I love houses like those...lowers price. Lots of people pass on mounted animals heads, paint color they don't like, etc.. Strange but to me it's a score.

It amazes me that in this day and age of hgtv and the net, people still have no clue how to sell a house.

Not everyone watches HGTV,,, Thank God!

So what are your priorities in this new home? Are kitchens and baths no 1? No. Bedrooms? Sq. Ft? Acreage? Just curious.

When we were looking it always amazed me at the messiness (dirty) and clutter of a house we were in. People you are having potential buyers come to look at your home. Clean it! It puts up a bad first impression! NancyLouise

Hollynia -- both are fairly inflammatory and distracting items that should have been put away so that the home appeals to the broadest possible buyer pool. Some buyers will get hung up on personal decor items like this and will have difficulty "seeing" the house. And/or, it'll torque a buyer off enough that they won't want the house.

I don't take down my crucifix or my last supper picture. If it is offensive to a buyer, I do not want to do business with that person.

Something hanging on the wall is not what you're shopping for though. I understand that you didn't like it, but you're not buying the decor. From the way the OP made it sound was that the house wasn't for them based on a couple of things hanging on the wall. That's like not buying a house because you didn't like the sellers dining room table.

Some people cant see past stuff. A dead animal head stuffed and mounted and hung way too low can impact how a person judges the space, and they cant see how their furnishings would look because of the distraction. I didn't take it as the jesus picture was distracting per se, but that the jesus picture flanked by two sets of animal antlers was *distracting* and therefor was the focus of attention, as opposed to the space itself.

I prefer a totally stripped interior when I am house hunting myself.

Hollynia - I understand that and you understand that, but the fact of the matter is that many buyers today can often not see past the seller's decor and paint colors. I call it "The HGTV Effect". It's stupid, but it is what it is. Plus, let's face it: many people have issues with hunting, so removing taxidermy is just a wise move. Likewise, many people have issues with the diety of their choice being portrayed disrespectfully or seeing a houseful of diety that doesn't reflect their own belief system. That they should be able to look past it but can't is just reality for many, but not all, buyers. But, I know you already know that.

I am very sure that the deer head wasn't the only turn off in the house. I bet there was a lot more!

You want people to take "mental ownership" of a home when viewing it...ie be able to picture it as their house. keeping a house neutral makes this easier to do. Someone who has religious paraphernalia, animal heads, family photos, various collections, etc basically is "slapping the buyer in the face" saying "THIS IS NOT YOUR HOUSE", and making them not feel comfortable there, and therefore making them NOT think of it as their home.

Linda, I completely agree, and I've cleared my house of a lot of personal decor while it's for sale. However, in the area we are looking to buy, with a very specific list of wants, there are few houses for sale and no one in that area seems to worry about staging homes for sale. I am perfectly able to look past the stuffed animals, quilts hanging everywhere, doilies under the tv, clutter, etc. in order to see the house. I would never want to walk from a house that would be perfect for me because I couldn't look past the sellers decor.

You can't let the decor of the present owner(s) bother you, since it's their personal taste not what future buyers may/may not care for. Yes, certain things should be removed, but maybe they're proud of what they consider to be good decorating, of their 'trophies', or just didn't want to take the time removing anything. Just remember what *you* need to do when it's time to put your house on the market.

Talking about "good decorating" when putting a home on the market. When ex and I went to buy our first home, we saw a beautiful 1927 bungalow (which we wound up buying). This house had all the old gorgeous 1927 wide moldings, and maple floors with a darker border trim in the front room and the living/dining room. Fabulous right?

Except we couldn't see any of that. The floors were covered completely with gold carpeting, the walls were painted gold, the moldings were painted...gold, and the ceiling was painted, yep you guessed it; Gold! Plus there was so much furniture it was impossible to see anything. Oh and there was a one wall kitchen in the master bedroom.

It was love at first site and we bought it. LOL.

cpartist, that's just vision. You saw the bones. Not the gold! OMG! We walked in here and our master bedroom had mirrors on the ceiling! In earthquake country! Gone!

LOL! I have nothing against Jesus or animal heads on the wall ;>) You should see what we've "looked past" on the last two houses we bought. We are do-it-yourselfers, and other people's clutter does not bother us. I guess I should have explained my statement, "not the house for us." We were actually trying to go to an open house down the street, and when it wasn't open after having been advertised (another pet peeve), we saw this one and decided to go take a look. Not the house for us, because of many factors, but deer heads and Jesus weren't one of them.

Suzi, to answer your question- We are downsizing, so sq. footage is important. We'd like around 1300 to 1400 sq. ft. Also, location is our biggest priority. We want some privacy, even if that means a fence or landscaping. Kitchens and baths we always end up redoing, so those aren't as big of a deal to us.

When we last were house hunting we got so excited to have a house literally around the corner go on the market; we were living in a tiny place that was 2 blocks from where we both worked, had just had our first child and hoped to have at least one more but wanted to stay in that area, so the neighborhood was hugely important for us. The listed house was larger, on a nice piece of property big enough for my husband to build his longed-for stand alone garage and of course still in our dream neighborhood. We got in to see it, and were deflated to encounter: orange shag carpet everywhere. A literal mound in one bedroom--a leak had caused the concrete subfloor to swell and the seller had simply put a bed over it so nobody would trip(!). One room had nasty cheap paneling over all walls, except for one square where there had once been a wall unit AC installed. Not a single tree in the yard, except for one non-native invasive that was planted directly over the septic tank.

Naturally we bought it :). 25 years later, we've slowly and sometimes painfully turned it into what we envisioned all those years ago. I still laugh remembering that at one point the seller, a real ditz, was frantically telling us she would try to find some new cheap paneling to 'fix' the ac hole, and my husband finally lost his patience with her and responded "please don't do that, all the panels will be gone an hour after closing".

If you were buying a home in Michigan, especially Northern Michigan, you'd see a lot of deer heads hanging! Most are tastefully (and expensively done).

It would not be a dear-breaker (sorry, deal-breaker) for me, because I know its not staying with the house.

Runninginplace, Lol! "Naturally we bought it" Sounds like us :) When we bought our last house, it still had 30 yr. old gold laminate counter tops. They were really worn in one section, and the owner told us there was still some "left over" in the basement and we could just replace that one section. Haha! It's just funny how we all have different standards when it comes to how we live and what we find acceptable.

stir_fryi, have you ever seen a deer head mounted at eye-level? I haven't and coming around a corner to that was startling, to say the least :)

We went to an open house years ago where the owner fancied himself some kind of "erotic fine art" photographer and was obviously very proud of his work as it lined the hallways. Yeah, kind of distracting. I don't remember much else about it-- we didn't buy it because it was on a very busy street, but we go by it fairly often and always have flashbacks!

I don't think looking at open houses is a waste of time, especially if you are retired. It's a fun adventure to see how others in your location live and gives you a chance to leave rolling your eyes at the conditions. It also gives you ideas of how to make a bad feature work should you encounter that same feature in your future home.

The oddest house decor we ever encountered was a home owned by two men, one who was a realtor. They were retiring and had the strangest combination of "grandpa" furniture and modern homoerotic art. It was pretty distracting. It didn't keep us from making an offer though.

When house hunting, I never cared about personal decor. I'd rather see some personal decor than everything abandoned and just empty rooms! The saddest one though, was a house on an awesome two acres in a perfect location, where the 90+ year old woman had passed away with no relatives to claim her things. The rooms were stashed with photos and photos and momentos, all of which would come with the house -- since there were no relatives to claim them. I ended up passing on this house (although I cried about it, thinking about that poor lonely woman in such a lovely setting) because the kitchen dated to 1940 on a good day, and because the basement was floored with dirt, and because the 1790-era house had many doorways that only reached 5 and a half feet in height. Running in a rush would have risked decapitation! I didn't have money for those sorts of renovations. I don't know what I would have done with all that stuff - consignment shop for most of it - but it wasn't the personality of the place that did it in for me, but the extreme renovations that would have been needed.

In other words, if I see someone else's personality in a space, I'm more able to envision my own there, too. If it is sterile, I can't imagine things. I hate sterile. (Just, preferably, take your stuff with you, if remotely possible, when you do sell it. She couldn't, and if the other factors hadn't been in the way, I'd have found a way to deal with it.)

Just saying... when I see personal decor, I do think the home I am viewing has been loved and appreciated. When it has been stripped out on some "realtor's" advice, I'm rather inclined to lean against appreciating it myself. Even if my tastes won't remotely match the seller's. Personally, I don't do deer heads or Jesus in my home, but seeing homes where people do either or both of these let me know real people live here, right now, in this house I am looking at. Ain't staged; I'm (ahem) game!

I think that most buyers are distracted by too much personal stuff and not just photos. We looked at a house that had some fascinating collections, and afterwards I realized that I remembered those better than the rooms. And I consider myself way better than average at looking past decor etc.