How much does the street bother you?

diggingdude

I think it depends on what the problem is. Unkept gardens or flaking paint may look bad but don't mean the people will be a pain. Rusting cars, sofas in front garden etc....run away.

On my close we have one poorly kept house which we call the foreign house. We call it this as a slum landlord keeps bringing people to work in his factory from Greece, putting 8 of them in this 2 bed semi, never spends a penny maintaining the place etc. But equally, with the exception of one set of "tenants" who had the police round several times, the rest of them are nice people, working hard and being exploited by the landlord. Sometimes the council closes him down, other times the tenants find themselves somewhere better and leave.

So you might look and go "that looks rough I'm not living by them", but in 4 years here they have never caused me a problem unlike another upper middle class nosey stay at home wife ..... 

fourmarks

I don't think anyone has ever mentioned this before but, LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION.

elsien

You are presuming there is a choice. My budget options were all in fairly run down areas. Unless I went for a flat which I really really didn’t want to do.
 It does depend in part why the area doesn’t look great – for me it’s because there’s a lot of rentals and HMOs with a fairly transient population. Direct neighbours have been there for years though,  we get on well, we look after each other’s houses.
Works for me. 

gazfocus

Thanks. I am still trying to decide if it bothers me enough to stop me offering on the house in question. Here’s a streetview and Google earth* screenshot. The Google earth screenshot is more what it was like when we drove over on Sunday. 

*the cars aren’t bashed up, I just can’t get google earth to show them any better quality than the image attached.  

youth_leader

A lot of car doors being slammed there - but they are moving, so they'll be going?

You just never know until you live somewhere really.  I live in a very quiet side street and there was a lot of drama today.  A local lost control of his car, crashed through a bungalow garden fence and stopped when he rammed the bungalow.  Very luckily an ambulance came quickly.

Schwarzwald

I bought in East London at the end of 2021 (FTB).

The neighborhood is not v picturesque but the connectivity is superb.

My street is pretty much as per earlier posts:

One side full of well looked after semi-detached period houses, the other side mostly an HA-owned/managed terrace and unfortunately LITTERED at all times, slightly baffling.

I bought in the terrace and spent good dollars to make my property pretty inside and outside.

The littering is v annoying and I could not put up with it if this were forever home. I can make my house as nice as I like but i simply cant change neighbors …. 

For me it is a temporary home and long-term investment, therefore I am still happy with, but next time i buy a probably then forever home: definitely not in a street which seems untidy, littered, rowdy, unloved, it’s a daily annoyance which you cant change yourself ….

Slinky

Schwarzwald said:

The littering is v annoying and I could not put up with it if this were forever home. I can make my house as nice as I like but i simply cant change neighbors …. 

For me it is a temporary home and long-term investment, therefore I am still happy with, but next time i buy a probably then forever home: definitely not in a street which seems untidy, littered, rowdy, unloved, it’s a daily annoyance which you cant change yourself ….

Yes you can, get out there with a litterpicker and some bags. That's what thousands of us do across the country. Be the change you want to see.

Slinky

gazfocus said:

Thanks. I am still trying to decide if it bothers me enough to stop me offering on the house in question. Here’s a streetview and Google earth* screenshot. The Google earth screenshot is more what it was like when we drove over on Sunday. 

*the cars aren’t bashed up, I just can’t get google earth to show them any better quality than the image attached.  

Nope, wouldn't be buying on that street........

Scotbot

Brie said:

Unloved houses could be

1. quiet elderly or otherwise unable to maintain
2. rented with a useless landlord
3. student housing

I wouldn't mind the first and I was very happy to move because of the third. 

Or 4. Owned by someone like me. I am just not that house proud, I  treat it like a rental. The irony is I do care what the street looks like when buying yet I have to admit my house let's the street down

MFWannabe

gazfocus said:

Thanks. I am still trying to decide if it bothers me enough to stop me offering on the house in question. Here’s a streetview and Google earth* screenshot. The Google earth screenshot is more what it was like when we drove over on Sunday. 

*the cars aren’t bashed up, I just can’t get google earth to show them any better quality than the image attached.  

Would be a no from me 

it does depend what your other options are though OP?