Houses That Sit — Blue Carpet, Bad Feng Shui, Bad Design
By: Diane Tuman, Zillow Content Manager | December 1, 2008
I couldn’t resist bringing to light a funny blog post I saw recently by Robin Rogers of San Antonio. She wrote a post in ActiveRain titled, “Blue Carpet is the kiss of death” — things that make houses sit there and not sell.” It’s refreshing to see this kind of frankness from an agent and it should be required reading for anyone selling their home. Of course, I’m sure it’s not easy to tell a seller that their blue carpet is really a no-no, or their countertops need to be replaced, but it was fun to read.
Other things that are turn-offs, according to Robin:
- Bad feng shui — Homes with stairs that start right in front of the front door and continue straight up to the second floor.
- Bad chi — Homes that are located on a street where there’s a T-intersection in front. Also, homes at the end of cul-de-sacs.
- Puzzling rooms — Homes with non-traditional rooms. (i.e., a garage had been partly converted to a room).
After all, agents and brokers see hundreds of homes a year and after a few years in the business, I’m sure they know immediately what houses will fly off the market and what homes will sit.
Need to be inspired? View some gorgeous kitchen remodeling, bathroom remodeling, and bedroom remodeling ideas in our home improvement hub, Dueling Digs. You might even see a blue carpet floating around in there! (The blue carpeted room I found in the photo above is not really blue, but a bluish-green).
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- Categories: Home Improvement
Comments
8 Comments so far
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PennySeeds.com on December 2, 2008 8:08 am
It’s sad really, because that carpet does trash an otherwise gorgeous room. I’d prefer some attractive ceramic tiles since I’m not a fan of carpeting anyway.
DebtFree on December 4, 2008 12:05 pm
Other things that are a turn-off:
Inflated prices based upon seller memories of forever-gone 2005.
Realty Thoughts » Post Topic » The Carnival of Real Estate #120 on December 8, 2008 11:50 am
[...] Diane Tuman gives us a look into houses that sit because of bad design and blue carpet [...]
Carnival of Real Estate #120 | Zillow® Blog on December 8, 2008 2:41 pm
[...] over at Realty Thoughts. Our own Diane Tuman received an honorable mention for her post, “Houses that sit — blue carpet, bad feng shui, bad-design.” Head over to Realty Thoughts and read the [...]
Melody Anderson on December 9, 2008 5:59 pm
Ordinarily I’d agree. But the room in your photo has such potential, I’d like the opportunity to help a buyer ‘forget’ about the carpet!
Carpet on May 4, 2009 10:30 pm
I think that any carpet that is reasonably priced, easy to clean, and in a basic color is a good purchase. A true turn off is buying over priced carpet that just seems to be unpractical and a little bit too trendy. Can’t go wrong with a basic.
kit homes nsw on August 12, 2009 9:52 am
They say that location is the primary feature of a house that determines how well it will sell. But it’s difficult to imagine a house with a different appearance than the one it possesses when you walk in the door. That’s why real estate agents will often tell sellers to spend some money changing certain features that may not be appealing to a majority of people. Carpet is one of those items. Other suggestions include eliminating clutter, repainting scuffed walls, repainting brightly coloured rooms with neutral colours and removing wallpaper. Some people will love blue carpet matched with blue and yellow floral wallpaper, but odds are the house will sell faster if the carpet and walls are neutral coloured and there’s no wallpaper to remove. Of course, if you buy one of the new kit homes NSW real estate purchasers are snapping up you don’t have to worry about bad feng shui. You will be choosing your own flooring and wall paint…even if chartreuse is your favourite colour!
Dave Tool on November 2, 2009 10:03 pm
My aunt is a real estate agent and she has always maintained that the odor of a house can do as much to discourage a sale as anything else. She did her best to make sure musty homes were aired out before being shown and would even go as far as baking cookies in the oven of a house before a hot prospect was to arrive. If it works for Mrs. Fields it might work for your house!
Home Improvement