Property selling advice please

[bupbupamericano]

I’m about to hand over the keys to my house as I’ve now sold it, but I’m hearing very mixed reviews about what state to leave it in. I don’t want to be a dick and not do anything but I also don’t want to spend hours cleaning or sorting out holes in the walls from photographs if I don’t have to...

For those of you who’ve sold a house in the past, what state did you leave it in?
Did you clean it? Fill picture holes and paint over them? Fix broken things? Leave it and just hand over the keys?

 

[BelleAmie]

The lady I bought my house from was a sweetheart and cleaned the house from top to bottom (including washing the curtains she was leaving me).

I don’t know if I’d go as far as filling in holes from pictures etc but I’d definitely hoover round and leave it in a state you’d be happy to receive it in.

 

[bupbupamericano]

Aw that’s really nice. See my buyer isn’t so nice but I don’t want to leave it a mess- that’s just now fair. Perhaps cleaning it is enough then.

 

[PaddyDomino]

I’m about to hand over the keys to my house as I’ve now sold it, but I’m hearing very mixed reviews about what state to leave it in. I don’t want to be a dick and not do anything but I also don’t want to spend hours cleaning or sorting out holes in the walls from photographs if I don’t have to...

For those of you who’ve sold a house in the past, what state did you leave it in?
Did you clean it? Fill picture holes and paint over them? Fix broken things? Leave it and just hand over the keys?

I'm planning on selling my house and had estate agents around to do valuations. I asked one of them about whether I should include all my roman blinds in the sale or take them with me. She said that if I took down the blinds or anything that made holes in the walls, then I would have to fill them in and paint them.

 

[Lulu Goss]

I gave our last place a deep clean before we left - kitchen and bathroom mainly, as I know I would want someone else to do the same.

We did it on moving out day and then spent hours doing it in our new home as the previous owners hadn’t!

So I would say clean yes, but I wouldn’t worry about anything DIY related. Our new house had nails/holes in the walls from pictures but we weren’t too fussed as we were redecorating anyway

 

[JoeBloggs]

You need to take all your rubbish and furniture as a legal obligation but the rest is down to you.

I personally would clean it, nothing OTT but hover and dust. I would make the holes good if you can without making it look worse. If it going to leave an obvious patched but I would leave it. Regardless of your thought of the buyer, I would leave it how I would expect to find it.

 

[Swipeuplikeandshare]

Just clean it
I’m in the progress of packing and I will deep clean on the final day especially because of covid - I find it’s just being respectful but I will not be doing DIY etc (though I might have to do it on one wall as my attempt to put up a wall bracket ended in me sticking a large picture over the top of ten large holes lol

 

[F the dust.]

I always repair damage and give a thorough clean before I leave.

 

[bupbupamericano]

Some differing views here, which is interesting.

 

[tskiry56]

I would leave it how you wish to find it.
As long as it’s clean and tidy, most people decorate when they move in to a new property.

 

[Peartree]

we‘ve had 4 properties, each time I’ve moved I’ve cleaned the property - cleaning an empty house is quick
each property we’ve moved into had already been cleaned

 

[WilmaHun]

I work in conveyancing and we always tell our clients when they ask this question to leave it in the state you would expect to find it. Legally you have an obligation to clear the property of any rubbish, or anything which has not expressly been pre-agreed for you to leave behind. Out of courtesy most people do leave it in a clean state however not everybody goes so far as to fill in holes etc.

 

[Hello Kitty]

Ours was very clean when we moved in, I was really impressed

 

[Definitelyme]

Imagine moving in to a dirty house When we moved in to our current home the kitchen cupboards were filthy inside, took ages to clean it. Made me think the previous owners were grubby gits, and I wouldn’t ever want someone thinking that about me.

Personally I think it’s just common courtesy to clean a house before you leave it, and fill in any holes in the wall.

Another pet peeve of mine is when you move in and they’ve left bits of furniture behind because they are too lazy to sort it out.

 

[Penelope Strawberry]

We should be moving soon (touch wood) and we've decided to take out the nails in the walls and fill them in and get cleaners in to wipe out the cupboards, clean the (integrated) fridge, deep clean the bathroom and kitchen and hoover.

My friends think I'm mad to pay for a clean, but I don't want to be running around like a headless chicken when we have to have everything out by noon.

Our buyer hasn't necessarily been a pleasure to deal with, but it is her first house and it's important to me that she's happy with the condition of it when she walks in. Our sellers seem like extremely neat and polite people, so I'm expecting us to receive our new house in good condition too.

 

[MrsA1234]

Our buyer messed us around so much that I detested her by the time we completed. I knew she was buying it as an investment to rent out and she didn’t even live in the country, all the messages went via her brother who lives in the UK. So I knew she wouldnt be checking the condition. However, I still left it fairly clean. I didn’t wipe out the inside of the kitchen cupboards but I did hoover and stick some bleach down the loo. The shower screen was a nightmare for collecting limescale water stains but I didn’t bother cleaning it. The advert for it to be rented out went up 2 days after we moved out. You could see the limescale in the advert photos so they obviously didn’t think it was bad enough to be cleaned beforehand