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

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Ramouth said:

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.

This is my point. People moaning about fake grass and woodchip wallpaper.
You can easily change those things. You can't change location or plot.

RelievedSheff

ShinyStarlight1 said:

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.

I find it interesting that people assume that new builds have poor sound insulation.

Our previous house was a 1930's ex local authority semi and the sound transmission between the houses there was absolutely atrocious. You could hear everything and I mean everything, that was happening next door. We had people in to look at fitting sound insulation and they said there was no point. Due to the build style, single brick party wall with floor and roof joists running onto the party wall, there was always going to be sound transmission. We would have been wasting our time and money.

It was on the back of that experience that we decided we would only buy detached houses going forwards. We are now in a 5 year old "new build" detached that we bought new. But we have been in neighbours semi detached houses and we have genuinely heard nothing from their next door neighbours at all.

Jemma01

RelievedSheff said:

ShinyStarlight1 said:

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.

I find it interesting that people assume that new builds have poor sound insulation.

Or maybe we're not assuming and have actual first hand experience?

Chemistry777

I was adamant I wanted a detached house.  However, after (reluctantly) viewing a semi-detached bungalow, I loved the house.  The touchpoint with the other property is one bedroom.  50s built, we have not heard a sound.  The gardens are separated by mature hedging and shrubs and feels totally secluded and private.  

I reckon the same house (but detached) would have had a 80k premium price, so think we got a great return on our money.

I wanted large gardens and that is what I got front and rear.  I love them, but do not underestimate the work involved.  Literally 4 hours a week over the summer to keep on top of everything.  I certainly underestimated the work involved.

prowla

Cigarette smells

Pet smells

Leasehold

No gardens

Managed parking

No parking

horsewithnoname

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 ?

Most of my ceilings are wood chip. It’s fine, it does a job and saves the mess of new ceilings. And is way better than some of the godawful wallpaper I’ve had. 

SallyDucati

Jemma01 said:

RelievedSheff said:

ShinyStarlight1 said:

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.

I find it interesting that people assume that new builds have poor sound insulation.

Or maybe we're not assuming and have actual first hand experience?

There can be a large variation in sound transmission in new builds as well. 

One of my sisters houses was awful (Persimmon), but I live in a 2017 build, built by a small developer.  No sound issues at all and never had any comments from others on the estate either.

On the main question  - when I was looking I most definitely did not want a new build and 'needed' a garage.  That is until this house in my dream location dropped in price so was affordable for me.  It does have a driveway for 2 cars though which would have been a dealbreaker if not.

twopenny

One thing I avoided but got here is no street lampost outside.

Turns out it's not such a bad thing. The house is illuminated so any burgulars etc would be highlighted which tends to put them off

I've just got thermal linings to keep the light out - but also don't need the cost of a light to door or in the bedroom.

The one major one I forgot was - not opposite a T junction.

Cars slowing and accellerating, headlights shining in randomly.

pieroabcd

twopenny said:

One thing I avoided but got here is no street lampost outside.

Turns out it's not such a bad thing. The house is illuminated so any burgulars etc would be highlighted which tends to put them off

I've just got thermal linings to keep the light out - but also don't need the cost of a light to door or in the bedroom.

The one major one I forgot was - not opposite a T junction.

Cars slowing and accellerating, headlights shining in randomly.

Or crashing against the house altogether  :'(  

ThorOdinson

RelievedSheff said:

ShinyStarlight1 said:

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.

I find it interesting that people assume that new builds have poor sound insulation.

Our previous house was a 1930's ex local authority semi and the sound transmission between the houses there was absolutely atrocious. You could hear everything and I mean everything, that was happening next door. We had people in to look at fitting sound insulation and they said there was no point. Due to the build style, single brick party wall with floor and roof joists running onto the party wall, there was always going to be sound transmission. We would have been wasting our time and money.

It was on the back of that experience that we decided we would only buy detached houses going forwards. We are now in a 5 year old "new build" detached that we bought new. But we have been in neighbours semi detached houses and we have genuinely heard nothing from their next door neighbours at all.

Detached is the only way to go. Terraces in particular were a mistake.