Preparing your house to sell? Avoid these common eyesores killing your sale

thinking of selling your home
what you take out is just as important as what you add
in this video I’m revealing the top eye sores
that instantly turn off buyers
but fixing it doesn’t have to cost very much
before your next showing or photo shoot
make sure you remove these items
hey there home sellers
welcome back to more home staging tips
my name is Kasha and in today’s video
I’m gonna share with you
a couple of these eye sores that I’ve seen online
in the online photos
and I just wanna warn you against doing this because
see
there’s some of the mistakes that home sellers make
but I know as the home seller
that you’re trying to get your house sold faster
you wanna avoid these kinds of mistakes
and these distractions it’s really that’s what it is
it’s distracting the buyer
from looking at the whole house
the whole picture
now I know I’ve gotten many comments before of well
the home decor doesn’t bother me
it’s shouldn’t be a hindrance
I know I get that I understand
believe me that should be the case right
but only 10% of you can actually say that
because the 10% of you can see beyond the clutter
beyond the colors beyond the you know
can see the bones of the house
and what it can do to help make your life easier
most buyers form an opinion within seconds
of walking into a home and you
don’t want any distractions or anything
thinking that they need to do something about it
they need to fix it they need to paint it
they need to do something
because that is what’s
making them stop in their tracks
and go
what why no
this shouldn’t be here
so instead of them thinking that way
you want them to think oh yes
I can see myself living in this house
everything looks great you know
I can see my furniture in here
or I can understand where the layout should be
this is what the room is used as
that’s the feeling that they want to
you want to portray when you’re staging your house
so these little things can kill the vibe if
before they even see the living room or the kitchen
or whatever it is
that they’re looking for in your house
so let’s jump into these pictures that I found online
that are distractions and I would remove immediately
to help you sell your house faster
okay so if you’re like me
and you love looking at photos online of
of houses that’s what I do in my spare time
and these are some of the things that I’ve actually
found these pictures were actually found online
in the past month or two of houses that have been
staged or not staged
as in this case when we’re talking about curb appeal
which is the first thing that buyers need to
buyers see when they come to your house
and if they come to this scene here yeah
they’re gonna cringe and go oh goodness gracious
they’ve got overgrown bushes
and they’ve got some dead plants and dead grass now
I know grass can be take a while to grow
that I totally understand um
but if you have dead bushes
or dead plants in their flower beds
the easiest thing you can do is just pull those out
okay um
and then trim these bushes up
just to clean up the space okay
so
this eyesore can easily be fixed with just some hedge
clippers
some new plants if you want to put them in there
or just clear out the dead ones and just clean up the
the space okay
this next one I just want to share with you
while there’s a lot going on in this room okay
so I have a couple of things to point out in this room
so No. 1
not only just the wallpaper here is an eyesore
but these frilly curtains just really need to go okay
there’s no reason to set a dining room table in here
there’s like a bowl of lemons here
there’s a rooster thing right here
there’s some table settings
just clear all that stuff off
and just put a simple candle
you know a big a large candle or a decorative bowl
it’s probably the easiest
or a basket or something like that okay
nothing major but there’s definitely
no reason to have your fine China out
the silverware anything like that um
dead plants are also an eyesore just or fake flowers
fake flowers sorry
fake flowers dead plants are outside
fake flowers inside please just remove that okay
take that out
okay so
back to another table setting that you don’t need
is this one right here that you can see
there’s just a lot again going on in this room
where I would remove a lot of things okay
there’s just all of this is too matchy matchy
this goes with these pillows and this
there’s a lot of gray on gray on gray
and we know that gray
if you watch my Homesteading Trends video
that is gone out of style
it is it’s a trend it’s gone out um
and there’s just a lot of gray in here
so and there’s nothing that requires it to match
like this so one of the things that I would
I swear I would remove is this valence here
this curtain thing here
these pillows while they’re beautiful
there’s just too many there’s no need to have 1
2 3
4 5 I don’t know 10 pillows on here
in that case I would actually just remove them all
and just put like two white pillows
and that’s it and leave the
the bench pad which is a nice colorful addition
but then just have white pillows on here
and then definitely this table setting I’d remove
all of that off the table
there’s no reason for it plus
you can’t sit there you know
if you’re gonna be trying to as a home buyer
you’re gonna like oh wow okay
people don’t live like this
obviously staged and you don’t want them to think that
you don’t want them to think that oh
this is you’re trying to fake them out on something
right so
here is
what we’re trying to do is remove all that stuff
put something simple
like a decorative basket or something like that
nothing major a candle
something simple okay
but definitely not a table setting that is not needed
okay in this room
what I wanted to show you
that I would remove are these balloon valances now
these are um
to me just I I don’t like them they’re not my style
they’re not my thing
I know definitely in the higher end luxury homes
these are something that you’ll probably find
are these kind of valances now
if your house is probably in the luxury market like
you know five $700,000 or more type of thing
you’re on a golf course or something like that
then the people buying
the house are probably gonna love this
but me as a Gen X
no get get rid of them
get remove them
the plantation blinds look so much better
without these things on here
and then of course I
I’ve talked about this before
red paint colors are not easy to photograph
and red in any room um
should just be painted over in a more neutral color
okay so
what I wanted to show you was just some balances here
like in the previous picture
any of those kinds of things
are some things that I would
immediately take down as an eyesore
and it’s just
it’s not gonna keep me from buying the house
but it’s just something that just doesn’t
it doesn’t help it’s a distraction right
it’s the first thing you walk into the room you’re like
oh those and you’re not looking at the house
you’re looking at the you know
the balances that are throwing you off you’re like
what what
there’s something hmm hmm no
and that’s not what you want
you want buyers to look at the house
not the decor decor should be there
kind of there
but kind of in a background kind of show them oh
this is a living room oh
this is a bedroom I can use this as an office
whatever the story that it shows but this the yeah
no you don’t want distractions like this OK
and especially with red paint colors
because then they’ve got to talk
think about well
they’re gonna paint the room a different color
because red is not their color right
it’s not
it’s not gonna be the one that they’re gonna use
in this room
moving on to this room here
uh
there’s again all sorts of things wrong in here too um
we’ve got frilly curtains again
remove all of those this wallpaper really needs to go
this red carpet in here oh my gosh
I don’t know how old that rug is or carpet is
but it’s probably pretty old for a while
and if it’s been 5
7 years rugs carpets need to be replaced anyway um
and that just hmm no just no
that that one’s gonna take a little bit of effort
on your part
or you may give something to the buyers say hey
I’ll give you a
5,000 dollar credit toward replacing the
the carpeting in the bedrooms
okay’cause in this house
there were multiple rooms that had this red carpeting
they even had a neon green one in one of the bedrooms
like it looked almost like grass Ew
no neutral
carpeting is what you should have in your bedroom okay
um this blanket holder thing here
I would just remove that that’s just excess
it’s not necessary um again
the frilly curtain the frilly pillows
I would change those out
so find some nicer ones that aren’t as flat as that
you want to make it look like a luxury
like a hotel
this to me thinks grandma’s house okay
that’s not what you want especially
in a house that probably has multiple bedrooms
there’s gonna be a family moving in here
you if this is the parents room
they’re gonna wanna feel like a luxury spa type
of thing this does not scream that
so that’s not what we’re trying to to get out of here
okay
another I saw that I’ve seen
and this is a picture that was actually posted
in April and we’re recording this in may
now I’ve grabbed this picture before
but holiday decor
if you have holiday decor still up and it is may
it should be taken down for pictures okay
if you’re selling your house now
I know some of you live with holiday decor year round
that’s on you if you’re living with it
but when we’re decorating to sell
which is what we are doing here
I’m trying to help you out here as a home seller
is the holiday decor have to
has to go especially for the pictures now
if you are gonna be going through the holidays
you know still living in your house
and you still wanna celebrate it
that is perfectly fine just don’t pull it out
until after the pictures are taken
we’ve had to do that several times
where the last time we moved
we were about the Thanksgiving timeframe
Christmas timeframe
so we took all the pictures without the holiday decor
there was no fall motif there was no Christmas motif
there was nothing it was more neutral
and that’s what hold sold our house
basically that next day um
and we got an offer above asking price okay
so in this case this is a dated picture any holidays
you date yourself basically saying
oh well
this picture has been up since December
when really it was in April
we didn’t take down the holiday decor
so please immediately take down anything like this
holiday stuff Halloween
Christmas Easter
whatever
just make sure it’s not in the photos and celebrate it
you can still have it up when you’re giving showings
right when people are walking through your house
they’re gonna see that then and that’s perfectly fine
just not in the pictures okay
alright same thing with here
there’s a Christmas tree in the corner again
you’re dating the picture um
so definitely remove that but then here I’m like
what is this open dance floor
what’s what’s going on here
why is the furniture pushed up against the walls
that’s just oh another pet peeve of mine
but I know some of you are like
well I don’t know where else to put it well
in this case
I would put the two couches kind of facing each other
cozy around this beautiful arched um
fireplace and take up the space in the room
why do you push things against the wall
please don’t do that OK OK
if you are cringing like me
when you go looking at these photos
then you’ll want to download my free
home staging guide called
how to Start staging your house
now you may be going around going
oh yeah I do have some of these issues
some of these mistakes that I’ve been making okay
yeah Kasha help me out here well
this free guide is gonna help you out
and make sure that you get started on the right foot
it shows you how to attract buyers
it we talk about statistics in there
I even give you some top home improvements
things that you can work on right away
along with 10 home staging tips
so take a look at this free guide
download it today
so that you can get your house ready to sell OK
so another thing that I’ve seen um
that you can easily fix is uh
dirty laundry
and this is actually a photo I found online yes
yes haha
of all my scouring of photos
there’s some lots of houses that are empty
lots of houses that look nice
but there are lots of still
some houses that have
pictures like this out there on the website um
so if you have laundry that you have to do
just take it out of the room
stuff it in the washing machine for
while the pictures are being taken
but please don’t leave that stuff out
when you’re getting pictures taken of
for your real estate photos okay
so yeah
please please please please just put it away okay
uh
this one I wanted to show you as based on the eye sore
is this well
you you may be distracted by this one
but I’m distracted by this thing right
here with this workout gear okay
so yes it’s a bedroom yes
I know this is how we live in it
we probably have a bicycle or a stationary
something or other or treadmill or whatever
but when it comes time to photos
this needs to go okay that’s an eyesore
it doesn’t go in the bedroom
stick it in the garage if you need to
if you really are gonna keep it um
and then this this thing this stand here
that’s that’s distraction
I I hang up the robe on in the closet put it away
definitely put this thing in the garage
that’s just a distraction again
what we’re trying
trying to even though I was meant for to show you this
but this distracted me as well
same thing with this one so this room
I have no idea how they’re using it
so they have the treadmill here with the weights
and then they have a dog cage
and then they have a sofa
I’m like is this a living room a workout room
what is this I’m like
you obviously you’re not gonna be after sweating
you’re not gonna go sit on the couch ugh haha
um so you definitely wanna think about
removing this treadmill
or if you want to make it into an exercise room
that’s perfectly fine but take out the couch
maybe put something else there
that can kind of go with the same
motif of a workout space okay um
but yeah but basically this would come out
this doggy cage would come out um
if you leave it as a living space
then definitely put like a chair
maybe put a bookcase with it with a reading lamp
but basically this half and half thing
yeah no no
that definitely no
okay this one
I really wanna show you this one
cause this one makes my head hurt
I I
I used to when I used to work in the military um
I worked with in this one office
where we had to deal with lots of documentation
and we would
secretary and I work together with the documentation
we look at it and go okay
that’s a misspelled word that’s a run on sentence
what the heck is the format going on here
it just makes my head hurt
and this room makes my head hurt
there’s a lot of things going on here
eyesores that are I want to point out
so not only do you have this creepy looking doll
right here yeah
that one you also have lots of little pictures here
and then you have 1 2
3 4 5
6 7 fake flowers in this whole area space
like that’s way too many
there’s no reason to have fake flowers in your home
you have real ones sure
no problem like greenery if you want to do that
spider plants snake plants
zizi plants those are fantastic but these fake flowers
oh my gosh please just get rid of all of them
every single one just needs to go okay
um but yeah
but basically there’s a lot of little tchotchkes here
and things like that that
and we talked about this dining room before
this is the credenza and everything
it’s just too much stuff but yeah
the creepy dolls hmm yeah
and then there’s the photos
there’s a lot of things going on in this room
it hurts my head we’re just gonna move on okay
okay so another thing that’s an kind of an eyesore
at least for me when I’m walking into a room
is there’s just photos that are hung up too high
like these
they’re kind of these two up here are not necessary
and these aren’t even level on the same playing field
here I don’t know what’s going on here
but basically I would get rid of these two
line up two of them
maybe I would just put these two together
or these two together but not all four
they’re just wrong colors
they don’t go it just yeah
and then this one over the TV
not necessary OK
so definitely pictures that are hung up too high
just take them down that’s the easiest thing you can do
OK and then make sure that they’re
if they do hang up
you have them level across the back of the couch OK
uh another thing that’s an eyesore is popcorn ceiling
wow yeah
there’s still there’s still some houses that have that
yeah yeah
I know the older ones
I get that and they did a great job
they updated the ceiling fan
which some people love ceiling fans some people don’t
I know I’m gonna get both parties going oh
I love them or oh I hate them okay
we’re gonna get that I know
but at least they updated it here
but with they updated that
why didn’t they take down the popcorn ceiling
and then all this little wallpaper edging here
that that just needs to go
so those are eye sores that can be taken down
this one would take a little bit more time
and some little more funding just to get down
but it would totally be worth it just to get that
to help you get your house sold
cause then what buyers are gonna think
they’re gonna look at that and go oh
I have to pay someone to go do that
and they’re probably gonna guess
a lot more than it really would take
than if you did it yourself
or had someone come in and do it
cause they probably think oh
it’s gonna cost like five grand or something
I don’t know I’m just throwing a number out there
but in reality
it’s probably only gonna be like 12 or something right
so
they’re gonna knock off five grand off the offer price
versus if you just did it
and then you know
had it sell
selling like this without the popcorn ceiling
you wouldn’t have less on um
the offer right
and then the last thing I have for you is carpeting
old carpeting again
that red carpeting that was in the bedroom yeah
this goes into the bathroom carpeting in the bathroom
please please
please do not have carpeting in your bathroom
I had one house that we had that
and I wish we would have changed that
cause it was probably can you imagine the humidity and
and all that stuff
that when you’re taking showers in bathroom
it’s just hmm
some people are like I can just hear them
you know puking off to the side going
oh yeah no
please don’t do that just remove this the
the carpeting doesn’t belong in the bathroom um
it should be really nice tile or something like that
again this one might take a little bit more effort
and a little more expense
but worth it because people are gonna think oh well
I’m gonna have to rip that out and put tile in right
when you can just put a basic tile in there easy peasy
nothing fancy
it doesn’t have to be it could be white tile um
that goes in here right nothing nothing crazy so
okay
and speaking of carpeting this is another carpeting wow
yeah this obviously is an older home okay
so yeah
again
this may be something that you may offer the buyers
and say hey look
we’re selling the house as is
I’m giving you you know
X amount of dollars toward replacing the carpet
if you don’t want to
spend the money on putting in new carpeting
um along with new wallpaper
and wall paneling’cause there’s
there’s gonna be some effort in here but for example
if you had this house maybe
um near a university or something
and you’re gonna
rent this out to some college students
at least you know
change the carpeting out cause it looks pretty old
and kind of shaggy and run down
you can paint over the wallpaper or take it down
or at least paint over the um
wood paneling and make it more appealing
and you probably get more rent for it that way too okay
so but yeah
I saw this carpeting yeah
and the wallpaper uh huh yeah
you can easily take care of that
okay so
I hope this is giving you some
idea on what you can look at
if you see some of these things in your own home
think about what it is that you can do
to help you get rid of these eyesores okay
fixing these things doesn’t take a lot of money
but it does take some intention
you definitely need to take a look around
and see what your house has
if you remove the distractions
then you’ll help buyers focus on what really matters
the home and not the decor
so if you guys want more home staging tips
make sure to like comment
and subscribe to my channel
so that you get more home staging tips
and if you do need them to help you get started
then I do have my free guide that you can download
for free with my home improvements
and other home staging tips that you can work on
right now I hope you guys have a fantastic week
and we’ll talk to you later bye