What Do You Look For When Viewing A House?
Lounge By emmascakes Updated 20 Apr 2007 , 3:17pm by BritBB
We're putting our house on the market and I've been trying to get it ready for the estate agent who's coming round in two hours time to value it. I've done obvious things like cleaning and touching up paintwork. What do you look for when you're looking round a house? Is there any pitfalls or little niggles that I need to fix?
Make sure your faucets don't leak & toilets don't run. I don't know that your realtor will check those things today, but whenever we went to look at a house as potential buyers we always ran the water & flushed the toilets. If you haven't done so already, mulch your flowerbeds & make the front of the house as attractive as possible by planting bright seasonal flowers.
Good luck!
-Lisa
Do you have have someone come in to inspect the house? That's usually whats done here prior to putting a house on the market. An inspecter will tell you what should be fixed, needs tweaking etc. Otherwise, like bluehen said, some planting may help, even bring some flowers inside, want everything to appealing! When we looked at our current house, we looked at the size of the kitchen, how many bathrooms, and how big the yard is. We went for the broder picture, I never even thought of leaks or running toilets, those are good points!
Good luck with everything!
When my parents sold their house (in 2 days I might add) the closet floors were cleaned out. The knicknacks were stored and the hardwood floors were nice and clean along with baseboards, ceiling fans and even the basement.
Good luck with the sale of your home 
Christi
I agree on the junk comment. I've bought and sold quite a few and I promise you, I don't want to see any clutter on a counter or in a corner. In fact, I don't want to see anything on the countertops bc I want to see their condition. I also look in the floor corners at the molding. If there's crud there then it makes me think that the house hasn't been cared for properly in other ways. No junk in the closets and same goes for the cabinets. I think I'm a stickler for these things bc it shows whether or not the current owner is as compulsive as I. I don't want to see anything frilly or cutesy or personal to the current owner. I want to be able to picture my family in the house - not yours. Bathrooms have to be spotless with clean caulking. I want the toilet to be able to flush without issue and I will run every faucet in the house at once to check the pressure. I will look at cracks in teh walls to determine settling. Not all cracks are obvious, but I will look (that includes the door frame). I will look at the vent filter - if its not clean then you haen't been maintaining your ac. I will also look in the vents to make sure there isn't any mold. Get rid of refridgerator displays and magnets. I don't really care about little Johnny's artwork, as special as it may be. On the outside, I will look at cracks there too. Pressure wash the sidewalk, driveway and exterior of your home. I dont' want to buy your oil spot. I would take down an unneeded curtain you may have and I would put in higher than normal watt light bulbs. Make the house bright and open. Before you leave the house, pull the blinds open and all curtains open so that the natural light can come in. Back outside, keep the lawn neatly trimmed and plant bright flowers, even if it's just at the point of entry into the house. I do all of that BEFORE I bother calling an inspector.
Good luck.
Well, the estate agent came (in the UK we don't have inspectors) and has given us a good valuation. So we will probably put it up for sale. I hadn't thought about cleaning out the cupboards - that's something we must do, we have one which is out of a cartoon - you open it and everything just topples out! It's all my other half's stuff so I must nag at him to move it. Thanks for the tips! I look at a house tomorrow so I must bear all your points in mind.
I have to admit though, I really don't care about water pressure, if the house and location are lovely we can sort the rest out.
When looking, I also have very specific ideas in what I want and don't want. I make sure that the realtor knows about the areas in which I am not flexible so that I'm not looking at a bunch of stuff needlessly. I specify the required number of bedrooms, open floorplan and the required school district - on this I refuse to budge. From there I list my "wants but not a deal breaker" which include number of bathrooms, condition of yard and whatever covenances may exist (is there a neighborhood swimming pool, is it on the golf course, is curb side parking allowed, are there sidewalks). Then I add my "make me giddy" list, which would be gas stove, computer room, jacuzzi tub, etc.
If you're upfront with your realtor early on, then they do the work and you don't waste time. It's important to know what you want and voice that to the professionals.
lack of clutter!!! It was always a huge turnoff for me when everything looked cluttered (or a room that is just jammed packed with furniture)....I know I should have envisioned the place with my stuff in it, but mostly I would just walk out....
Amen! If you have access to the TV show "Sell this House" on HGTV, they give good ideas on staging a house for selling .... declutter is the big one! Their rule of thumb is also that a house for sale should be 25% furniture/wall decor and 75% bare wall and floor. That means remove most of your personal photos from the walls, your personal collections from the shelves. Yes, you are proud of your 50-pc teddy bear collection, but your buyer isn't. Put excess furniture in storage if you have to.
But.... a realtor told us never to have an empty room in a house. It actually makes a room look smaller. We sold a house empty but we left a single bed in the smallest bedroom so people could see that it really WAS big enough for a bed, dresser and toybox! We also left a loveseat and a coffee table in the living room .... it made it look much bigger because people can actually visualize that yes, the furniture WILL fit in here with room to spare!
We looked at a house once where the closets were absolutely JAMMED! I know their stuff isn't my stuff but it doesnt' give you a good view on how big the closets are. We also viewed a house in which wet towels were hanging over the shower rods and a stack of folded bath towels were sitting on the floor next to a chair in the living room (because the towel closet was too jammed????)
Also pet smells ..... oh my god, I will turn around and walk out the door if I smell cat or dog! Went to one house that smelled like cat urine and carpet cleaner! That was even worse! If you're a smoker, clean the drapes and freshen the furniture. Lots of non-smokers are VERY sensitive to this odor.
Make sure none of your ceilings show any discoloration that might indicate leaks. Open drapes and lots of light so the rooms don't look dark.
If you burn any candles at all, hubby says to keep it a neutral scent. My sister bought me a Carrot Cake scented candle and he hates it!!! I've heard that you should bake a batch of cookies before an open house, or slowly simmer a pot of spaghetti sauce. At one of our open houses, I had a crock pot of beef with my seasonings in it and the realtor said it made a great impression on everyone who came in! That nice "homey" scent makes everyone comfortable in the house ... makes it feel like a home.
Ditto everything LanaC said. Remember that if you're selling the house, you've eventually got to pack, so start packing now anything you won't use in the next few months. The buyer needs to see that there is space enough for everthing.
Shampoo the carpets, if you have any.
Polish any hardwood.
Pack away as much as you can - preferrably off-site. You want rooms and closets to appear as large as possible so that means having as little in them as possible.
Make sure all rooms are well-lit.
I agree with the declutter. We looked at 50 houses and the one that sold us had simple furniture in every room and cleaned out closets, kitchen cabinets were cleaned out also.
Of course no one lived there either.
Smell is a HUGE factor for me. I don't care if I walked into a $500,000 home that was selling for $100,000, if it smelled funny I wouldn't even finish looking at it. I like clean smells.
We sold our last house BEFORE it was actually on the market . . . our agent put it on the MLS 2 days before you could look at it . . . and we had a call instantly.
We didn't have a key box out yet so I ended up being home to let the people in . . . and I was so pleased that the first thing they said when they came in was "Wow, its so clean and open in here!" We had a small condo built onto the side of a hill so the downstairs was kind of cave=like. I worked my booty off cleaned and organizing every inch of that house. We had a tight budget but managed to give that entire house an overhaul before listing it. We painted our kitchen cupboards white, put a pale blue on the walls and one chocolate accent wall . . . scraped all the old black grout from between the tiles on the counter and regrouted in white . . . repainted the whole house . . . retiled our one full bath in tumbled Travertine . . . cleaned the carpets . . . it was a lot of work.
When buyers came over, I pulled all the blinds up to maximize the amount of light we had coming in. I also opened all the windows for a breeze, turned on accent lights, put out fresh flowers (cheap ones, but they looked nice in our entry), and washed down the front courtyard so it was sparkling.
Luckily, the first people to look at it bought put an offer on the place that morning . . . what a relief!
Good luck . . . selling our house and moving was so much work, I'm staying put for a good long time.
First and foremost, it HAS to be clean! A dirty house (with hair on the bathroom floor or crumbs in the kitchen freak me out).
Clutter is a big thing too. I have to be able envision how my stuff is going to look in the house.
I also like a stovetop and oven that is really clean too.
Outside, I want to see grass that has been taken care of. (Can't stand when people with dogs let their dogs ruin the yard).
House has gotta smell fresh too. SO buy some freshener! Or bake cookies when people are coming by to view it.
first of all, rlsaxe - the quote in your signature by gerry seinfeld is cracking me up. 
i love it.
but, i wanted to add that i totally agree about the hair in the bathroom thing. yuck, yuck and more yuck.
another thing is wall color. you have to be careful with this. the best route to go is to have neutral walls. its very popular right now to have deep cranberry colored walls but that may turn some people off. especially since it can be a pain in the butt to paint over. just something to think about.
when we were looking at houses, we came across one house that had a basement reaking of cat urine. there was NO getting rid of it.
in another house, the owners put up temporary walls in the basement to hide the water stains from flooding that had occured.
When viewing a house look for the things about it that you can't change.
Edited to add: Sorry, that's one of the things I look for... but not much use as a response to your question. (What I mean is it is that when you find a house that grabs your attention it is easy to get fixated on planning all changes etc that you would make and overlook something critical that you can't change.)
I didn't read thru every post yet, but I've heard to take down personal photos of yourselves and family. This (suppossedly) makes it easier for people to picture themselves in the house.
Also remove collections of things you may have displayed, for the same basic reason as above, plus it cuts down on clutter.
Let natural light come in when it's being shown, open blinds, etc ...
The less furniture the better, to open areas up...
We have our house up for sale right now. We had someone come in and tell us little things that help with the sale of a house. Make sure its clean. Reduce clutter. If you use candles or air freshener use simple scents, vanilla, citrus. You dont want anything to over powering and some people are allergic to scents. Also flowers are a welcoming site for potential buyers. Have a bowl of fruit sitting out. She recomended green apples, lemons, limes, oranges. They help reduce odor and look pleasing. She had us remove all family pictures off the wall and put a few small pictures of nature i.e. flowers, wildlife and such. I did a sponge painting technic on our driveway a few years ago she suggested also doing it on our walkway that lead to the back yard. You can get cornaditng colors to your house and just get a sponge roller to add the effect will hide oil spills and make it look so much nicers. I have a long list of other suggestions if you want to pm me ill give you some more.
mpitrelli, we did the same to our courtyard! I had forgotten about that . . . when you opened the gate we had the concrete stained and sealed, a new porch swing in the corner, bright flowers hanging in a pot near the swing, kept the hose constantly wound up pretty, and a new simple door mat. I washed down before people came over and it made a world of difference.
Another thing I thought of was to remember who you are marketing to. We live in Orange County, Ca and our last house was definitely more of a bachelor pad/first home kind of thing. It was built on the downhill slope, so you walked in to the living areas upstairs and went downstairs to the bedrooms. Only two bedrooms, one full bath downstairs and limited light. Small single car garage . . . but luckily we decorated in a way that appealed to the potential buyers looking at our home. (I had a BRIGHT red wall in the bedroom and the buyers actually LOVED it, thank goodness!)
When we bought the house we are in now it took some imagination to envision what we were getting into. We didn't look at flooring or walls, doors, fixtures etc because we knew those would all have to be changed since we are so picky. We looked at the neighbors first and foremost--picked the most friendly neighborhood!--safety (check your local police blotter for the areas to look away from), we checked Megan's Law to see if there were any high risk sexual offenders in our area, we checked the schools, the parks, etc and then we turned back and said this is defintely the community for us. We knew we could work wonders with the house--luckily my BF is very handy and creative . . .but we wanted a home that we would feel safe in and could raise children without worrying.
Good luck, selling a home is never easy but its sure rewarding when you get to move up!
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