Celebrity interior designer reveals bathroom mistakes that can destroy a home sale

Dirty, unkept and unhygienic bathrooms can turn buyers off the a sale of a home

A badly presented bathroom can sabotage the entire sale of a home, regardless of the state of its other rooms.

Working across both commercial and residential with an array of high profile clients from politicians, sportspeople and developers, celebrity interior designer Kellie Richardson said simple bathroom mistakes can instantly damage buyer perception, reduce offers or stop a sale from happening altogether.

The founder of Kurved by Design said buyers tended to pay closer attention to bathrooms than many other rooms.

“They stop imagining and they start scrutinising,” she said. “If something looks or smells off, it can cost you tens of thousands of dollars in perceived value.”

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Kellie Richardson

According to Ms Richardson, a dirty bathroom can entirely jeopardise a sale and opinion of the home.

“I have been into some bathrooms where they have brown tiles, gold accents and it’s been very, very outdated but they’ve been very clean and tidy and people can look at it and go okay, we’ll need to spend a bit of money getting the bathroom done but at the same time we can live with this sort of ugliness in it,” she said.

“There are other bathrooms that we have been into and they are very dirty. They’re smelly. They’re a bit mouldy. People do look at (that) and think there is a roof or a ventilation problem or they smell mould so maybe there is a bit of rising dampness.

“That will impact the buyer completely, because that’s a huge amount of money with cost and time and you have to get professionals in, so the house prices go down because that is marked as a massive renovation especially when you’re dealing with water.”

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A cluttered and unkept bathroom can instantly turn buyers away from a sale

Ms Richardson said if the bathroom is dirty, a lot of people assume that the whole house is going to be dirty.

She added that the most common bathroom mistakes for sellers were overpowering smells, brown rings around the bath or dirty shower floors, carpet in the bathroom, hair in the sink or drain, used toothbrushes and cluttered vanities.

“You want to have something that smells nice like burning candles or oil sticks. Things like that. Nice smelling soaps. A lot of people buy with emotions,” she said.

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Kellie Richardson said a clean bathroom enables buyers to see themselves in that nice, clean area

“We’ve also had bathrooms that are very dirty, dusty and haven’t been cleaned, the brown rings in the toilet or bath turns people away as they think it’s really grubby and I’d have to rip the whole thing out and start again.

“We’ve had situations where we’ve actually had carpets in the toilets and that turns people away a lot especially because with males using the toilet, a lot of people think it’s very dirty and germs and it’s quite disgusting and unhygienic.

“Just doing simple things like cleaning up the hair and dust can make a lot of difference because it makes the buyer think that whoever is living here is hygienic and clean and has looked after the property.

“Then they start to see themselves in that nice, clean area.”

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Ms Richardson said to avoid dirt and clutter to keep a vanity clean and simple

Ms Richardson said to take everything off the counter, such as toothbrushes, perfumes, deodorants and instead have just a candle, soap dispenser or plant.

“Keep it simple, so it makes the bathroom look a lot cleaner, clearer and bigger,” she said.

“It definitely does make or break a sale, just like the kitchen does, because these are high areas that cost a lot of money that we use daily.

“If there are issues with rising damp, mould, tiles are coming away, it’s in disrepair or it’s not going to be very clean or hygienic, that turns a lot of people away because they will be thinking of the money, it hasn’t been looked after and there’s going to be problem after problem.”

The bathroom of a house that sold in Sydney suburb Surry Hills.

Sydney’s eastern suburbs: A bathroom inside a Randwick home that went up for sale.

Ms Richardson said there is also focus on ‘cosmetic’ enhancement rather than major renovations.

“People don’t want to go in and do major renovations especially with the cost of living,” she said.

“When people go in, you will either lose people, or people will decide they can do a few cosmetic things and it’ll be fine.

“This is why kitchens and bathrooms are so important, because they’re the biggest money spend.”

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