What would put you off a house...?

[Deleted User]

no small stream , even if seasonal, not anwhere close and that ruled out the two houses I have seen on RM, both with capped wells and been on there for quite a while and another had a tiny stream running downhill, down the side of the garden

System

A large garden would put me off a house. A postage stamp sized garden front and back would suit me fine.

Bvv

My husband and I recently bought a flat. We know this is not a forever home, just a home for the next few years, so didn't want anything that required too much work. The main turn offs were:

No gas central heating. Don't mind having an old boiler that needs replacing, but did not want to pay to have an entire heating system installed.

Weird lay-outs (e.g. having to go through the main bedroom to access second bedroom).

Basement flats. There's lots of these around where we live, and they were tempting as they tend to be more affordable, but I don't think I could deal with the constant darkness inside (let alone potential damp).

No space to park our bicycles. We have a car as well, but use our bikes far more often, so that was a more important consideration!

Noise potential, e.g. looked at one ground floor flat where the bedroom was right next to the front entrance to the building.

As others have said: front door that opens straight into the living room.

Overpowering smoke smell (or other nasty smells).

StumpyPumpy

LadyL2013 wrote: »

Out of interest why do stairs in the living room put people off so much?

I grew up in a house like that. Up the stairs was a small landing with bedrooms, loo and bathroom off.

It meant that as a child when you went to bed you had to get to sleep with the sound of the TV or conversation coming through the bedroom door and it meant that you had to heat the stairs and landing if the living room was cold. When I got a bit older it meant I couldn't stagger up the stairs after an under-age trip to the pub without having to negotiate them in full view of parents and sneaking a girlfriend in was totally impossible! But perhaps worst of all was that whilst sitting in the living room you can hear, in seemingly amplified stereo anyone using the separate toilet at the top of the stairs. :eek::eek:

I'd never buy a house with that layout (although my parents still live there, so opinions can differ).

SP

seven-day-weekend

Davesnave wrote: »

There are conservatories and conservatories.

Ours is better built than most, so today it was heating the house.

Even last week, when it was -6c outside and blowing a gale, we were working in the conservatory, kept at a reasonable 19c by the wood burner in the living room. Admittedly our fuel for that's mostly free, but we were slightly amazed by the ease in which we were able to use the conservatory in such inclement conditions.

Christmas dinner was in there too, so I'm not sure when these unusable months are? Maybe in the evenings of winter, because we wouldn't heat then, when there are other warm rooms.

We use our conservatory all year round too. It has some sort of special glass which keeps heat in in the winter and out in the summer. We heat it with a wall-mounted convector heater which has a thermostat and keeps it at a constant 15 degrees, obviously we can have it warmer if we wish. The heater is off a lot of the time because it doesn't often get lower than 15 degrees.

My husband was working in there in the gales too

We have a large garden so no problem there and it gives us more usable living space.

Slinky

StumpyPumpy wrote: »

I grew up in a house like that. Up the stairs was a small landing with bedrooms, loo and bathroom off.

It meant that as a child when you went to bed you had to get to sleep with the sound of the TV or conversation coming through the bedroom door and it meant that you had to heat the stairs and landing if the living room was cold. When I got a bit older it meant I couldn't stagger up the stairs after an under-age trip to the pub without having to negotiate them in full view of parents and sneaking a girlfriend in was totally impossible! But perhaps worst of all was that whilst sitting in the living room you can hear, in seemingly amplified stereo anyone using the separate toilet at the top of the stairs. :eek::eek:

I'd never buy a house with that layout (although my parents still live there, so opinions can differ).

SP

That's interesting, our new house has stairs out of the dining room, we haven't lived there yet apart from a couple of weeks when we were decorating for tenants, it appears we're lucky the stairs are in the dining room rather than the sitting room. I can't see me having problems sneaking somebody back in, since the only person that would be would be my OH.

We pulled out of a house purchase where the vendor was also the neighbour and showed signs of being a control freak.

NeilCr

As I get older and creakier

Things that would put me off in a house

No downstairs loo. A godsend that I don't have to go up and down the stairs too often.

Size. I live alone and don't want a big house to clean and maintain. I am quite happy with what I have re kitchen/living room being together. I don't have visitors round for dinner so it's only my cooking smells and me. I can watch TV while I'm cooking and quick and easy to get to the kettle

Condition. As above I don't want to have to do up/repair anything. For that reason I prefer modern houses too. Well insulated

A big garden with grass. Got a Courtyard now with decking

No off street parking. Agree with previous posters. Very important while I stilll have a car

Location

Not in a town. I want to be near shops without having to drive

Poor public transport. I am on a regular bus route here that goes to the station, hospital etc

On a main road. I used to live on a busy main road and loved it. Not any more!

Tammykitty

What would put me off


1 - open plan - I detest it, its cold, and I want to be able to close the door on my kitchen!


2 - Main Road


3 - Not a forever home - no room for children (If we are very lucky enough) or to convert downstairs rooms to bedrooms as we get older!

Davesnave

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

We use our conservatory all year round too. It has some sort of special glass which keeps heat in in the winter and out in the summer.

We have a large garden so no problem there and it gives us more usable living space.

It's Celsius glass, I expect, which we have, and the rest of our conservatory's built to building regs, so even the floor's insulated.

Many conservatories are badly built though, which is why they get the reputation they have, especially when installed by a cowboy firm. Those are numerous in an essentially unregulated industry.

moneyistooshorttomention

KittenChops wrote: »

Nope, we're in the south east! We have considered having the house painted but we'll see what happens first. We have a couple of viewings today and another couple lined up for the weekend...

It is astonishing just what difference it makes.

Even when a house is painted anyway and is just getting re-painted (in a neutral colour either way) - it does make quite a difference....and comments will come out about "Good kerb appeal:)".