What would make you pull out of a purchase?

Slinky

NewbieBuyer wrote: »

Thanks everyone lots of similar type of no-no’s and stuff that is more about the price to offer.

On researching the neighbourhood and neighbours, have you ever done some digging on social media to identify any issues on the street, new developments happening or any annoying neighbour hobbies etc. My wife suggested it but though we might get what we need from a reccy of the street.

Thanks once again everyone.

We withdrew from a property we offered on when the solicitor's paperwork came through and the vendor, who had built a house in the garden, tried to retain ownership of a path linking the front and back gardens. He also wanted to create a right of way up our drive so he could get to this path, it turned out, in order to maintain the brand new brick wall he had had built. Given the chap was late 70's early 80s, we couldn't see he would ever need to maintain it. We also were not able to keep our bins on this path, which was the obvious place to store them. We pulled out as we didn't want a control freak for a neighbour, or issues with any subsequent purchasers of his house. At least 1 and possibly 2 further sales have failed to complete on this house.

Oh, and we didn't care for the way he spoke down to his wife in her presence either.

Scotbot

Solar panels with leases definitely. I did ask one vendor and either they didn't understand the question or were deliberately trying to mislead me as they just said what a good package it was without answering the question. To be honest I don't think they understood what they had signed up to.. After that refused to look at any with solar panels.

A survey that shows a lot of work although I am happy to negotiate a price drop for most things. I did pull out of a dormer bungalow as they are notoriously badly insulated so too hot in summer and cold in winter and the survey came back stating to insulate to modern standards would need a new roof. Stopped looking at dormers after that

A house that has been extended without planning permission. I check the online planning portal for houses I have viewed.

A house near a major development. Don't want to live on a building site.

Whalie

If you find a house - visit the area at different times of the day was a good bit of advice I was given. What seemed like a quiet road during the viewing in the daytime - turned out to be a hot spot of noise during the evening on one of the properties I looked at!

cjmillsnun

NaughtiusMaximus wrote: »

Surely you would ask the vendor this before making an offer?

I’ve had a vendor who didn’t know as they were the executors for the owner’s estate. They thought the panels were owned, they turned out to be leased. I went ahead with the purchase only because they agreed to purchase the panels and transfer them to me on completion

Akahotpot

Any shared access of driveways etc
Road noise , I live on a road that is now a rat run and its one of the reason I am looking to move

trailingspouse

There are a lot of things that would stop me looking at a house in the first place, but having passed the 'shopping list' test (must have 4 bedrooms, must have a double garage, must have broadband...) I'm not sure what would put me off once I'd actually made the decision to buy. I don't scare easy.

But then, I'm not a great believer in the 'forever home' idea - I've had three, so far...

pinklady21

Dunno what we did before the internet - prior to viewing I check online for:
Pylons, road, train or aircraft noise, quad or dirt bike tracks, pig farms, cattle sheds, chicken sheds, sewage treatment plants, waste transfer plants (ie anything likely to cause an odour nuisance) whether there are any close neighbours or if property overlooked, if there is a view, when the property last sold and what it sold for, planning applications in the area, planning applications for the property, local parish / community council minutes, and anything else I can think of when looking at the particulars. I check out the floorplan, does the house "work", and if not, can it be altered fairly easily to make it work.
Selling points for us are good insulation, renewable energy systems (assuming the vendor owns them), a view and potential to alter / extend the property. we also want a bit of land, and will reject anything with less than an acre. This is all personal choice though, and each viewer / prospective buyer will have a different "wish list".
We don't view that many properties..... as no surprise, we tend to reject most we see advertised, but having said all that - but when we do go and see them, we check out the area, knock on the door of the neighbours to say hello, listen carefully for any noise issues we may not already have been aware of, check out for obvious signs of rot, or structural or drainage issues. Ask the vendor about roads ownership and upkeep (a lot of the things we look at are country properties on private roads), and why they are moving. Dodgy or dated decor, old fashioned kitchens or bathrooms etc do not bother us at all. These things can be changed with a modest expense.
We have pulled out of deals - sometimes at quite a late stage - if we find something structurally wrong that will take a fine sum to fix, and the vendor refuses to renegotiate to take account of the additional costs unknown at the time of offering. In one, we found a neighbouring farmer could be very intimidating and handy with his shotgun..... another a large housing development was planned nearby, or the house is under a new or existing flight path. Also where we have lost trust / patience with a vendor, there has to be a modicum of goodwill on both sides for everyone to feel content to proceed with the deal. Best of luck!

kissprudence

On a second viewing, I will always go and knock on the immediate neighbour's doors and say "I'm thinking of buying the house next door, what is the area like?" I usually always already know that the area is ok otherwise I wouldn't be viewing a house there. It's a ruse to see if THEY are ok and whether I would want to live next door to THEM. Often very illuminating. Recently, one side I could tell were heroin users and had a very aggressive dog. On another house a few streets away, the elderly gentleman neighbour ranted on about the lack of car parking and how that was a big problem in the area. When his TWO estate cars were taking up half the street's parking availability!

gazter

Crashy_Time wrote: »

Tail end of a property bubble with interest rates rising and the UK leaving the EZ would scare me off.

The UK has never been in the EZ.

moneyistooshorttomention

Mainly things to do with the location:

- noise (aircraft flight path, busy road, noisy neighbours). I've added barking dogs since moving here - as that was something that didnt happen in my last area - but does here.

- pollution (that busy road again) and I don't want loads of electro-pollution (ie lots of mobile phone masts). The area of my last house was absolutely overwhelmed with that.

- house itself being leasehold or with service charges

- flood risk

- Japanese Knotweed nearby

- neighbourhood generally chavvy. To which, since moving, I've added "lots of houses nearby obviously needing maintenance work". I'm okay with regularly walking through a street where I'm checking out the houses I walk along as "3 houses needing work/normal/4 houses needing work/normal/2 houses needing work/normal" - but I don't want to live in a street where the majority of houses obviously need work just looking at them from the outside.

- a high number of large (5 bedroom plus) terrace houses nearby (the type that are or could be old-fashioned style bed and breakfasts). That put me off a whole town when I was deciding where to live - as there were so many of them there - and I feared a large city council in dearer area buying them up and using them as temporary housing.

- impossibly far "in the back of beyond". I'm in the "back of beyond" - but not so impossibly so that I can't get back again within a day (even though I have to use public transport). Ditto - there has to be at least enough facilities for "basic purposes" within walking distance.