House hunting - things to avoid 19 January at 2:09AM edited 19 January at 2:09AM in House buying, renting & selling 108 replies 9.6K views

Emily_Joy

I am trying to compose a list of things one should avoid, if at all possible, when buying a house in a relatively small town (say population under 70 000). This is what I have at the moment.

1. Bathroom on the ground floor behind the kitchen while all bedrooms are on the first floor

2. Loft conversions - based on my observations these are usually done badly, with leaking showers etc

3. Toilet next to the dining room/kitchen/lounge.

4. Rooms without central heating, unless it is a sun room.

5. Bathrooms in the middle of the house - nowhere near external walls.

Would be very grateful for more contributions.

comeandgo

But surely it’s all relative to you, I would have no problem with your number one point, we have one there but have two shower rooms upstairs, no central heating fine, underfloor heating and coal fire is ideal for us.  

One thing I do like is a huge wrap around garden and must have double garage.

Emily_Joy

comeandgo said:

But surely it’s all relative to you, I would have no problem with your number one point, we have one there but have two shower rooms upstairs, no central heating fine, underfloor heating and coal fire is ideal for us.  

One thing I do like is a huge wrap around garden and must have double garage.

I appreciate it is relative to me. My goal is to avoid something I will have lots of trouble selling later. I haven't come across houses with coal fires and underfloor heating yet, to be honest. Regarding the bathroom in (1) I meant the one and only wet room in house. If there are showers & toilets upstairs, then this is of course fine.

MikeJXE

Homes without adequate insulation

Not on the gas main

Shared access

North facing rear garden

Single glazing

Next to a pub

on a no parking street 

Without off road parking

A big tree front or back

High hedges

Too far from m schools 

External steps

Flood area

next to bus stop

Front door into lounge 

lookstraightahead

It's really relative to you.
Personally I avoid ant type of estate and anything near a main road. I'm not bothered about the actual house, it's the area/location.
I have no problem whatsoever about where the bathroom is, whether there's off-road parking. I've lived next to pubs and because the area was fine they've sold easily. I would choose a house with uneven walls and a coal fire over new builds.

it's context I think. Some things that people hate others love. There are many who would choose a lovely area over an extra bedroom, and the other way around.

jackieblack

Personally, I would never buy a house with the front door opening directly into the living room or with stairs that rise directly from the living room. However I know these things don’t bother many other people.

_Sam_

Emily_Joy said:

I appreciate it is relative to me. My goal is to avoid something I will have lots of trouble selling later. 

It would then be relative to the buyers For example so many people say they'd never touch a house with leased solar panels, and for us it was never a problem, we bought the house, transferred lease, got a mortgage with no issues, happily using the panels now. 

To be honest I would just buy the house that you like and that works for you, look after it well and you won't have problems selling it later.

What would matter to me (except personal preferences) is structural condition of the house, how good the brickwork/pointing is, how well was the house looked after by previous owners, if the roof is in good condition, if the floors are good (don't mind old carpets but good solid floorboards underneath), no damp issues, no risk of flooding.

JuzaMum

The list of things to avoid relates largely to budget. My wants with a house needed some compromise as my ideal was simply too expensive. 

Marvel1

For me, these are no's:

- Open plan kitchen with living room

- No driveway

- Close to a school

- Near a pub/restaurant 

- No walking distance to the local shop

- No walking distance to a train station

- Leasehold

- Shared driveway

housebuyer143

MikeJXE said:

Homes without adequate insulation

Not on the gas main

Shared access

North facing rear garden

Single glazing

Next to a pub

on a no parking street 

Without off road parking

A big tree front or back

High hedges

Too far from m schools 

External steps

Flood area

next to bus stop

Front door into lounge 

Agree with most of these apart from hedges and trees can be cut. And external steps if only one or three are okay. 

To add i wouldn't buy a house with:

Sloped garden

Next to a school

Next to main road or busy side road. 

A property that needs rewiring or extensive work. 

One with ground rent or service charges.

No driveway.

user1977

Whether those things make it difficult to sell (if that's really what you're concerned about) depends on the area and type of property.

Downstairs bathrooms are pretty commonplace in many places (e.g. terraced houses where a bathroom was a new-fangled later addition) so you'd be eliminating a large proportion of options if that was one of your criteria. Similarly, internal bathrooms are very common (especially in flats) and I don't think they a big marketability problem. "Toilet next to the dining room/kitchen/lounge" is where they often end up (bearing in mind it's now a building regs requirement that new houses have a downstairs toilet, so in smaller houses where do you put it?) - if you don't like using one, go upstairs!