What are your turn-offs when it comes to buying a house?

Liz1966

I'm alot less fussy than most people, probably because when I bought my home I was on such a tight budget I couldn't afford to be too picky. Ultimately I looked at whether I could change anything I didn't like about the house, 
The deal breakers for me would be things I can't change:
Noise eg. from a road junction, pub, food take-away, businesses with deliveries.
Smells eg. places preparing food, sewage plant, farmer's fields.
Shared access ways because no matter how lovely the current neighbours are, that can easily change.
Planning developments in the area because there will be at least 12 months of incessant heavy vehicles moving stuff, dirt and noise.
SDLT may put me off if the property the seller would only accept an offer near and over the threshold for a higher duty.

ShinyStarlight1

Things that would really put me off:

Dark rooms
Low ceilings
Cheap pretend wood floors
A sense of crampedness eg. small entrance spaces or landings
Poor noise insulation eg. thin walls in new builds
Garden very overlooked
Near any kind of outdoor sports venue or electricity generator because of the noise
On a main road because of the pollution 


Things I don’t mind or currently have:

Living in a terrace - there’s barely any noise bleed if the street layout is one house’s lounge next to the neighbour’s hallway. The problem arises if each house’s lounge abuts their neighbour’s lounge.

North-facing garden - watching the sun reappear in it in Spring till Autumn is lovely and has a sense of excitement about the return of Spring. It also means one side of your house is sunny and bright and the other is cool for those very hot days.

Living by a railway line - I find the sounds of trains quite romantic and therapeutic.

BikingBud

Slinky said:

Some people bought a 1960s house down our street at the start of last year and for approaching a year builders have been in and have ripped out almost everything. Internal walls down, dug up floors, replaced the roof, externally insulated the walls, put in solar panels and triple glazed windows etc etc and still a long way off finishing. Probably an ASHP going to go in. Will need a new kitchen and bathrooms.  Knowing what we spent on ours, I reckon they'll be lucky with any change out of £300K. It would have been cheaper to knock it down and start again. They are going for Passive House standards. They must be in their 70s. They'll never see the benefit of the cost savings. I do hope their children want to inherit it in due course, otherwise someone will get a bargain. It will never sell to cover the investment costs. All the time the work is going on, they're paying out rent elsewhere.

I think there is a point at which demolish and rebuild becomes the best answer, especially with VAT reclaim.

Many houses built in the 50's/60's were poorly designed/laid out and have limited scope to achieve modern standards. Yes they were a massive improvement to what people were used to and for some it might have been the first time they got an inside toilet but frequently starting again really is the best answer.

It seems a shame that people cannot always take this route to improve housing stock and conditions do this due to interpretation of local planning officials.  

If you have a good plot but a poor house, rebuilding to provide easy access, wide doors, single levels, downstair wet room facilities and an adjacent room suitable as a bedroom, that is energy efficient and reduces the running costs might be an investment and mitigate a lot of problems as owners get older and less mobile.

Certainly worth considering the costs and benefits. 

oystercatcher

No one has mentioned woodchip wallpaper yet !!  I still have some in hall,stairs,landing from when I moved here 25 years ago! (it has been painted ) , and then some fool (Me) decided to put it in 2 bedrooms !! What were they thinking ?? I doubt I will have the energy to remove it before we go on the market ...will it put people off ?

subjecttocontract

oystercatcher said:

No one has mentioned woodchip wallpaper yet !!  I still have some in hall,stairs,landing from when I moved here 25 years ago! (it has been painted ) , and then some fool (Me) decided to put it in 2 bedrooms !! What were they thinking ?? I doubt I will have the energy to remove it before we go on the market ...will it put people off ?

Often put up if the plaster is a bit dodgy because it's cheap and easy to do by any inexperienced decorator. Personally I don't mind the odd wall done in woodchip but I wouldn't want a whole room of it.

Consumer3

This definitely depends on budget, getting as much of your wish list ticked, whilst hoping for that gut feeling of ‘yes this is the one!’ 

We are on our third home, we started with a tiny flat at the top of three flights of stairs, then to suburban bungalow and finally semi-rural bungalow.

Biggest turn off is noise, whether from neighbours, roads or planes (we were on the Heathrow flight path in the second house). 

Other turn offs:
Stairs, open plan, not enough natural light, no decent broadband connection and only one loo.

Turn ons:
Quiet, privacy, and close to the sea.

Previous experience often dictates what is really a deal-breaker…. For us, we bought our current home as far away from neighbours and flight path as our budget allowed!  

However, we gave up some things for that, we have a right of way over someone else’s driveway, sloped land and a septic tank instead of mains drainage. All been worth it for the general peace and quiet and being able to sleep without disturbance at night.

Ramouth

It’s interesting isn’t it, for many of you our house would be your worst nightmare - a 250 year old mid terrace in a conservation area with steep, uneven stairs, no downstairs loo and a front door that is straight into the living room, right next to next doors, and only 6 feet from the lane.  And a north facing garden at first floor level.

In reality it is a lovely place to live, in a friendly village, walking distance (for me - I am a good walker) to work, good bus links, countryside and water views and 5 minutes walk to a quay where I can keep my sailing dingy.  We all have different priorities.

Slinky

BikingBud said:

Slinky said:

Some people bought a 1960s house down our street at the start of last year and for approaching a year builders have been in and have ripped out almost everything. Internal walls down, dug up floors, replaced the roof, externally insulated the walls, put in solar panels and triple glazed windows etc etc and still a long way off finishing. Probably an ASHP going to go in. Will need a new kitchen and bathrooms.  Knowing what we spent on ours, I reckon they'll be lucky with any change out of £300K. It would have been cheaper to knock it down and start again. They are going for Passive House standards. They must be in their 70s. They'll never see the benefit of the cost savings. I do hope their children want to inherit it in due course, otherwise someone will get a bargain. It will never sell to cover the investment costs. All the time the work is going on, they're paying out rent elsewhere.

I think there is a point at which demolish and rebuild becomes the best answer, especially with VAT reclaim.

Many houses built in the 50's/60's were poorly designed/laid out and have limited scope to achieve modern standards. Yes they were a massive improvement to what people were used to and for some it might have been the first time they got an inside toilet but frequently starting again really is the best answer.

It seems a shame that people cannot always take this route to improve housing stock and conditions do this due to interpretation of local planning officials.  

If you have a good plot but a poor house, rebuilding to provide easy access, wide doors, single levels, downstair wet room facilities and an adjacent room suitable as a bedroom, that is energy efficient and reduces the running costs might be an investment and mitigate a lot of problems as owners get older and less mobile.

Certainly worth considering the costs and benefits. 

The thing that may have played a big part about demolish and rebuild is that the house is a link detached. However, only joined at the garage, so they could have taken the house down and kept the adjoining garage.

Around the corner there's a house where they did do a demolish and rebuild. The existing house cost £900K to buy, then there was the cost of demolishing it before rebuilding. I'm astonished why they did it, the plot's nothing special really in terms of particular location. I seriously doubt they'd get all that money back if they decided to sell.

horsewithnoname

If the house is dirty. If someone doesn’t care enough to keep a home clean, what else will they have not bothered with?

SpicyChilli69

Shared driveway