What do you look at when inspecting a house at an open house?

[Bathsheba]

We've bought and sold twice.

Like Lulu we looked for expensive repairs not decor. I looked for things like rising damp and patched up cracks in the walls.

We also checked out the neighbours. If the house looked like they had dodgy neighbours (old abandoned cars on the front lawn, loud music, next door to a factory etc) we usually gave those places a miss.

Compass orientation so that daylight entered the main living spaces was important.

Have fresh smells, don't cook meat... The lookers might be vego. Vapourise a citrus oil, it will convey cleanliness.

The thing with personal photos especially if faces is that it is a barrier to helping people imagine that it is their home. Just a mind game thing. We removed ours.

Fresh flowers, fruit and plants are good.

Childrens' artwork conveys a cosy ambience and is cheap to make.

[Arimeh]

Argh Bath, you tell me this just as I've cleaned up the garage and removed all the kids artworks off the walls.. LOL

And no worries about cooking meat, we're vego

A citrus oil - we have a toilet spray thats the lime one, and an orange one as well, can't remember what its called, but its all natural type thingo - I wonder if that will do. I was thinking of burning some incense but maybe thats too powerful? The whole area is pretty neat, new units and all, and I have a guys front yard directly behind our back yard, so all you see is trees and grass, and then the main road over the fence. To the side of us is a vacant block, so not much I can change about that.. LOL

Good point about the faces, will remove ours - except for the hanging one of the kids. Hope people like Michael Jordan.. bhaahah

Raupe - Definitely too stressful to make them on the day - I might see if my uncle and aunty can come up and take the kids for a few hours so we can get stuck into it without having to worry about them. And I never liked looking in cupboards either - but I still did it with some of them to see how the cupboard was layed out, so I'm guessing I"ll be cleaning them up a little!!!

Oh well, back to cleaning up the garage!!!

[Lulu]

Noooooo incense! It is powerful and heaps of people don't like it. I luuurve it so I have no idea what's wrong with them.

[Pretty Butterfly]

I'm with Lulu, I love soft smells, a lot of incense gives me headaches... something natural, food, cakes etc appeals to me more!!! LOL

[Spring Angel]

Arrange for any pets to be elsewhere for the inspection. Also take the family out for the hour or so. I've been to many inspections where the owner and kids are home and I find it really uncomfortable. Like I'm intruding.

[Arimeh]

Arrange for any pets to be elsewhere for the inspection. .

Eek thats gonna be hard, we have 2 inside cats and a dog... and nowhere to really take them!

Point taken on the incense...

[Pretty Butterfly]

we had 5 cats!!! we locked them in the garage, then for the last couple, the garden shed for the 45 mins....

[Miss.September]

I know if I was looking for a house I'd be checking kitchen cupboards, linen cupboards and wardrobes - because we lack space in ours so I wouldn't want that to happen again. Bedroom space would be a big one for me too, sometimes just moving the furniture around can make things look bigger. My stepmother is an estate agent and she swears by cookies or cakes baking - never bread. I'm not one to worry about pets, but I can see that others would. Can you take the dog for a walk during the inspection? Good luck. I hope someone falls in love with it.

[Arimeh]

Ooooh taking the dog for a walk. Yup, can do that. DUnno if the cats would join us though.. bahahaha

[Snowy Love]

Definately lock the cats up - we had ours at the cattery for the open houses 'cause DH was o/s & DS & I were at my parents, failing that can you put them in a carrier and take them for a drive while the open house is on? I was worried about them escaping 'cause all the doors were open.

[mrsmac]

I think everyone else has covered it all. I second getting the pets out though. My dad loathes cats and if he saw some at an OH he would immediately decide he could smell them as well and be off the place instantly IYKWIM?
I'm another one who didn't feel I could look in people's cupboards but I always looked in the pantry!
This house was empty when we bought it but the ones we looked at that were lived in I remember one was like a 50s time capsule or someone's Nanna's house (doillies included LOL) and it felt like we were intruding and that it would be a crime to buy it and update it LOL. I found with the others it was lack of clutter that appealed most and a pleasant smell.

[YoYo]

If I was buying I'd look at things like

Spaciousness... so de-clutter and make things look as white and bright and big as possible. I would remove the posters coz it would make rooms look smaller. If you have tiles on the floors and rugs, it might even help to roll them up.

Cupboard space - so make them tidy

Clean - Coz you get whatever mess/dirt/dust someone else leaves behind and it's not appealing to many!

Nice Gardens - I love gardening so I'd look at how big and neat the garden is. Although in saying that our house in Perth was a total mess when we bought it, but we used that as a reason to buy it so we could put our own stamp on it.

I look at the layout of the house, but there isn't much you can do about that. Some places you like, and some you don't.

Maybe put some fresh flowers in the house....it might give people the sneezes, but they are always so appealing!

Good luck and stay positive

[Cassius2]

for us it was the light. we needed natural light...

then it was cleanliness and a decluttered place so that yeah we could get an idea of space etc.

(we were totally turned off by places that were obviously trying too hard lol...made me think they had something to hide or wanted too much for the place lol).