If buying a house, what would make you want to walk straight back out?

Bad smells, noisy neighbours, poltergeist activity 🙂

London in my early twenties.
Viewed a flat that had a toilet in the corner of the kitchen with a shower curtain rail around it.

I always wonder how really open plan houses avoid this as there's no escaping haddock even with the extraction on full blast 🐟 🍟

With estate agents photos:
. Having washing out, inside or outside - you knew when the photographer was coming, do a load when they go
. Having the TV on. Takes 2 seconds to switch it off
. Not tidying up - like dirty plates in the sink, clothes on the floor

Sussing the area out:
. Crap parking - both to the property and surrounding properties.
. Fly tipping
. Loads of screaming kids
. Neglected property or neighbouring as sometimes neighbouring neglect properties, if semi/terraced, the problem can go into the property you are interested in such as roof

Actual property
. Smelly - smoking, urine, damp
. Not enough kitchen work tops. Some properties have just enough room for a microwave, kettle and another item. Hardly any room to prepare food.
. Too much work before moving in properly.

Not having a separate kitchen and living room. I once lived in a flat like this and when I moved out the sofa smelt like cooking. I never noticed when living there until the sofa was in the new place.

My parents converted a couple of houses like this in the 60s and 70s. There was a condition on one of the mortgages that they had plans in place to convert the old wash house and outside toilet to an indoor bathroom.

Union Jacks on the lamposts nearby.

We went to see a house which looked lovely in the photographs, but reeked of dog and weed. Shortest viewing ever.

If it was filthy or stunk of cigarettes/weed or had drug paraphernalia.
Garden/outbuildings full of crap.
Visibly structurally unsound.
Dodgy-looking neighbouring houses/neighbours.
England/UK flags outside of major sporting events.

George Clarke had a house like that featured on one of his makeover progs

You have described where I live, but the houses sell regardless because BTL landlords snap them up and make a fortune renting them out as unoficial HMOs. When a for sale sign goes up it will take less than a month for the property to be sold. There is one currently on the market and I had a look online, it is a shithole with a couple of doors that have been wrenched off the hinges and are propped up against . the wall but it will sell

Pet smells.
Grubby house smells.
Generally dirty.
Neighbours from hell next door.
Leylandii or very tall trees in next door's garden.
Japanese knotweed.
Overly hard landscaped back garden or fake grass.

Presumably if you're looking for a detached house you wouldn't get any where a terraced house to walk away from?

We walked into one house where the smell of wee was so overpowering, it made our eyes water. There was no sign of any pets. The elderly owners were moving into a home...

If it smells of pets or cooked food ...ie fish or cabbage etc .
If it's dirty and very untidy..ie beds not made or bathrooms not shiny or washing up piled up.
If there are people in bed when I look in bedrooms....this has happened more than once !

Absolutely, many Victorian or older houses have a downstairs bathroom. Our village is full of houses with downstairs bathrooms. It's not necessarily the only bathroom. Our main bathroom is in the most 'modern' bit of a very old house and downstairs. It's not an extension of the Victorian bit of the house but was originally 2 rooms, the loo would have been separate and accessed from outside. Some people make them a utility keeping the loo sep. We are not in a terrace.

Any undetached house

Eh?

Oh, a really sad one: terminally ill husband of the vendor being nursed in hospital bed in the sitting room.

I saw a maisonette once with a shower cubicle on the landing. A proper working shower just hanging out at the top of the stairs.

Also paddle stairs are a nope for me.

Where did that extraneous "l" come from?

Viewed a house once in a very MC, leafy part of town. Houses usually sell within the week as they don't come on often and go way over the asking price. It was an old house but very well kept outside. As soon as I stepped inside something felt very off though. The downstairs rooms were all wallpapered in what I'd describe as 'B&M teen' themed - so that black faux brick wallpaper in the drawing room, the living room had graffiti style wallpaper, it just felt so childish and out of character. Apparently it had just been redecorated too. Upstairs was worse, lots of occult/Satanic flags pinned onto walls/ceilings and in what I assume was a teen's bedroom effigy style dolls. Gave me a very bad vibe and it took ages to sell.

PVC windows. Those plastic conservatories that people loved to jam onto houses in the 80's. Concrete tiles on the roof. Obviously all the other stuff that people have mentioned - cigarette smoke, dirty house. Once I was shown a house with tenants in situ, and got a eyeful of one of the tenants' prick and arse. Didn't get beyond the front hall before backing right out.

TBH, we've spent the last 15 years getting our house sorted, and it was already well cared for and had good bones. Some crap plumbing, a fireplace that was basically a big hole in the chimney breast, and we've changed all three bathrooms, ripped up carpets and sanded and sealed floors. Added decent insulation and improved lighting and landscaped the gardens, front and back. Built in storage and decorated. New boiler, better rads. And that's before we've even touched the kitchen, which is the next big thing.

So there's a big bit of me which never wants to move again, and certainly not to an old house, however pretty, that we have to sort out properly to our own spec and preferences. I'll be looking for contemporary, with everything to high spec, maybe trade some floor and garden space for high-end design. Neff house, that sort of thing! If anyone is selling...

Tbf, being in Redruth would be bad enough! 😂

It depends, we completely renovated our current house so nothing interior mattered when we viewed it as everything was ripped out. If not doing a renovation project though, it would be any bad smells such as dog or damp and bad DIY.