If you have windows that are nicely trimmed out and views that are worth highlighting (or at least windows that don't face directly into neighbor's window) then the added light and feeling of space can often be attractive to a buyer. It's really a tough call without seeing the specific windows and rooms though.

Thanks for the reply.

The windows are not trimmed out. Our yard is large, so there isn't a problem of looking into neighbours windows.

Many of the pictures I've seen, actually have blinds pulled all the way up in the listing pictures, and I've read to pull all window coverings to fully opened when showing, so I thought maybe there really is no point in getting new blinds if no one is going to see them anyway.

I'm still undecided though :P

I personally prefer the clean look of houses without window coverings. Having them there wouldnâÂÂt make me want to buy the house as theyâÂÂre seldom what I would choose anyway, and would take them down within a couple of weeks of moving in. Having the rooms as bright as they can possibly be during showings, not only when the photos are taken, is what you want, so save yourself some $$$ and donâÂÂt bother replacing.

When I 'neutralized' a home to sell last year, I took down all the formal window coverings and the hardware, had plaster repairs done and painted all walls and woodwork. I put back mini blinds facing the street in front (inside mounted) and existing custom linen shades in the bedrooms. Nothing else, all was a blank slate for a buyer to treat to own taste.

Seemed to work, the house sold immediately with multiple offers (3 offers from 4 showings) and none complained about streamlined windows or asked for window coverings allowance in their offers. Bare, bright, and flooded with light made a better impression than dated draperies IMO, and I hesitated to put up inexpensive blinds or shades that could mean patching/touching up all new paint if a buyer had something else completely in mind for their decorating.

Thanks for your replies.

Once the old blinds are down, patched the holes and repainted, I'm a bit loathe to add more holes with new blinds, so I'm in agreement about letting the new owners do their own thing.

I will feel a little vulnerable sitting in my living room with no window coverings. We did that when we first moved into the house 30 years ago...couldn't afford them, so we went without for a while. We will have come full circle :)

When our house was new (it was new construction) we put up (real) wooden blinds, and those remained our only window coverings, first out of lack of knowing what to do, and then out of a real appreciation for the look (and low maintenance.) The windows are large divided lights and nicely-trimmed with white trim, so the resulting look was a nice spare traditional New England look. We pulled the blinds up for the photos and all showings, and got excellent feedback - even the realtors were saying they wanted to remove the curtains they had in their own houses. Our buyer was thrilled to find out that the blinds conveyed with the house.

Many untrimmed non-divided light windows could look equally nice bare or with spare coverings like wood blinds. On the other hand, smaller windows might look worse without anything - hard to say. I'm thinking of some windows which are not common in my area, but are very common in other regions - smaller horizontally-oriented windows which start halfway or more up the walls, etc..

I think wood blinds are inoffensive to almost everyone, and most buyers would be happy to have them at least to start, so they don't have to rush to put up treatments, which are important for both privacy and light/temperature control. I would venture to say that for most house styles, buyers would probably keep the blinds if they were inside-mounted, even if they ultimately put up curtains/drapes outside the windows. On the other hand, wood blinds and even faux wood blinds are not all that inexpensive (one reason many buyers are happy to have them come with the house), so if you don't want to make an investment you probably won't completely get back, leaving the windows bare is fine. We left some windows (the bathrooms! The house backs up to woods.....) completely bare, with all other windows having blinds.

This post was edited by lizzie_nh on Thu, Jul 24, 14 at 7:56

It is likely people won't like your choice of window coverings so just remove them, patch and paint. Yes, most listings show blinds all the way up because it give an impression of space.