been done in the house. If there is someone who is incompetent and doesn't care quite how to do something, you'll fine some dodgy work in there which will be more expensive to fix than some wall paint. My colleague bought a home all done up and when a wall socket fused, they opened the cover to find the most socking socket, the electrician they called it had to rewire the whole house.

Wickedkitten

lana22 wrote: »

Yep, cheap laminate is vile, but good laminate can look nice and be very hard wearing. I don't have a toddler, but I do have an equally messy, clumsy boyfriend who has a habit of spilling his tea....
We have a quite nice carpet at the moment though, so won't be changing it till any little ones come along! I am also a bit of a hooveraholic, so I think I would miss it if I didn't have any carpet! Although I am sure one of my other over-cleaning tendencies would replace the hoovering...

Oh you would probably end up vacuuming even more than you do now. In our old house with carpet I vacuumed about twice a week, here it is everyday because I'll run the vacuum in the morning and by the evening there will be bits of hair from the cats and dust sitting there looking at like "hiya! we're baaaaack "


That's not even getting into the noise factors of laminate.

lana22 wrote: »

To solve this problem, we bought 3 large pain canvasses for about £8 each, and a roll of "modern" wallpaper. We then covered the canvasses with the wallpaper and have hung a row of three along the wall.

Everyone asks where I got my "art"! People thought that they were padded panels. So when the wallpaper goes out of fashion, or we change our colour scheme, we can just take the pictures down.

This is the exact same idea that I was having but I was wondering where would be the best place to get the frames from. If you don't mind me asking, where did you get yours?

lana22

Wickedkitten wrote: »

Oh you would probably end up vacuuming even more than you do now. In our old house with carpet I vacuumed about twice a week, here it is everyday because I'll run the vacuum in the morning and by the evening there will be bits of hair from the cats and dust sitting there looking at like "hiya! we're baaaaack "


That's not even getting into the noise factors of laminate.



This is the exact same idea that I was having but I was wondering where would be the best place to get the frames from. If you don't mind me asking, where did you get yours?

I got mine from Dunelm mill. They are very cheap. Then bought a roll of wall paper which was about £12 I think, and stapled it to the back, wrapping it round like a present. We did one by using wall paper paste, but it didn't work.

I hoover once, occassionally twice a day if someone's coming round already! I am a cleanaholic and despite working long hours stay up late to clean. It's one of my vices.