What is the biggest thing that would put you off a house?

juliedee4663

Tippytoes said:

juliedee4663 said:

The things that have put us off houses we have recently viewed are:

Attached neighbours
Trampolines, football nets, hot tub, wind chimes or "pub" in the neighbouring gardens
No utility room
No downstairs toilet
Housing estate full of young families (we are empty nesters now so need to be away from the hassle of lots of kids constantly playing football in the streets)
Barking dogs
Noisy main road
Cramped parking or shared driveways
North or east facing back garden
Backing onto woodland because of the leaves, shade and worries about security
Badly overlooked garden

I'm sure there are many more, we really struggled to find something we wanted to buy!!

Your post made me giggle to myself.  The last house I sold had:
Trampoline, hot tub, outdoor speakers, lights that would give Vegas a run for it's money and a Club Tropicana-style bar in the back garden.  The owner had more mouth than a cow's got udder, which was far from ideal when she was hollering at her kids.

The next door-but-one house had chickens and a dog which barked at anything that moved.  It's strange that what drove me up the wall appeared not to bother anyone else!

Oh Lord, I forgot about the house we viewed that had a garden full of chickens clucking next door!!

londonlydia

I think this list very much depends on your budget and stage of life. I’m open to giving most houses a try, as some ‘issues’ are only problems for a particular location. It’s like parking : yes it’s a pain not to have off street parking in urban areas, but not rural, and even in urban I’d rather sacrifice that than compromise on the garden say.

BUT, if you pushed me as to what turns me off a property when viewing most,I’d say open plan kitchen/ living room/ dining room. Significant, costly work to put back and probably added £££s to the selling price, as EAs are still pushing the idea that having one cavernous, and therefore noisy, draughty and smelly (kitchen smells) room with no other living space to escape to is a good idea.

Cash-Cows

where you have to pay ground rent. 
where the access has no direct access to a public highway. 
near or close to undeveloped land. 
near to an industrial area - reversing alarms
front door opens onto a room other than the hall
front door that is not at the front

Davesnave

Cash-Cows said:

where the access has no direct access to a public highway. 
near or close to undeveloped land.

Don't get these two.

For us, with no gateways onto the public highway there is almost no risk of fly tipping or trespassers, which is a huge plus. Yes, there is the upkeep of a private road to factor in, but we've not paid a penny in 11 years and what's needed will be shared 15 ways.

The vast majority of land in the UK is undeveloped (85% roughly) and most of it won't be built on any time soon.