What are people's priorities when viewing homes for sale?

trailingspouse

Assuming it's basically got the things I'm looking for, I would be looking for a general level of cleanliness (viewed a house once where all their dirty washing was piled up in the bath - couldn't imagine getting into that bath for a lovely long soak). Also, have they 'bothered' to make the house look good for viewings? When we looked round the house we're currently in, they'd set the dining table beautifully, with candles and napkins. A small thing - but if they haven't bothered to make the place look good, what else haven't they bothered to do?

amberstone99

Thanks for your replies.It certainly seems that everyone's needs are different

AFF8879

oystercatcher wrote: »

Size of property and location.

I would rather pay a bit less for somewhere shabby and do it up to my taste than have spanking new horrible shiny stuff that I haven't chosen.

^^This.

And it isn’t even about adding value (though that is a bonus), it’s about the freedom/ excitement of doing up a place exactly how you want it without the worry / guilt of ripping out ludicrously expensive fixtures/ fittings that aren’t to your taste.

That, and shabbier properties tend to be older and by nature more generously proportioned.

bexybest

In a few years will be looking for a new property as living in a 2-bed new build house currently. Our priorities in this order:

Location - near good schools and a nice area
Large room sizes - current house has typical new build sized rooms, expecting most rooms to be at least double in size in the new house
Double driveway - as never want the parking issues that we've had here
Large garden

Looking for a doer-upper where we can strip it right back and make it our forever home.

Hillwalker11

Location, not overlooked,not on a main road must have at least a single garage, good room sizes.We managed all those in our current house with the added bonus of being unoverlooked at the front as well.Probably why we have been here 30 years.

happyandcontented

Good downstairs room sizes and flow. Downstairs toilet.Utility room. Good parking/garage and it must, must have a good sized but private garden. I also need a decent sized kitchen.

A lot of the criteria is age and life related, we wanted great schools when we moved here 33 years ago, that is not important to us now but it will be a selling point for this house as we are in the catchment of 2 Ofsted outstanding schools with small catchment areas.

AlexMac

No one's mentioned a good pub, ten minutes walk away?

And (as I have a London scroungers' bus pass - aka "freedom pass"), a bus stop within 5 minutes, a train station within 12 minutes walk and a tube a 10-minute bus ride away. Saves me up to a grand a year! (which I can then spend in the pub)

Shops and the like about 7 minutes....

I could go on (and frequently do)

MovingForwards

Important details and priority:

Location
Bungalow
House
Condition of exterior
Garden
2 or 3 bedrooms
Double glazing
GCH (not electric)
Chimney (as I want open real fire)
Proper kitchen, not open plan lounge / kitchen
Decent sized kitchen
Decent sized rooms

Unimportant details:

Decoration
Carpets
Age of kitchen / bathroom

Davesnave

Land, location and aspect first, then the house.

One can't change the location, but the property itself is usually easy enough to adapt to particular needs if large and cheap enough.

We achieved about 80-90% boxes ticked with the land, so settled for knocking the house to blazes and back. Now it's all fine. Might not do it again!

Ally_E.

I do my research online, I want to see location, floorplan and all photos online before I even decide if I'm going to view the property. While actually viewing I want the property to look like the photos, be warm, I will look out for damp, mould, height of ceilings, room sizes, quality of bathroom and kitchen, condition of the central heating system noisy neighbours, how clean the streets are etc We have viewed a few properties where the windows and doors were left open for the viewings, making it freezing cold, which made it very difficult to gauge how warm the house can be, if there are any drafts or problems with windows/doors/insulation. It feels like they are trying to hide something with making it so cold.