16 Common Eyesores That Can Make Your Home Harder To Sell

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Selling a house can be hard, but selling an ugly house is always going to be harder! Your home needs to look its best to get serious offers, and these are some of the most common eyesores that can prompt buyers to lose interest. Luckily, when thinking about how to stage your home like a professional, you don't need to spend thousands of dollars or completely renovate your property.

Instead, it's important for you to start thinking like a buyer to find success. What kinds of things would put you off a certain home? An overgrown lawn that looks like too much work to fix? Peeling paint or mildewed siding that is just screaming to be power washed? What about a dirty, cluttered interior that makes it impossible for you to imagine your own belongings in the house? Sometimes, all it takes to transform your home from drab to fab to make it on the market is a fresh coat of paint and a little bit of elbow grease to get rid of the biggest problem areas.

Be honest: If you arrived at an open house and saw the yard had dead grass, was covered in weeds, or had a very visibly dead tree front and center — would you really want to stay and see the inside of the house? Poor landscaping is one of the most common eyesores that can make your home harder to sell. While things like this might not bother you — they are easy to ignore in the rush of everyday living – landscaping issues are more than likely to turn away potential buyers.

Luckily, one of the easiest ways to boost your home's curb appeal is just to make sure your yard looks lush and green. Schedule a lawn service to come just before you take your real estate photos as well as before any open houses. But remember that mowing isn't enough! Re-mulching the flowerbeds, adding a few colorful potted plants, and ensuring your lawn's edges are shaped correctly can really make all the difference.

Before you list your home on the market, touch up the exterior paint job to generate more interest! You might not notice the weathered look of your home, but if your buyers walk up and all they see is the big chore of repainting, they might not put in an offer. Peeling paint isn't always because of neglect, either. Sometimes, you just live in an area with consistent raging winds or high humidity, causing the paint to bubble, blister, or crack.

There are a few tips for painting the exterior of your home like a pro. Selecting an exterior-specific paint that is formulated to withstand the elements is important. It's also key to paint from the top down to prevent colors from running and ruining the work below. Finally, remember to choose a neutral color that fits in with other homes nearby. If you have an HOA, you might even need to seek its approval before starting. Neutral hues don't just please your homeowner's association; they also prevent you from polarizing potential buyers.

Bad real estate photos are a very common eyesore that will make your home harder to sell. No one will bother coming to inspect your home in person if they don't even like the look of it online.  It doesn't matter whether you make a bunch of improvements to your home if your potential buyers can't see what you've done from the pictures! The most common offenders are poorly lit, blurry photos that are taken from weird angles.

Real estate agents typically handle the listing photos, but if you are selling without an agent, or don't want to pay for the service if it's not included, you can also take the photos yourself. While most smartphones will have a camera nice enough to get the job done efficiently, a few accessories to make things sharper won't hurt, like the UBeesize 12” Selfie Ring Light with 62” Tripod Stand to add some brightness to the shots.

To successfully sell your house, your bathroom needs to be in great shape. "Bathrooms are intimate spaces, and their state tells a deeper story about the overall care and love poured into a home," real estate broker Jim Olenbush told Realtor.com. "For the average homebuyer, issues there could be major deal breakers." You know it's true: A stained bathtub or toilet would gross you out during an open house. You need to fix yours up before you start showings.

The good news is that cleaning a stained bathtub does not have to be an impossible chore. It's not a lost cause; it probably just needs a little bit of elbow grease to look as good as new. A cleanser called Bar Keeper's Friend works well to remove rust, dyes, and oxidation, while a mix of Borax and dish soap (combined with something with teeth, like Scrub Daddy Color Sponges) works on most others.

DIY improvement projects can be fun and rewarding, but when it comes time to sell your home, your skill level can have a huge impact on how easy it is to make things happen. "It looked like a patchwork quilt, and not in a good way," Jim Olenbush told Realtor.com of a DIY bathroom renovation that made it difficult to sell a house. "Each wall seemed to champion a different decade."

For everyday living, you might not care that there is a rogue tile in your bathroom that's a different shade of gray than the others, but buyers are likely to care. All they will see are the dollar signs required from them to fix it. Mismatched flooring, such as gray luxury vinyl plank that butts onto real hardwood, can also look horrific. To avoid finding yourself backed into this corner, plan out your DIY projects to ensure they are not only structurally sound, but also slot nicely into the existing aesthetics of your home.

You might be used to wiping mildew off the shower curtain or the back of the laundry room door. However, your buyers are unlikely to be on board if they spot it. They will think it's gross. Any visible mildew, even if it's just caused by poor circulation and no bad practice of your own, is an eyesore that will make it harder to sell your property.

There are a few tips to keep mold from entering your home. The most important thing when you are trying to sell is to ensure spaces are well ventilated. Keep the extractor fan running while showering or doing laundry. If you don't have one, crack a door or window to prevent moisture buildup. And before any listing photos are taken or open houses occur, give the spaces a good wipe down with Clorox Disinfecting Cleaning Wipes, as the bleach can stop mold in its tracks. However, if your shower curtain is overcome with mold and mildew stains, just grab a new one to save buyers from the "ick."

You might love your orange living room or teal kitchen, but neutral hues tend to go over better with buyers so they can see your home as a blank slate. "Bold paint colors — like eye-popping yellows or moody charcoals — might seem daring, but they can sink your home's value if not executed flawlessly by a designer (and even then, it could still be risky)," real estate professional Jenny Lenz tells Realtor.com. "In today's market, buyers often swipe past homes with polarizing colors before they even set foot inside."

Intense colors can turn some buyers off. Repainting with cozy, neutral hues will make getting buyers through the door a lot easier. "Buyers are attracted to warm and inviting colors that are clean-lined, attractive, and timeless like whites, creams, and lighter beiges that transition well with a variety of styles," real estate agent Cara Ameer explains to Realtor.com. Paint colors you can count on include Sherwin-Williams Agreeable Gray or Benjamin Moore White Dove.

Bad curb appeal isn't the only eyesore that can put buyers off your property. Carpets, especially an entire house full of them, can be a problem. "Today's buyers are looking for move-in ready homes, and old carpet just screams 'remodel required,' " flooring expert Yuri Grakovski told Realtor.com. "For younger buyers, millennials and Gen Z in particular, carpet means allergens, pet odors, and rigorous cleaning routines. They prefer hard floor because it's cleaner, requires less upkeep, and aligns better with modern design aesthetics," he continued.

Luxury vinyl planking (LVP) is a popular flooring option on the market right now. However, is vinyl plank flooring right for your space? It tends to be easy to maintain, which makes it attractive to buyers. It is also easy to DIY install, even for beginners, which can keep costs down. It can scuff or tear, though, so you might want to install it after you've removed your heavy furniture to minimize risks.

Piles of dirty laundry, shoes in the middle of the hallway, stacks of mail on the kitchen table — these are all signs of a lived-in home. But they are also all things that discourage people from putting in an offer on your house. If you aren't having your home professionally staged, it's important to keep your belongings in check during showings. Even your favorite HGTV stars agree. "It's true that leaving your house a mess can keep a potential buyer from seeing how beautiful your space really is, so a quick cleaning blitz before a showing can do a lot of good," Joanna Gaines told Realtor.com. "When the house is clean, buyers can see you love your house — and know they will, too."

Fresh sheets on made beds, freshly vacuumed floors, and a bouquet of flowers on the kitchen table instead of clutter can go a long way during showings. If you don't have the time to do a deep clean before listing your home, many companies specialize in "end of lease" type cleanings and can take care of it for you.

Even if your home looks great on the outside, if it's too full of clutter when buyers step inside, their attitude might shift. "Indoor clutter is worse than a messy facade because it makes the house feel cramped," Warner Quiroga, president and CEO of Prestige Home Buyers, told the Bluefield Realty Group. He went on to share that having a cluttered home can reduce a home's eventual selling price by up to 30%. That's $90,000 on a $300,000 home, so it's definitely not chump change.

Decluttering your home can do a lot to get buyers more interested. It also helps you, as you will have less to move when it's time. Having fewer things also makes it easier to keep your home more tidy. To be successful, you need to shift the clutter. If it's too big of a task to go through everything while trying to sell, or you simply don't want to get rid of it, renting a storage pod is an ideal solution to keep things off-site.

Proximity problems are tough because you might think they are completely outside your control. These include nearby power lines, cell towers, train tracks, busy roads, industrial plants, prisons, funeral homes, and even lewd billboards. You can price your home competitively to make up for these eyesores — but you can also make a few small tweaks to ensure your property is too good to pass up, even with those less desirable things nearby!

For visual problems, consider installing a roll of bamboo privacy screens like the LazBlinds No Tools No Drill Cordless Bamboo Roman Shades to block off eyesores from the ground floor and yard or even planting a fast-growing privacy screen. Plants to consider when looking to add privacy to your yard include northern white cedar, rhododendrons, and even elderberry. While these might not help the initial impression as buyers approach the home, they can at least prevent your guests from being continually confronted with a direct view of the ugly home across the street, the neighbors' broken-down motorhome in the backyard, or the railway line nearby. They give you a fighting chance!

Toolsheds and greenhouses in your backyard might make working outside easier for you and act as a great place for storage; however, if they are in disrepair, they are definitely just an eyesore. Buyers might see them as a safety hazard (hello, tetanus or injuries from a potential collapse!) or just as a looming expense to take down or fix up.

To sell your house, you'll need to freshen these accessory buildings up a bit. If the physical structure is still sound, adding some paint to a wooden shed, or even power washing the outside to make it look new again, can go a long way. To make them even more appealing, consider staging the shed or greenhouse, even temporarily, with window boxes or hanging baskets filled with flowers. This way, it looks like more of a charming feature rather than an instant drawback during the selling process.

The lighting in your home during showings can affect how buyers see your space. "In my experience, cold fluorescent lighting is an absolute deal-breaker," Amy Zdunowski, the owner of Nomad Staging Co., told Apartment Therapy. "It instantly makes a space feel unwelcoming." Not only that, but she went on to say that this type of "harsh and clinical" light creates a space that is the opposite of cozy and inviting. Instead, it feels like a doctor's office. That's definitely not ideal for drumming up lucrative offers.

Zdunowski also warned homeowners not to overcorrect, as lightbulbs with a yellow hue are also an eyesore. "They give a room that old-timey bar vibe, and not in a good way," she said. Instead, when trying to sell, she recommended swapping all your lighting for LED bulbs ranging from 2,700 to 4,000 Kelvin that give off a softer feel, like the Linkind A19 LED Light Bulbs. "They provide the perfect balance of warmth and brightness," she said.

Your house needs to be clean when you sell it, sure — but before you put it on the market, make sure that all of your cleaning supplies have been tucked out of sight. This is particularly true about bathroom cleaning products, such as toilet brushes and plungers, which should not be left out, as they can easily give people the ick simply because of their nature. We all want the toilet to be clean, but we don't necessarily want to be reminded of how that came to be. The same goes with dirty sponges, cleaning rags, or mops.

The problem with storing these supplies, however, is that just putting them in a cabinet might give you the ick, too. To prevent spreading toilet germs elsewhere, just wrap the brush and plunger in a plastic bag before popping them under the sink, or place them in the garage where they can't be seen.

Trash cans are an essential part of keeping your kitchen functioning, but when it comes time to sell, they are only holding you back. "Hide trash cans," real estate professional John Howard advised on Instagram. "This is one of the things that, when I see it in listing photos, it drives me nuts! Most trash cans today that people leave out are metallic and they reflect light, which draws the attention away from one of the most premier areas in a house and one of the things that can sell your house to a potential buyer."

So while keeping your trash can clean is a great way to keep your house smelling fresh for showings, it's better to stow it out of sight (so it can be out of mind!) during the listing photography session and during any showings. Just popping it into the garage solves this problem immediately, making it an easy win.

If you don't replace your appliances all at once, you might have mismatched ones. This might not be an issue for you in your daily life, but when buyers come in and see a random assortment in your kitchen, they are going to be put off.

There are a few options for the best, cheapest solution — especially since you are moving out soon. Pick either the cheapest mismatched appliance or the most outdated one to replace. In this instance, choose a finish that will match the larger appliance or the newest one. For example, if you have a new, large, and expensive stainless-steel refrigerator and an old, white dishwasher, then the obvious one to replace is the dishwasher. The time of year can greatly affect the price of the appliances, as many retailers have end of year sales, including Black Friday. There are brands that are better than others, as expert testing reveals that the Miele Dishwasher G 5008 SCU Active Touch Controls 24 Inch in Clean Touch Steel is rated as one of the best dishwashers, while the GE GGF600AVSS works as one of the best ranges.