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maisie_cat wrote: »I can't think of many things on the actual house that would put me off, most things can be changed. For me it would all be location and outside related. Busy road, shared access, commercial neighbours & not enough plot to buffer if next door decide to build to the boundary.
My last house had a lovely hallway but narrow rooms as a result, this house has a lobby and wider room space and frankly we have not missed a hallway, in fact it seems a bit of a waste of expensive square metres.
I would also be put of by a newly refurbished or new kitchen & bathroom because I know from experience that it is likely to be a cheap to sell job. This house had a new bathroom that had to be taken out because it leaked.Assuming it's not a medical restriction, that one's easy to address.
Yeah, I would like to learn but I'm rather anxious about cars (Car/horse accident when younger) so even if i do learn i am not wholly confident how much of a driver I'll be!0 -
1) cul-de-sac location - i do not want to feel like i'm on a set for brookside or neighbours
2) on an estate
3) too far from a station (10 minute walk max)
4) too far from shops (5 minute walk max)0 -
Our next purchase MUST have / be...
An upstairs bathroom - I wouldn't even view a house with a downstairs bathroom unless there was room to move it upstairs and still have 3+ bedrooms.
A downstairs shower room (or space to put one in) as my mother, sister and mother in law are disabled.
A separate downstairs reception room to be used as an occasional bedroom for the above.
A very good sized garden - I've lost count of the number of houses I've looked at online which were advertised as having a 'generous garden' but really didn't. Not too bothered about orientation, because if it's a decent enough size it'll get full sun somewhere, but it mustn't be massively overlooked. I could even get over it being paved if it was with the right house.
Nowhere near a busy road or railway as we have two cats, one of which is getting on a bit and her eyesight and hearing aren't good.
A hallway - the front door can't open directly into a reception room, and ideally I'd like a porch too - to have an airlock for the cats.
A master bedroom able to fit a large king size bed in it as my husband is fed up with me taking up the whole of our double bed every night!
Space around it - ideally rural but not isolated. I'd like there to be somewhere I can buy milk etc within walking distance and I don't want to be hearing my neighbours sorting their recycling at 11pm or parking at 4am like I can now.
We wouldn't buy a house on more than two floors as there's only the two of us and the master bedroom is normally on the second floor meaning the first floor won't be used except when we have guests, plus the extra set of stairs puts me off.
We would consider a dormer bungalow where only the master bedroom is on the first floor, as long as there's a bathroom up there too.
So... looking at the above... I think this might be a very long house search!
On another note, seeing as our house is pebble dashed, I'm really interested to hear why some people might rule it out based on that - aesthetics or worried about what might be behind it? It didn't put me off from buying it, but then it's a two bed semi in an area where 99% of other two bed houses are narrow Victorian terraces.0 -
Maybe there's an element of what one is used to coming into play here? - ie re pebbledashing.
My expectations (south of England person) are that a house will have brick walls basically. But I am personally also used to pebbledashing - so it probably wouldnt bother me too much. It is pretty normal in some parts - and I'm betting you're in Cornwall or just across the border....in which case other people will be used to it.
Given choice - I'll avoid rendered houses - mainly because I'm not used to them and they need re-painting at intervals. I do wonder whether the rendering might need attention/money at some point. I've had to buy a rendered house where I've moved to now - as so many of them are and there wasn't much choice available (ie by the time I've got price restrictions on what I can afford). I'd be willing to bet that people from this area don't think twice about the house being rendered.
Where I would dig my heels in pointblank and refuse to buy at all would be if the house was just bare concrete blocks (whether painted or otherwise). That's so different to my norm that it wouldn't even be considered. !!!!!!....
EDIT; Just read a Daily Mail article from 2014 on pebbledashed houses. In that - the EA advised a Pembrokeshire household that had pebbledashing - duly grey and austere-looking version of it - to paint their house white. It had spent ages on the market - and then sold pretty quickly thereafter.0 -
moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »Maybe there's an element of what one is used to coming into play here? - ie re pebbledashing.
My expectations (south of England person) are that a house will have brick walls basically. But I am personally also used to pebbledashing - so it probably wouldnt bother me too much. It is pretty normal in some parts - and I'm betting you're in Cornwall or just across the border....in which case other people will be used to it.
Given choice - I'll avoid rendered houses - mainly because I'm not used to them and they need re-painting at intervals. I do wonder whether the rendering might need attention/money at some point. I've had to buy a rendered house where I've moved to now - as so many of them are and there wasn't much choice available (ie by the time I've got price restrictions on what I can afford). I'd be willing to bet that people from this area don't think twice about the house being rendered.
Where I would dig my heels in pointblank and refuse to buy at all would be if the house was just bare concrete blocks (whether painted or otherwise). That's so different to my norm that it wouldn't even be considered. !!!!!!....
EDIT; Just read a Daily Mail article from 2014 on pebbledashed houses. In that - the EA advised a Pembrokeshire household that had pebbledashing - duly grey and austere-looking version of it - to paint their house white. It had spent ages on the market - and then sold pretty quickly thereafter.
Nope, we're in the south east! We have considered having the house painted but we'll see what happens first. We have a couple of viewings today and another couple lined up for the weekend...0 -
Maintenance charges would put me off which seems to be the in thing for new builds these days.
Not enough private parking spaces, minimum of 2, ideally 3 or more.
No Garage
No En-Suite for the master bedroom (I have to get up to pee at night at my age lol)
Separate dining room, in my experience we hardly ever used one, would much prefer a large kitchen diner.
Rendered external walls. Current house is rendered with K-Rend (which you are not supposed to paint) and just ages far too quickly, much prefer brick or stone.0 -
Out of interest why do stairs in the living room put people off so much?0
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Out of interest why do stairs in the living room put people off so much?
A friend with stairs off the living room and 2 children tells me they are a nightmare (I think she was just referring to the stairs!) as the children sit on the landing and watch tv instead of going to sleep.0 -
We were once really put off a house by the vendor! Two bed semi with a very odd interior layout, I think it used to be a two-up two-down, but had been reorganised a little bit when an indoor bathroom was finally installed. The vendor's family had lived there for decades, she and her partner had owned the attached house and had already sold it, her Mum had lived in the one we were viewing. There was also a third house built across the gardens of the two attached houses, which the vendor was going to keep and rent out.
She was very nice but it was clear that she was still hugely attached to the house. Complained that a building company had come round and started talking about the changes they could make inside the house, so she refused to sell to them. Because she still owned the third house we quickly realised that anything we wanted to do to the place would be subject to extensive scrutiny, and probably complaints if we decided to do anything that required planning permission (such as add an extension).
Ultimately we were persuaded by both sets of parents to buy somewhere with off-street parking, but doubts had already been sown by the vendor so the parking was just the icing on the cake."You won't bloom until you're planted" - Graffiti spotted in Newcastle.
Always try to be nice, but never fail to be kind - Doctor Who
Total overpayments in 2021 - £901.28!0
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