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

jennifernil

Easier to list our “must haves”, if it does not have it we would not consider the house…….

quiet location
detached
garage and good size driveway
decent sized garden
open outlook
large rooms
easy stairway
at least 2 bathrooms + 1 additional toilet
decent size utility room
spacious dining kitchen
plenty of space in bedrooms for storage
lots of other storage elsewhere, or space to add it

and a few actual “dislikes”……

 Belfast sinks
tiled floors
combi boilers

and as someone else said…..

 fancy new bathrooms and/or a fancy new kitchen not to our taste

We were fortunate enough to be able to design our own house and have it built some 36 years back, we still live in it and would be very reluctant to move.  We have everything just the way we like it, but over the years,  as circumstances altered, we have made a few small changes……..

2 of the bathrooms are now shower rooms as we needed easier access to showers.  We still have one actual bathroom.
the  kitchen, which originally had a study area and space for a sofa, now has additional cupboards instead
the roof terrace above the garage has been built in to make a sun room, and a balcony added there  instead
solar PV panels added 12 years ago

there is one compromise…..

the rear garden is on multiple levels as the plot is on a hill
however we do have good views as a result, so all living rooms are upstairs and most bedrooms are downstairs

Skiddaw1

I rather miss our Belfast sink....

We really only had two 'musts' when we were looking to relocate (other than the general area we wanted to live in). One was that the house was detached (we'd been very happy for many years in a mid terrace but had just had enough of party walls by then) and secondly that there was more than one bog (don't ask- let's just say Mr S isn't a swift toilet user ). Everything else was a 'would be nice if' but as it turned out, the house we ended up in ticked every single wish-list box as well as being detached with two bathrooms and three bogs. Hurrah!!!

LHW99

Olinda99 said:

does anyone have any views on buying next to a railway line i.e a railway in a cutting at the bottom of the garden for example

Quite happy with that - have lived in a couple of rented flats adjoining a main line, and got used to the trains fairly quickly (the one that stopped at a signal just next to the back wall at 10pm was a bit of a b*** though).

Don't want open plan

Don't like a 'mincer' loo - we have one, but are working out how to change things round to get rid.

Only one bathroom

No garden

No garage / driveway next to the house

Not new build or on an estate

Most anything else we would decide on at the time of looking round.

Soot2006

My turn-offs were converted bungalows, 80s conservatories, garage with no side access, insufficient parking, poor fencing esp between attached neighbours ...

But the only house that felt "right" on viewing was a converted bungalow with all of the above. It had a surprisingly big entrance hallway, tardis extension, massive garden ...  So we bought it and got air con upstairs + will upgrade dormer external insulation when possible, embraced the conservatory as a useful indoor outdoor space, extended the driveway, put in fences, added  a side oor to garage .... It's still not the equestrian property of mt dreams, but given that I haven't yet won the lottery it will do!

silvercar

I’d want a new or nearly new large kitchen. Preferably in ultra modern taste.

In out driveway, I dislike reversing out onto the road.

Detached. Large garden…..I would have said not north facing, but we are currently north facing, get lots of sunlight and some shade by the house keeps the house cool.

en-suite + upstairs bathroom.  

FlorayG

booksandbikes said:

Jami74 said:

When you have to walk through bedroom 2 to get to bedroom 3. Seen quite a few narrow Victorian houses like this, advertised as 3 bedrooms but realistically who wants someone wandering through their bedroom. Or when the bathroom is downstairs behind the kitchen.

I've seen a 2 bedroom bungalow where you have to go through the 2nd bedroom to get to the conservatory! Needless to say it hasn't sold, even though they keep reducing the price.

When I sold my bungalow the living room was at the back with the conservatory on and the bedroom, larger, at the front. The people who bought it moved the rooms around to have the bigger front room as living room and so now they have a conservatory you have to access through the bedroom. Seems weird to me, too

FlorayG

I'm glad we all like different things! Here are my turn-offs, in order of importance;
no storage space ( that puts out most modern builds)
small back garden
overlooked
all 'done up' already ( the two houses I've actually bought were empty and hadn't been renovated for many years)
steep stairs ( I prefer a bungalow really)
Large open plan front garden ( absolutely no use at all)
no private parking next to the house
expensive carpet - because I hate carpet but it would grieve me to rip out a really nice one

Slinky

Maahes said:

lady1964 said:

no en suite (since having one in our last 2 properties, it’s something that’s a must have now)

I've never had en-suite and don't see the appeal. I looked at houses with one as the second bathroom / toilet and decided I didn't want people traipsing through my bedroom to use it if the other bathroom is occupied. But then I was happy with over bath showers until I got a house with two stand-alone showers and now I wouldn't go back - I guess you never know until you try

Our bathroom is directly opposite the top of the stairs, with a very narrow landing. One night when coming out of it in the dark, I forgot to take two steps to the right, and ended up at the bottom of the stairs with a cracked skull and 2 vertabrae. And a broken stair tread I'd landed on it so heavily.  We were having building work done, with an ensuite planned but were a couple of months away from that being installed. No problem now with our ensuite.

What I absolutely loathe on the bathroom front is 'Jack and Jill' bathrooms. I just know I'd walk in on someone with a door not being locked, or opening a door to discover the opposite door is also open viewing straight into the other bedroom.  No, no, no!

pieroabcd

Another terrible thing that I've seen several times is an extremely steep staircase right at middle length of the house, with a gap between the two sides.
Not only it's dangerous because of the steepness (they had handrais on both sides, mandatory to use), but that gap doesn't really make any sense and the stairs in the middle make impossible to reorganise the layout.

BikingBud

jennifernil said:

Easier to list our “must haves”, if it does not have it we would not consider the house…….

quiet location
detached
garage and good size driveway
decent sized garden
open outlook
large rooms
easy stairway
at least 2 bathrooms + 1 additional toilet
decent size utility room
spacious dining kitchen
plenty of space in bedrooms for storage
lots of other storage elsewhere, or space to add it

and a few actual “dislikes”……

 Belfast sinks
tiled floors
combi boilers

and as someone else said…..

 fancy new bathrooms and/or a fancy new kitchen not to our taste

We were fortunate enough to be able to design our own house and have it built some 36 years back, we still live in it and would be very reluctant to move.  We have everything just the way we like it, but over the years,  as circumstances altered, we have made a few small changes……..

2 of the bathrooms are now shower rooms as we needed easier access to showers.  We still have one actual bathroom.
the  kitchen, which originally had a study area and space for a sofa, now has additional cupboards instead
the roof terrace above the garage has been built in to make a sun room, and a balcony added there  instead
solar PV panels added 12 years ago

there is one compromise…..

the rear garden is on multiple levels as the plot is on a hill
however we do have good views as a result, so all living rooms are upstairs and most bedrooms are downstairs

Given that in most circumstances buying a house is a compromise and designing houses in the UK is not generally about getting good, energy efficient, well thought and workable space within a home but maximising profit I think this is the only way to get what you might want. 

Quite surprised by some of the extensive lists though, seems to support, perhaps even escalate that principle of "dream home" to the extreme, rather than somewhere to live.