Home décor disasters that stop your home from selling

Top ten buyer turn-offs 2024

Although your home can’t be all things to all people, the aim, when marketing your home is to appeal to each and every potential buyer.

So, when you’ve devoted hours to preparing and tidying your home for a viewing, receiving negative feedback can sometimes be quite brutal.

To cushion you from that crushing blow from a stranger, and help you sell your home quicker, we’ve plumbed the depths of the home décor sin-bin to bring you our top ten buyer turn offs for 2024.

10. Avocado bathroom suite

Only featuring so low down on the list because they are now so rare, they are an endangered species of bathroom design, the avocado green bathroom suite favoured in the groovy 70s takes our tenth top turn off spot.

Insipid at best, lurid at worst, there is little that can be done to disguise this fashion faux pas. There is nothing discreet about an avocado green bathroom suite, so it’s time to ‘go big, or go home’. If you can replace the suite, do so, if not, make a statement and try pairing it with accents of flamingo pink or bird of paradise florals.

9. Garish carpet patterns

It’s back to the 70s again with our number nine home décor no-no. Chaotic patterns, brown shag pile, obscene orange and mint green swirl…in a bathroom no less!

Nothing devalues a home quicker, or turns off a viewer quite like a carpet that wouldn’t look out of place at Woodstock.

8. Dated kitchen

While each decade brings with it a new trend for kitchen styles, there are certain design traits that are no longer entertained, even in the most sociable of kitchens.

Solid wood kitchens bring with them the bonus of versatility; any honey or orange wood shades from yesteryear can be stripped back and repainted in a cool neutral shade.

Even matt black hardware has had its time, with a preference now for enduringly stylish solid metals, such as brass, bronze and stainless steel.

Excessive glass fronted shelving units are also a thing of the past. The current trend is to conceal your toaster, tea and coffee making equipment in bespoke breakfast cupboards, so displaying your glassware is somewhat passe.

7. Any trace of the 1980s

Pink bathrooms, fluffy toilet seat covers, wood clad walls (or worse yet – woodchip wallpaper) and mahogany furniture. Add to the ‘banned’ list crochet cushions and throws, oversized shabby chic floral bedding, corner baths, decorative borders and louvred wardrobe doors.

Artex ceilings, a maligned fashion craze enduring from the 1930s to the 1980s is a particular ‘must address’ décor turn off, but proceed with caution, as any Artex installed prior to 1984 may contain asbestos.

6. Strip lighting

LED strip lighting in the modern era can enhance a room’s appeal, for example when providing a sultry glow as plinth lighting in a kitchen.

The strip lighting to which we refer is the kind that zings like a fly zapper, flashes neon white for the first few seconds after you flip the switch and proceeds to drain a room of all warmth and character. Tolerable in a garage, but only barely.

5. Separate loo and bathroom

A divisive entry on the list, the trend for a separate toilet room (also known as a water closet) to the main bathroom is an old and enduring one, dating back to the 1920s and 30s, when often the toilet was an outhouse in the garden.

Offering the advantage of privacy and potential hygiene benefits, the question remains whether or not convenience outweighs cleanliness?

4. Live, laugh, love plaques

Firmly place them in the charity shop along with your gran’s 1970s flying-duck wall art.

3. Unfinished jobs

Incomplete paint jobs, cupboard doors with handles missing, guttering that is loose, doors that won’t latch, black mould in showers, blown light bulbs and so forth all give the impression of neglect and disrepair.

You’d be surprised at the lengths to which buyers go to preview a home, so make sure you ensure all those niggling jobs you never quite got round to are completed before marketing your home.

2. Damp stains

Damp stains on a wall or ceiling are a red flag for any would-be buyer and are suggestive of structural issues. In older, stone built homes, damp can be a tricky problem to combat, particularly in winter months, so avoid drying clothes indoors and open windows regularly to keep the air circulating.

1. Unexplained odours

All homes have their own olfactory presence, but neutralising a home’s odour is key to a successful sale.

Linked to hygiene and cleanliness, a bad odour can leave more than a bad taste in a viewer’s mouth, the subconscious associations can leave them well and truly turned off to your home.

Your viewers want to picture themselves living in a wholesome environment so be sure to freshen up your home by taking the bins out and opening windows. Try bringing in comforting smells such as aromatherapy candles or homely smells such as baking bread or fresh coffee.

Deal with the source of the bad smell before introducing new smells, a masked smell is often even more disconcerting. Pet odours and soiled carpets or bedding are often the most enduring smells, so it might be worth replacing these items entirely to be safe.

The perfect home is a rare find indeed, but by focusing on key areas to enhance, you can maximise your chance of a speedy sale.

To learn more in regard to how your home scrubs up, or if you are considering selling your home and want to discuss how to prepare it for market, please don’t hesitate to contact one of our team.