Completed But House a Tip

bigfreddiel

The last three houses I bought over the last twenty years have all been empty. I've never had a problem with that, I know what a bedroom/lounge/dining room should look like, apparently most people don't if Phil and Kirstie are ones to go by! Actually I think they're right!

Just a thought fj

LittleMax

bigfreddiel wrote: »

The last three houses I bought over the last twenty years have all been empty. I've never had a problem with that, I know what a bedroom/lounge/dining room should look like, apparently most people don't if Phil and Kirstie are ones to go by! Actually I think they're right!

Just a thought fj

We recently sold an empty house - I did say when I was deep cleaning it after tenants moved out that buying an empty property is the way to go. It was cleaner than any lived in house could ever be! I think it looked bigger too!

anotheruser

Well, went back yesterday to try and solve the strong "pet" smell in the kitchen.

Pulled the washing machine out and found out what was going on:



I was nearly sick. The smell... I mean, I'm pretty good with bad smells but this... this was something else. Seems one (or more) of the pets were using this area as a extension to the litter box. We smelt it when we viewed but thought it was just dog smell.

Here's that plug socket too:



It's just a shame both are in a really awkward place behind a cabinet, so the smell is pretty concentrated. After a bit of scrubbing, I moved on to something less bad - the pipes. This smell was something from a field of flowers compared with the previous. Still very sludgy though:



At least I'll know it's been done and it's all nice and clean now. A plus point is that the pipes are easily accessible so I can clean them regularly. I don't think the Mr Muscle foaming pipe unblocker even attempted to get through that lot. Money wasted a bit, but then the pipes were fairly thick with sludge... and twigs.

csgohan4

Nice when I'm eating my breakfast

LittleMax

OK - I take it back about maybe they just ran out of time to clean. That is disgusting. But the house must have been really dirty and smelly when you viewed?

Clutterfree

PasturesNew wrote: »

All houses, once you walk in and they're empty, look a LOT grubbier than you'd ever imagined. They also look smaller.

It's just one of those things. As a rule sellers don't do super deep cleans of a house - just their regular cleaning.... and once everything's out of the house it all takes on an instant air of neglect because it's empty.

Meanwhile, you've spent the last 3 months dreaming of your perfect house.

Just shrug and say "!!!!!! happens"

Really?
I spent the week before we moved doing the most thorough deep clean ever.
Cooker was professionally cleaned and I bought a new hob ring to replace one that had seen better days.
Windows cleaned inside and out.
We replaced broken bathroom plug chains, touched up paint work, fixed any little "snagging" jobs that we'd put up with for years.

Then on moving day we dusted, cleaned bathrooms again, washed all floors, polished worktops. We really wanted to get the upstairs carpets cleaned for our buyer but it wasn't practical due to all the boxes!
Other than the carpets, it was pristine.
I just wanted our buyer to be able to unpack straight into the cupboards without the hassle of cleaning first.

We got a lovely message on the evening of moving day from our buyer thanking us for leaving the house immaculate.

It's called pride.

House we moved into was cleanish, but more of a quick wipe over rather than done thoroughly, so I spent the first few days cleaning!

The OPs house is on an entirely different level, though.

anotheruser

LittleMax wrote: »

OK - I take it back about maybe they just ran out of time to clean. That is disgusting. But the house must have been really dirty and smelly when you viewed?

It was very smelly, but we're cat owners so we thought it was just dog owner smell - seller had two dogs.

While I would have traded cleaning that up for nearly anything else, I am seeing the positives in that if I come to buy another house, I will be a lot more cautious.

Liek I say, at least I know it's clean to my standards (not that they're show home standard by any means, but a lot more than what we found!).