Most offputting thing

Paully232000

I must live in another world to others as reading this thread is an eye-opener, and about things I have only ever seen on television.

I have looked at houses twice, the current one I am in, and the one i have just had an offer accepted on. I have read through all the comments and in particular the following I found interesting:

ASBO neighbours
flags in windows of next door, footy ones
people who sit in their front gardens, have bench etc.
Noisy or aggressive neighbour\hood
Matresses or old tyres in the garden
Kerb-crawling along street

I was thinking more like, structural problems, too small, no storage, too much work involved in doing up the property as limited modernisation over the years by current owners.

moneyistooshorttomention

Speaking of living in another world...that's reminded me of the list of things I was looking out for in my next place (from experience in this place:cool:). So, in my recent househunting I've been avoiding:

- road with pretty constant litter around
- frequent attacks of flytipping
- occasional attacks of graffiti
- high level of pollution (by my standards)
- high level of electro-pollution
- a rather public road (made more so by the number of rat-runners that use it)
- lots of weeds near to houses being studiously ignored by the householders in the nearby house (as they believe the Council should deal with the weeds outside their own house and are continuing with this belief...even though the Council aren't doing so any longer)

House itself:
- too small a kitchen
- the only garden being a tiny back yard
- needed more work than a poorly-paid single woman with no interest in DIY can manage (a lot of which I've paid workmen to do, but quite a bit still remains to be done)
- no garage or garden shed and no room for one either
- no conservatory and no room for one either
- not detached

Errrm...you can tell what my parents' house is like then from that and just how different a house/area I am about to move to:D. Moving back into my comfort zone now:rotfl:(only had to get to retirement age to be able to manage it at last:cool:).

DKLS

England flags and trampolines and those houses that have an ingrained smell of children.

hazyjo

One thing I wouldn't compromise on is not wanting to live on a main road. Almost did once, but backed out before offer was accepted. Too worried about my cat/s.

My list of 'must-haves' is long, but if I'm honest, I would compromise on most of them if the house was in a lovely quiet road.

Jx

ragecake

The only thing that's a really big put off is a tiny kitchen, I love to cook, and if it's too small, I will feel cramped and uncomfortable.
Not to mention there's nowhere for all my ingredients to go, Not all of us live off ready meals!

BritAbroad

J_i_m wrote: »

With not being particularly fond of the activity and noise children make myself, I can fully appreciate being reluctant to live in a house which backs on to the sports/playground of a school since you can hear that level of noise from about a mile away. BUT isn't it just a little bit impractical to turn the other way when you see evidence of a "2.4 children" familiy living in the same street?

You'd be seriously narrowing your range of choice if you did and what happens if such a young family move into the same street as you when you're settled? Are you going to sell up and leave?

As "turn offs" go this is one which would rule you out of pretty much all of the available market.

Not at all. When we bought our current property, we looked at about 50 houses. We identified areas which were very nice and not particularly family friendly and and focussed on them. There is only one house in our street with children, and they are older teenagers. Our last house in the UK was in a street where kids started to play in the street, often outside our house. It drove us insane, so yes, it was a factor in our decision to move. My OH works from home most of the time, so somewhere that is peaceful and doesn't have loads of kids running around is vital - it's an absolute deal breaker for us.

Just because some folk want family friendly estates and the like doesn't mean everyone does. Doesn't everyone 'narrow their range of choice' based on their own needs and wants? Your comment does seem to suggest that we should just put up with young families and their associated noise. If we were creating a nuisance through loud music, driving too fast in the street, inconsiderate parking etc I'm pretty sure most families would be banging on our door, and rightly so. So why should we put up with their noise and inconsideration if we can choose not to? I don't see why we should have to compromise any more than anyone else.

Davesnave

I'm still trying to work out how an area can be both 'nice' and 'not particularly family friendly,' though I suppose somewhere full of small single storey properties might fit the bill.

[STRIKE]

Park Homes? Surely not. :eek:

[/STRIKE]
Children don't necessarily mean noise. In our old cul de sac, I once totted-up 11 children living in the circle of houses at the end. Hardly ever saw them, let alone heard them. Some had parents who thought it was 'common' for their kids to play out, or they had unspoken fears for their safety. The rest were probably just Generation X-Box....;)

moneyistooshorttomention

Yikes - park homes_pale_

People who should have known better....having known me for a very very long time indeed (no guesses who that might be then..:cool: but they're a generation older than me.) tried to persuade me into it. I'm still "hitting the ceiling" at the thought every time it crosses my mind.

Offputting, well:
- tiny
- hard to heat
- high monthly bills
- insecurity
- the locations some of them are in (particularly the one they had in mind for me:eek::eek::eek:)

and that's just to start with.

I was not convinced .....:cool:

Since that is the only way I could afford a detached property in this area I'd have stayed in my little terrace house I currently have thanks all the same...

phoebe1989seb

Mmmmm......park homes - my now deceased inlaws owned one for a while, but then they also once owned and lived on a houseboat which has never appealed to me either Their park home did have an amazingly large garden though which was some consolation. They (apparently, it was before I met DH) sold a very nice house to buy the houseboat (that wasn't a traditional one btw, but an old gunboat or something......DH had great fun living there as a teenager) - there's no accounting for taste as they say.......

We have a crazily long list of requirements when buying, not all of which we managed to fulfil when we bought our most recent house. For example, our last two houses being detached we wanted another detached property and with previous experience of living on a main road we wanted to avoid this. Neither did we want a house with the front door opening into a reception room or one with a thatched roof and as other posters have said, we always avoid proliferations of England/football flags and other outward signs of chaviness......:D

Our current house is a good-sized Georgian thatched house, with a cottage attached, fronting onto a main road serving several villages and the front door originally opened into a reception room - that had once been a shop But then we do also have fields behind our house and across the road.....

We reconfigured the space so the room the front door opens into is our kitchen/breakfast room and the traffic going by is mainly farm machinery. The thatch I've grown used to and the stone walls are so thick we'd never hear anything from next door.

Having bought several houses over the years, the one thing we'd NEVER consider though that would put us off above anything else, is a property without age, history or character.........so to sum up, I guess it being a box-like new build would be the one thing

makeyourdaddyproud

Neighbours
Cars anywhere in the street
Rug rats
Other houses anywhere in view from front door
Dogs
Cats
Public flight path over the house