Yes, you have a quirky hillside.

If I were considering purchasing your house, I'd be estimating how much money it would cost to remove all that. So obviously it's a negative to me.

(I'm curious - are the games you mention designed to be actually played, outdoors on the hillside? Or are they merely yard decoration?)

I think it depends on who might be in your buyer demographic, and whether or not the steep hillside is standard for your area or not. It would help others give advice if they could see a photo of what you've done w/the hillside, it sounds like it could either be a really cool and unique use of the space (which could totally appeal to outdoorsy-types who would love hiking up and down the hill and exercising at the stations) OR it could be an eye sore -- really hard to know. It also depends on what else is available for sale, how your home compares price-wise, and possibly how it's marketed. Families with young children might not want to have a steep hillside in their backyard, but maybe if it is fenced off it would be okay.

@littlebug zone 5 Missouri: Well to save you the trouble of getting an estimator for the knee-jerk removal, I'd say a day-laborer could remove the games in less than an hour -- the fitness stations? with a good chain saw maybe another three hours...so lets say $60. If this is a deal-breaker you are definitely not in our target demographic. And, Yes, the games are actually played. The kids and grand kids also enjoy them when they visit and sometimes the games-course gets quite competitive.

@melle_sacto: The hillside is a given for the neighborhood. We have a quarter acre of level land [pool and patios] which is fenced off and another acre that is the previously described hillside. The fitness stations and game boards are relatively inconspicuous as the hardware is painted to blend-in and the stations are cut into the hillside -- it takes an effort to notice them.

I think it sounds like a brilliant strategy to lure people to explore the property snd experience its varied vantage points. No different than a great garden. From your description the pluses overwhelm the minuses. May we see a picture? Please?!

house-selling programs on TV

These have about as much contact with reality as do the crime shows and the medical shows. They are scripted and NEED conflict they need rejection and they need picky buyers.

In real life, perhaps buyer couple Jones couldn't get past the color of green on the wall, but if the house is in a decent location at a realistic price, someone will walk in and say "This is perfect ... just needs a coat of paint in that ugly green wall".

I'd love a hillside with a parcour course and outdoor checker set.

We asked for the yard on this house to be "depersonalized" because I did not want the fishpond and fish. They were removed by a friend of the seller and taken to her new house after the ground thawed enough to be diggable.

In musing the responses [Thank You] and on continued reading, it seems the important thing is to enable potential buyers to connect with your house [Patricia Lee].

I still think it is an improvement on providing a sterile [de-cluttered, de-personalized] version of the house to offer clues how the previous owners have enjoyed it. Our goal is to lure [ :) @kitasei} potential buyers into understanding how WE have enjoyed the house without restricting THEIR sense of its potential.

@melle_sacto: We have a Come-to-Jesus meeting with our Realtor on Sunday...I will share his feedback on Monday. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and good luck in your own adventure.

Well gee whiz. When you asked,”do you really need to depersonalize a house to sell it?” obviously you weren’t talking to me since you really didn’t like my advice. Pardon me for offering it.

@

littlebug zone 5 Missouri: I [over-] reacted to your response...which was to explore [without having seen them] how cheaply you could remove the games and fitness course. But I did absorb the spirit of your comments -- which I interpreted as -- how do you balance showing a house "as we live in it" versus giving prompts as to how "you could live in it". I found that very helpful. Thanks.

I had put ‘temporary’ fencing around my patio so that the HOA could not object to the manner in which I managed controlling my dog so I didn’t have to worry about going out to do laundry and having the dog escape when I opened the slider door. I had a couple of pots with plants still after removing from their containers and planting the majority i had, in ground the year before. I also had a lattice trellis which served as a middle section of my ‘temporary’ fencing as support for the star jasmine off the approved plant list and blended with the plants that the black ornamental panels supported. When the house was staged the only change to my additions out on the patio was a chair and table set, the removal of the old bbq we were getting rid of, and moving the two pots with plants still in them to a back corner under the patio light.

It’s the inside of the house that underwent substantial depersonalization for us, which the staged insisted on. We moved all furniture out other than our bed mattress (the actual bed went into a POD with the other furniture). Clothing, shoes, tv, my computer, dishes, pots and personal care products were the only thing in the place while it was on the market, and allowed to remain out of our stuff. Those things we packed up over the 3rd day of the final week we were living there, the remaining 2 days we were in a hotel with the dog before boarding the plane to go to our new home.

We listened to the real estate agent who listed and sold our home. I’d known her since I was 6, she was the one who I used to buy the place back in 2002. She tapped into her network of professionals to deep clean and make minor repairs/changes for us to make sure we got above asking and sold in under a month.

Ps...the bbq we got rid of wasn’t one of those cheap ugly charcoal things, it had a propane tank and all the bells and whistles a suburban griller would want. But by the time we were preparing to move it was older and not worth sacrificing some of the room in the PODs to bring with us at the cost of saving the space for something else.

Depersonalizing doesn't mean stripping the house of all personality.

I agree, your local agent would be the best source of information regarding the hillside decor. To me, it sounds wonderful. I'm an agent in South Fl so even any hillside is foreign to us in this area :)

I haven't seen your hillside. From what you describe, it sounds like a terrific marketing opportunity to differentiate yourselves from the competition. The removal of family photos is done so the buyers can imagine their family in your home. This is part of the selling process. Sometimes there is artwork that is too explicit or too much color (think of every room with multiple colorful walls). You don't have to be bland and boring by any means.

I agree you do not have to get rid of everything that gives the house personality . But you do want to take down personal pictures and personal identification.

"If I were considering purchasing your house, I'd be estimating how much money it would cost to remove all that. So obviously it's a negative to me."

Wait--wouldn't the owners of the home be responsible for removing them? Especially if you didn't want them.


(but I do remember that my own husband said, when we had viewed a home that had a bunch of canvases painted by the artist who'd lived there, "How would we get rid of that stuff?" I said, "Honey, it belongs to them. They will take it with them.")

I don't quite get why you'd take down personal pictures. That's always confused me.

In real life, perhaps buyer couple Jones couldn't get past the color of green on the wall, but if the house is in a decent location at a realistic price, someone will walk in and say "This is perfect ... just needs a coat of paint in that ugly green wall".


Interestingly, my friend got a great deal on a house in Topeka because the upstairs bedroom was painted black. Apparently nobody could look past it, and the house lingered on the market. She got a low price and promptly painted the entire house.